Charles Moore

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allows the government to issue civil fines to people and organizations. Under the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began sending notices of fines to individuals with final deportation orders.

noimmigrationfines.org

The court has heard our demand for public access! Call into the Abrego Garcia hearing TODAY at 1 PM ET - Public Access Dial: 877-336-1831 Access Code: 8393132
@fixthecourt.com

Do Children Have a “Right to Hug” Their Parents? Hundreds of counties around the country have ended in-person jail visits, replacing them with video calls and earning a cut of the profits. One mother said, of two years without seeing her children, “...

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Fantastic article: @leighgoodmark.bsky.social shares critical perspective that incarceration is not the solution. Once exposed to the criminal system, people are often entrapped and deemed worthy of further punishment. The significant harm caused by the system tells us that logic needs to be upended

Screenshot of a job posting for a Georgia corrections officer. Source: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2024/12/09/understaffing/

If prisons & jails say they're "understaffed," maybe they should rethink what their jobs look like in the era of mass incarceration

Take a look at this posting for a Georgia corrections position: Must be prepared to kill people "if necessary"

buff.ly/ksGFqI6

As one example, a state law might give a sheriff the ability to charge certain fees but it might be vague about how to collect those fees. So whatever the sheriff comes up with is what flies

@jesspish.bsky.social has this exactly right and, on top of this, many times sheriffs' actions are totally unchecked by courts or other political actors. State laws leave room for interpretation, which is filled in by sheriffs' interests and biases. So sheriffs get the final say on what the law is

A credibility shortage, to say the least. Keep this in mind when these same "law enforcement" actors start talking about who should and should not be subject to the criminal and immigration punishment systems

@curlyprofessor.bsky.social

@curlyprofessor.bsky.social and the folks at Captive Money Lab are doing great work exposing the harms of these practices and plotting a path forward

How a state’s repeal of ‘pay-to-stay’ law could guide reform USC Dornsife study reveals how Illinois’ bipartisan repeal of law charging inmates for room and board could support the repeal of similar laws

Pay-to-stay regimes are the norm in most states, but they don't have to be. Illinois repealed its law, freeing many from the illogical debt that follows many after a disruptive period of incarceration

dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories...

‘People Will Die’ from Trump’s Trans Prisoner Crackdown, Experts Warn Trump's executive order eliminating transgender rights in prison will hurt or kill trans prisoners, experts warn.

One of the darkest, but less reported, aspects of Trump’s anti-trans order this week IMO is that he directed the DOJ to remove protections for trans prisoners from Prison Rape Elimination Act guidelines. Story at @theappeal.org today from @byadamrhodes.bsky.social: theappeal.org/trump-execut...

The great Justice Thurgood Marshall used to remark that it sometimes seemed like there was a drugs exception to the Constitution. I am worried that we are heading towards a "suspected immigrant" exception to the rule of law.

This county's pay-to-stay policy was finally overturned because "the debt was undercutting other county programs meant to reduce recidivism." You don't say. Strapping someone with debt as they walk out the jail's doors is an all too common practice with no rational justification

For folks who want to learn more about the incomparable (and often unchecked) power county sheriffs hold, this seems like it will be a great event

Myriad state laws and practices give governments the ability to exact further punishment through medical bills and other fees. Make no mistake, these monetary charges are about punishment, not "compensating" the government or covering costs.

‘Perverse’ Incentives: How Local Governments Might Cash In on Trump’s Migrant Detention Some local officials see President-elect Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations as an answer to their budget woes.

Increasingly, jail space is used as a revenue generator. Local governments are incentivized by state and fed law to fill beds so they can charge

Excellent reporting from @themarshallproject.org on how that trend will continue in the next administration

www.themarshallproject.org/2025/01/04/d...

Police accountability, but only if you can afford it

Georgia removed her kids because she was homeless. The state is charging her $13,000 for foster care Georgia is among several states that have moved away from charging parents for their kids' time in foster care. But parents who already owe money for past cases are still on the hook.

And here’s the kicker, as Stephannie Stokes (who wrote this story) reported in a follow-up piece: After taking their kids away, Georgia often bills parents for the cost of foster care.

One mother was charged nearly $13,000, with interest, and threatened with jail when she couldn’t pay.

The policies underlying the criminal system often have little to do with protecting the public. Here, the officers admitted to the allegations but received no jail time. Anyone else in their position would have been seen as a threat to the public and put behind bars