Ryan Kost

Sending a holiday package to someone at Rikers? It might never arrive. Lawyers and social workers say they don't understand why some are rejected, even when they follow the published rules.

“I can only imagine how frustrating and money consuming that is for the families of our clients. This is not an economy in which we can be spending $50 willy-nilly, sending stuff to people that is never going to arrive.” — via @ryankost.bsky.social
gothamist.com/news/sending...

A Supreme Court fight just might start with a few vacant NYC apartments Building owners and a libertarian nonprofit are taking aim at rent regulation, with a very specific audience in mind for their latest legal filing.

A new federal lawsuit targeting NY rent regulations was written with the U.S. Supreme Court in mind …

gothamist.com/news/a-supre...

New in @gothamist.com by @ryankost.bsky.social: "NYC schools falling short on education for youth in detention, new report finds".

@afcnewyork.bsky.social report finds the DOE has failed to report key data on educational services to youth in juvenile detention.

gothamist.com/news/nyc-sch...

Got mine there last weekend

I got mine done, too.

Also! I work at @wnyc.org/ @gothamist.com now… Get in touch with any and all tips.

I got mine done, too.

Why the internet fell for a Chinatown passport photographer A film shop has become an unlikely destination for perfect portraits — and a reminder of what hasn’t changed.

I wrote about Eliz Digital and NYc’s fave passport portrait artist:

gothamist.com/news/why-the...

Launch Coyote Media Collective A new alt-weekly-style publication is hitting the Bay Area

Introducing COYOTE Media Collective!! The Bay Area’s first journalist-owned newsroom — modeled after the smart, sassy, fun alt-weeklies of yore — is launching later this summer. Help us get this rad project off the ground! @coyotemedia.org

givebutter.com/coyotemedia

very excited to be a founding worker-owner of COYOTE. Aiming for the things I miss about alt-weeklies (like writing fun shit & doing real investigative work at the same time) w/o the things I don’t miss (vulture publishers who knew nothing about the Bay Area or journalism and seemingly hated women)

Very excited to hear more about this!

Who Do Prosecutors Blame for Wrongful Convictions? Apparently Not… Here are the key findings from the second installment of our investigation into New York’s conviction integrity units.

What happens when prosecutors help convict innocent people — and their colleagues are tasked with investigating it?

We looked at every exoneration tied to New York’s conviction review units. Here’s what we found. @nysfocus.bsky.social

nysfocus.com/2025/04/14/w...

Court Records Undercut Bronx DA’s Testimony on Discovery Rollbacks Hochul's proposed rollbacks are one of the last sticking points in this year’s budget negotiations. One prosecutor’s support rested on a faulty anecdote.

Bronx DA Darcel Clark told a cautionary tale to justify rolling back New York’s discovery laws.

Court records show her story wasn’t true.

Court Records Undercut Bronx DA’s Testimony on Discovery Rollbacks Hochul's proposed rollbacks are one of the last sticking points in this year’s budget negotiations. One prosecutor’s support rested on a faulty anecdote.

Discovery reform is holding up New York’s budget.

One case Bronx DA Darcel Clark used to argue for rollbacks didn’t happen the way she said it did.

Court Records Undercut Bronx DA’s Testimony on Discovery Rollbacks Hochul's proposed rollbacks are one of the last sticking points in this year’s budget negotiations. One prosecutor’s support rested on a faulty anecdote.

Discovery rolllbacks are holding up New York’s budget. One case Bronx DA Darcel Clark used to argue for rollbacks didn’t happen the way she said it did.

My latest for @nysfocus.bsky.social:

nysfocus.com/2025/04/08/d...

CIUs Exonerate Innocent New Yorkers but Prosecutors Escape Blame In New York, half of CIU exonerations involve prosecutorial misconduct, but DAs rarely acknowledge who got it wrong.

After 25 years in prison for a murder she didn't commit, Renay Lynch finally heard the words she'd been waiting for:

"You are fully exonerated."

But there was a catch: To win the DA's support, she had to abandon her claims of prosecutorial misconduct. 🧵

Great reporting by Dan Hinkle and
@injusticewatch.org on Cook County's integrity unit. Highlights many of the same issues we identified in our investigation of New York's CIUs for @nysfocus.bsky.social …

Innocence Ignored Conviction integrity units were meant to fix a broken system. Our ongoing investigation reveals that in many cases, they've reinforced it.

And check out our ongoing series here: nysfocus.com/wrongful-con...

CIUs Exonerate Innocent New Yorkers but Prosecutors Escape Blame In New York, half of CIU exonerations involve prosecutorial misconduct, but DAs rarely acknowledge who got it wrong.

Read Renay’s full story—and what it reveals about the failures of CIUs—at @nysfocus.bsky.social

nysfocus.com/2025/03/13/c...

Lynch believes she deserves answers about whether law enforcement knew her conviction was based on a false theory. “Because the grave injustice I went through — that you people put me through — someone needs to know.”

Lynch’s lead attorney knew knew she had a legal and ethical obligation to prioritize the exoneration. But, she said, “As a lawyer, it's so hard to tell innocent people to swallow these pills, and that the truth doesn’t matter.”

After months of negotiations, the Erie DA’s office agreed not to fight her exoneration motion. But the office made it clear: She had to abandon her claims of prosecutorial misconduct.

Lynch’s attorneys also came to suspect that the original prosecutor may have known at the time of Lynch’s trial that her accomplice could not have committed the crime, calling into question her entire confession ...

In 1995, after her landlord was killed, police interrogated Lynch. She says they pressured her into a false confession—and then used it to convict her.

Years later, a reinvestigation uncovered exculpatory evidence withheld from the defense. DNA testing also ruled her out.

CIUs Exonerate Innocent New Yorkers but Prosecutors Escape Blame In New York, half of CIU exonerations involve prosecutorial misconduct, but DAs rarely acknowledge who got it wrong.

After 25 years in prison for a murder she didn't commit, Renay Lynch finally heard the words she'd been waiting for:

"You are fully exonerated."

But there was a catch: To win the DA's support, she had to abandon her claims of prosecutorial misconduct. 🧵

CIUs Exonerate Innocent New Yorkers but Prosecutors Escape Blame In New York, half of CIU exonerations involve prosecutorial misconduct, but DAs rarely acknowledge who got it wrong.

Conviction integrity units were designed to correct wrongful convictions. But when prosecutors are the ones at fault, CIUs often stay silent.

Our @nysfocus.bsky.social and @columbiajournalism.bsky.social series on conviction integrity units continues with Part 2: nysfocus.com/2025/03/13/c...

Our investigation identified dozens of cases in which a wrongful conviction unit denied someone’s application, only for a judge to later exonerate them.

Reporters @ryankost.bsky.social and Willow Higgins discussed the story with Radio Catskill. Listen here:

Check out the first part of our yearlong investigation into New York’s conviction integrity units:

“DAs Promised to Help Wrongfully Convicted New Yorkers. In Many Cases, They Made Things Worse.”

For the past year, Willow Higgins and I have been looking into NY’s conviction integrity units. They promised justice for the wrongfully incarcerated. But our investigation, in collab w/
@nysfocus.bsky.social and @columbiajournalism.bsky.social
Investigations, shows they have fallen short. 🧵