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Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from sending National Guard troops to Oregon A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying any National Guard units to Oregon, including the California National Guard.

A federal judge on Sunday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying any National Guard units to Oregon in response to ICE protests in Portland. Small protests have been going on nightly outside Portland’s ICE processing facility since Trump’s second term began in January.

Trump is sending 300 California National Guard members to Oregon, Newsom says, after judge paused plan to deploy troops | CNN Three hundred California National Guard members are on their way to Oregon on President Trump’s orders after a judge blocked his deployment of the Oregon National Guard to Portland, California Gov. Ga...

Trump is sending California National Guard to Portland after a federal judge blocked his deployment Oregon National Guard over ICE protests that “did not pose a danger of a rebellion." California governor plans to sue over the deployment. “This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power."

For Third Year, California Kills Bill to Help Incarcerated Domestic Violence Survivors - Bolts Advocates in California have pushed for relief for people convicted of harming their abuser, hoping to build on states across the political spectrum that have adopted such reforms.

For the third year, California killed a bill to help incarcerated domestic violence survivors. “There are a ton of states that are far more conservative than California that passed more extensive legislation through Republican run legislatures."

“Designed to Break You:” Two Incarcerated Writers on the Heavy Toll of Solitary Confinement - Bolts Isolating people inside a small, closet-like cell for weeks, months, and even years on end remains common inside this country’s prisons and jails, even though the United Nations defines the... Read Mo...

The United Nations defines solitary confinement as torture. But our country’s prisons and jails continue to isolate people inside small, closet-like cells for weeks, months, and even years. "Solitary is never appropriate. Is torture ever appropriate?"

Trans people in Georgia prisons are being forced to detransition. Now they’re suing. - The Current A group of incarcerated transgender women and men have sued Georgia corrections officials, challenging a new law that prevents them from receiving gender-affirming medical care, arguing that it violat...

"A group of incarcerated transgender women and men have sued Georgia corrections officials, challenging a new law that prevents them from receiving gender-affirming medical care." This is cruel and unusual punishment.

Cities hope to attract more police officers by cutting education requirements Some cities hope that relaxing education hiring standards may solve lingering staffing shortages. Is that a good idea?

Research has found that college-educated officers tend to use less force, have fewer complaints against them, and write better reports. But there is a trend of cities cutting education requirements for police in hopes of attracting more applicants.

A Friend's Death to Mourn, and to Serve Time for - Bolts An Alabama teen was shot alongside his friend, then prosecuted for his killing. His case highlights a particularly harsh doctrine in American criminal punishment: felony murder.

An Alabama teen was shot alongside his friend, then prosecuted for his killing. Felony murder laws allow prosecutors to charge defendants with the death of an accomplice, even when the killing was committed by someone else.

New York City mayoral candidate Brad Lander arrested at immigration court Lander, also the city’s comptroller, was ‘arrested for assaulting law enforcement’, says DHS

NYC mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested at immigration court by masked federal agents while accompanying an immigrant out of the courtroom whose case was dismissed. This is “more evidence that ICE agents are flagrantly breaking the law."

Sex workers’ fight for decriminalization, explained Sex workers have been fighting for decriminalization for generations. Now politicians are starting to listen.

Today is International Sex Workers' Day. The criminalization of sex work increases the risk of harm to sex workers -- including harm from arrest, jailing, conviction, stigmatization, violence, and exploitation. Sex work should be decriminalized.

Philadelphia Measure Would Bolster Oversight for the City’s Deadly Jails - Bolts On May 20, Philadelphia voters will choose whether to create an independent body to investigate dangerous conditions that have plagued the city’s jails for decades.

Amanda Cahill died in her cell in a Philly jail. Screaming for help for over an hour. Women jailed near her pleaded for medical attention, but nobody responded. Philly voters just approved a ballot measure to bolster oversight over the city’s deadly jails.

This Bay Area County Says It Cut Ties with ICE. This Program Says Otherwise. - Bolts A widespread data-sharing program highlights financial ties between local police and immigration enforcement—and how even sanctuary jurisdictions still feed “the deportation machine.”

Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez announced this year her department has a “zero contact policy” with ICE. But last year received over $1 million from the federal government in exchange for sharing sensitive information about undocumented immigrants.

‘Trapped in a fiery kennel’: Lawsuit against Missouri Department of Corrections alleges extreme heat at one prison is a constitutional violation The lawsuit alleges that those with certain medical conditions and those in solitary confinement are at increased risk in Algoa Correctional Center, which does not have central air conditioning.

Temperatures reached 120 degrees outside Missouri’s Algoa Correctional Center during 2024. Now six people who are incarcerated there are suing. They describe the nearly 100-year-old prison without air conditioning, as a “coffin with a heat lamp.”

OPINION: We must reject the narrative that we were wrong for believing in unity and change • The TRiiBE The people of Chicago made the right choice when we elected Brandon Johnson, and we’re seeing the results already, less than two years into his term.

"The same forces trying to criminalize immigrants are the ones who supported mass incarceration. The same people cutting food assistance are cutting access to housing and health care. This is a shared fight, and unity is our only path forward."

Why Pittsburgh Progressives Are Targeting Judge Elections This Year - Bolts Intense, sustained thunderstorms in Pennsylvania on April 29, featuring some of the mightiest winds ever reported in the region, made the morning of April 30 very messy in the Pittsburgh... Read More

Pittsburgh progressives are targeting local judge elections this year. “When we say we need less people in the jail, better outcomes for kids charged with crimes, for people to feel like their civil and human rights are respected—that all happens in the courtrooms."

Lawsuit seeking $500 million says guards videotaped strip searches at Michigan women’s prison • Michigan Advance Body camera recordings by guards during strip searches at Michigan’s only women’s prison, Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, has prompted a $500 million lawsuit against the Michigan Departmen...

LAWSUIT: Guards videotaped strip searches at Michigan women’s prison. "What these women continue to endure is nothing short of horrific. This case exposes a grotesque abuse of power that directly retraumatizes survivors of sexual assault."

“A Backdoor Effort” to Revive Texas’ Century-Old Abortion Law - Bolts Abortion legislation moving through the Texas Legislature gives the attorney general power to enforce a pre-Roe law that could criminalize pregnant people.

Anti-abortion legislation is moving through the Texas Legislature. "It is a vote to criminalize women, trap them within the borders of Texas, and to threaten anyone who tries to help them, regardless of whether the abortion occurs legally in another state." boltsmag.org/texas-1925-a...

Officials Play “Accountability Ping Pong” With Jail Deaths in Texas - Bolts A bipartisan push for jail oversight comes after a North Texas sheriff flouted state law mandating independent investigations of deaths on his watch.

A 40-year-old man died from dehydration after being detained for more than two months inside the Tarrant County jail in Texas, he was one of at least three people with documented mental illness to die of thirst in the jail’s custody in recent years.

He’s Been On Louisiana’s Death Row for Decades. A Judge Just Vacated His Conviction. - Bolts Jimmie Christian Duncan has spent over 26 years on death row at Louisiana’s Angola prison for the rape and murder of his girlfriend’s toddler daughter—a crime he has always maintained... Read More

Chris Duncan has been on Louisiana’s death row for decades. A judge just vacated his conviction, which relied on the junk science of bite mark analysis. Nine people have been exonerated off Louisiana’s death row in the time that Duncan has been there.

A Mississippi man spent 940 days in jail waiting for a trial that never came Sinatra Jordan was accused of firing at police officers and leading them on a chase through the streets of Jackson. Then the officers were arrested.

In Mississippi Sinatra Jordan spent 940 days in jail. A trial never came. Accused of firing at police and leading them on a chase. But he didn't have a gun. Officers were eventually charged with aggravated assault for shooting his friend and shooting at him.

New Chicago Prosecutor Empowers Police to File More Charges Without Review - Bolts In the early evening on Feb. 19, two Chicago police officers arrested a 40-year-old man in the Englewood neighborhood. According to their report, the officers cited an odor of “raw... Read More

In a predominantly Black area of Chicago, police can now directly file gun charges without a prosecutor’s approval. This a police department with a long history of coercion, deception, and filing wrongful charges against innocent people.

The Supreme Court’s Late-Night Rebuke to Trump Is Extraordinary in More Ways Than One The court didn't even wait to let Alito file his dissent.

The Supreme Court issued an emergency order halting the Trump administration’s efforts to fly Venezuelan migrants to an El Salvador prison before they could challenge their deportation. This order was an extraordinary rebuke to Trump. And the court didn’t even wait to let Alito write his dissent.

Another State Restricts Life Sentences for Young Adults - Bolts Michigan’s supreme court created new protections against life sentences for people up to 20, pushing the line for who gets second chances beyond age 18.

"Michigan’s supreme court ruled last week that it is unconstitutional to impose an automatic sentence of life without the possibility of parole on young adults up to age 20, saying they deserve an individual judgment specific to their circumstances."

Jail Voting Soars in Colorado After State Mandates Polling Places in County Lockups - Bolts Local officials had claimed they were already giving detained people ballot access, but Colorado's first-in-the-nation mandate forced their hands and increased turnout across the state.

Jail voting soars in Colorado after the state mandates polling places in county jails. “People that are incarcerated are ready to have their voices heard."

The Past and Present of Prison Labor: Your Questions Answered - Bolts A historian answers Bolts readers’ questions on the deep roots of forced labor in U.S. prisons, how it operates today, and efforts to challenge it.

People behind bars work for often for just cents an hour or, in some states, nothing at all. Coerced labor inside of prisons has historical roots in slavery. After the Civil War, a network laws to criminalize formerly enslaved people created a system of prison labor.

Connecticut Could Ban Its Businesses from Helping Carry Out Executions Elsewhere - Bolts Connecticut lawmakers are considering legislation to make it illegal to participate in the death penalty, following news that a local company helped fuel a federal execution spree.

Connecticut abolished the death penalty. But two Connecticut businesses have played a large role in U.S. executions in the past five years. A new bill would make it illegal for businesses in the state to participate in the death penalty elsewhere.

Over 15 Navajo Nation Members Wrongly Detained or Questioned in Trump Immigration Raids One Navajo Nation official said that “many fear for the threat of being deported.”…

There have been at least 15 documented cases of Navajo Nation members being stopped by federal agents at their homes or workplaces over the past week, who demanded they provide proof of citizenship. "They don’t feel safe in the country where they were born or where their ancestors come from."

The Trans Woman Who Sued the Federal Prisons (and Won) Settles Her Remaining Cases Days before Trump’s inauguration, the Bureau of Prisons agreed to pay Grace Pinson $95,000 to drop more than a dozen pending lawsuits.

The trans woman who sued the federal prison system (and won) settles her remaining cases. Days before Trump’s inauguration, the Bureau of Prisons agreed to pay Grace Pinson $95,000 to drop more than a dozen pending lawsuits asserting she had been abused and mistreated in its custody.

Secret Service Agents — Not ICE — Denied Entry At Chicago School CPS officials initially said agents who identified themselves as ICE arrived at Hamline Elementary in Back of the Yards Friday, but it was actually Secret Service agents looking for an 11-year-old who...

An elementary school in Chicago denied Secret Service agents from entering who were looking for an 11-year-old who posted an anti-Trump video. "The school’s response demonstrates that our system is prepared and ready to keep our students and staff safe."

‘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.

Trump orders federal prisons to house trans women in men’s facilities and directs the government to remove anti-rape protections for trans prisoners. “It’s just unconscionable in its cruelty.”

Prisoners Burned Themselves. So Staff Discussed “Making Them Pay Money.” Emails show Virginia Department of Corrections officials discussing how to punish people at Red Onion State Prison who self-immolated.

Last year, six prisoners intentionally burned themselves in the Red Onion State Prison in Virginia. Rather than address the conditions that may have led to such desperate measures, prison staff discussed ways to punish them.