Caitlin Taylor

Rewatched Kendrick Lamar’s Halftime performance during my Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice class today. Students noticed even more of the powerful messages than I did last night.

Trump's DEI order leaves academic researchers fearful of political influence over grants President Donald Trump’s order declaring diversity, equity and inclusion policies illegal has thrown into doubt the future of research Kendra Dahmer has been doing on intestinal parasites in India and...

“I think the people who are making these decisions are very clear that they want to create a society that’s based on deep-set inequities that are hard baked & don’t transform whether that’s around race, class, or gender."

- Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

apnews.com/article/trum...

Both Prisons and the Public Rely On Incarcerated Writers New York tried to limit art and writing behind bars. Here’s why that would have been bad.

New York tried and failed to limit art and writing behind bars. The attempt should remind us all of the public and personal benefits of encouraging creative expression inside.

If you don’t have GO BIRDS in your email signature, you’re doing it all wrong.

As a Girl in Prison, I Experienced Degrading Health Care Getting health care in prison is challenging at the best of times. In the worst of times, it is degrading and disparaging.

I received my first Pap smear shortly after being incarcerated as a teenager. It was excruciating — and a sign of worse things to come.

Huge news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think all the time about how an overdose prevention site could’ve saved my sister’s life.

It’s on the subway not a bus, but still…

No one likes us and we don’t care! #SuperBowlBound

💚🦅💚🦅💚

Happy Inauguration Day from my kitchen.

Philly locks up kids at one of the highest rates anywhere, despite widespread abuse in juvenile institutions Pennsylvania leaders have acknowledged the harms and abuses in juvenile institutions. Yet Philly remains a national leader in using them.

“There is no existing data that says placing a young person for a property crime is rehabilitative. It is more harmful to incarcerate a juvenile on a property crime than it is helpful to society.” - @caterinaroman.bsky.social

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.

Prisoners Burned Themselves. So Staff Discussed ‘Making Them Pay Money.’ Story via @theappeal.org.

CA Law Allows Low Wages for Incarcerated Firefighters as “Involuntary Servitude” Voters in November rejected a ballot measure that would’ve made it easier to change prisoners’ working conditions.

Nearly a thousand of the firefighters deployed to help contain the devastating fires in L.A. are incarcerated. They have been working around the clock while earning as little as between $5.80 to $10.24 a day.

Excited to schedule some alums as guest speakers in my senior seminar course this spring! Will have a gang unit detective, prosecutor, nonprofit leader, and probation officer.

Feeling very old that some of these folks are now in their early 30s! How did that happen?? #ProudProfessor

Las Vegas, New Orleans, and the ugly truths America won’t talk about A deadly U.S. New Year's Day inspires demagogues with little talk about root causes of PTSD, misogyny, and unchecked male rage.

An overly militarized society that teaches men how to kill on the other side of the world but not how to cope back home. The blend of misogyny and rage that leads to political blame, whether through ISIS or Trump

The real roots behind NOLA, LV attacks. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/comm...

Annual cost of SNAP: $113B

Annual revenue lost through billionaire tax evasion: $163B

GOP: The only solution to our debt crisis is cutting $113B in food benefits. Also here’s $4T more in tax cuts for billionaires

You can filter visualizations informed by the same data set using our Philadelphia Shooting Victims Dashboard, which includes 3,397 fatal shootings during the past 10 years. Slightly more than 75 percent of those killed were identified as Black and male, and nearly 95 percent were people of color.

Philly saw a historic drop in murders in 2024. What changed? Violence has also been waning across the country, with murders nationally poised to drop by unprecedented levels for the second year in a row.

Thoughtful reporting re “Philly saw a historic drop in murders in 2024. What changed?”

Lots to like: insights from community leaders, data from @jeffasher.bsky.social and team, quotes from @johnkroman.bsky.social

We must continue to address underlying factors.

www.inquirer.com/news/philade...

Fatal police violence has increased from 2020 to 2024. Source: mappingpoliceviolence.org.

Police killed 1157 people in the US in 2020. Police killed 281 Black people in the US in 2020.

Police killed 1187 people in the US in 2021. Police killed 309 Black people in the US in 2021.

Police killed 1268 people in the US in 2022. Police killed 336 Black people in the US in 2022.

Fatal police violence has increased from 2020 - 2024, according to mappingpoliceviolence.org.

This is police reform. No one deserves to be killed by an armed agent of the state, particularly under an institution rooted in chattel slavery. Our demands for aboltion must continue.

#Philadelphia police will stop arresting kids who are accused of first-time, low-level offenses, and instead will send them to a police diversion program.

www.inquirer.com/news/philade...

💯💯

The Intergenerational Fallout of Gun Violence In Philadelphia, gunfire has taken grandfathers, brothers, cousins, and children. The losses reflect the institutional racism at the root of America’s shooting epidemic.

“We have not addressed poverty, the disinvestment in education, the inability to get jobs, food deserts, housing scarcity, gentrification, mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse. We haven’t addressed any of that — but we expect people not to kill each other.”

Absolutely horrific.

In 2009, A Former DHS Official Warned About Rising Far-Right Extremism. His Fears Have Materialized Former DHS intelligence analyst Daryl Johnson warned about the threat of right-wing extremism 11 years ago, and now he says political violence could get worse unless the government does something abou...

What a surprise that Republicans blame "open borders' for a terror attack by a lifelong Texan and an Afghanistan Army veteran but none dare mention the warnings from DHS and others going back to 2009 that the military could be a breeding ground for violent extremism www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2...

No visible mold = still gold!

(Don’t tell my husband lol)

"One woman told me she suffered long and painful periods for years before an ultrasound revealed that she had fibroid uterine tumors. The doctor recommended a hysterectomy since she was a 'lifer' and therefore would not be having more children."

Wading Into 2025: How to Begin “We live in chaotic, disastrous times, but amid that madness, we can still find each other and fight for each other.”

I talked with my friends @prisonculture.bsky.social, @deanspade.bsky.social, @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social, and @shaneburley.bsky.social about activism and organizing in 2025 and how we should move into the next phase of struggle.

Pennsylvania DOC also pays millions of dollars to a private company to scan all mail for people incarcerated.

This isn’t about security; it’s about dehumanization and punishment.

In City Hall’s actions in Kensington, harm-reduction workers see efforts to curtail their work Several programs that serve people with addiction in Philadelphia have faced new restrictions this year.

“Over the last year in Kensington… elected officials cut funding for a syringe exchange, urged a landlord to stop renting space to a harm-reduction program, and advocated for restrictions on how and where medical providers operate.”

#HarmReductionSaveLives

www.inquirer.com/health/opioi...

The question you should always ask about others (opinion) It’s one question you should be asking yourself about virtually everyone you meet in your work in academe, writes Tricia Shalka.

ICYMI Career Advice | ‘What Else Might Be Going On?’

It’s one question you should be asking yourself about virtually everyone you meet in your work in academe, writes Tricia Shalka. #HigherEd #EDUSky #AcademicSky bit.ly/3VS6XGm