In California, Big Data Is Getting the Wrong People Arrested

Blame the Software—and a Lack of Incentives to Check for Errors

Managing information is central to the criminal justice system, and so it’s inevitable that mistakes happen. Names get confused, files lost. When these errors occur, the police can mistakenly arrest or detain people with no legal cause.

But what happens when software is responsible for a wrongful arrest or detention?

On Aug. 1, 2016, Alameda County, California, replaced its ’70s-era case management system with new software, Tyler Technologies’ Odyssey Case Manager. This wasn’t a radical decision: Most counties around the country use some kind of software to process information about the …

How Body Cameras Curbed Police Use of Force in Rialto

Monitoring of Police-Community Interactions Can Improve Behavior and Ease Tension

What can the city of Rialto, in California’s San Bernardino County, teach the world’s criminal justice agencies? You might think very little given that its police department only serves 100,000 …

I Escaped San Bernardino’s School to Prison Pipeline

Now I'm Working To Dismantle It

As a teenager, I was the poster child for the school to prison pipeline. Yes, I was the smart girl, but I was the smart girl in trouble. I was …

Americans Mostly Kill the Ones We Know

For All the Media Obsession With Mass Shootings, Homicides in the U.S. Are Most Often About Familiarity and Contempt

Turn on your television in the coming months, and you will see and hear just how much Americans fear strangers and guns.

Yet when it comes to violent crime, especially …

Did Protestant Christianity Create the Dismal American Prison System?

Puritans’ Focus On “Right Living” Helped Justify Our Harsh Treatment of Prisoners

While in Ireland teaching a criminal justice course this past semester, I had the opportunity to take a tour of an Irish prison.

The Irish prison service states one of …