Stories
New ‘strike force’ of prosecutors to target illegal opioid prescriptions in northern New England
The U.S. Justice Department is launching an effort to combat health care providers who illegally prescribe or distribute opioids across Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire. The newly created New England Prescription Opioid Strike Force, or NEPO, comes as overdoses in the region are on the rise, including in New Hampshire, where prosecutors say there has…
Read MoreTucked away inside a trash facility in central Connecticut is a pile of nondescript orange and green plastic bags. To the untrained eye, the mound of rotting waste looks like all the other trash piled up here, but Jack Perry, one of the owners of HQ Dumpsters & Recycling, said this trash is special. “The…
Read MoreConn.’s top prosecutor to retire amid hiring scandal
Faced with being removed from office, Rich Colangelo — Connecticut’s top prosecutor — has informed the state’s Criminal Justice Commission that he will retire from the job March 31. Commission member Scott Murphy said the panel planned to fire Colangelo had he not stepped down. “We found the conduct of the chief state’s attorney to…
Read More‘It Was Just To Survive’: Trans Female Youth Face Greatest Risk Of Sexual Abuse And Exploitation
Dreya Catozzi started selling her body for cash at age 17. Born identified as a boy, Catozzi says she always knew she was female. She grew up in an impoverished family, was molested as a child and learned quickly that she had to take care of herself to stay alive. “I figured out the game…
Read MorePolice Access To Cameras In Springfield Schools Unleashes Debate On Police Protection And Overreach
The school department in Springfield, Massachusetts, is entering into an agreement that gives police access to surveillance camera footage recorded inside and outside of public school buildings. One of the goals is to help police see, in real time, what’s occurring during an emergency, such as a school shooting. But giving police access to the cameras has…
Read MoreVermont Prisons Used Lockdowns To Slow Coronavirus, But Prisoners’ Mental Health Suffered
None of the 1,200 or so people held by the Vermont Department of Corrections died from COVID-19, making it the only state in the country with no coronavirus fatalities among its incarcerated population. But while protocols like regular testing and lockdowns might have helped Vermont prisons avoid the worst of the pandemic, the strict lockdown…
Read MoreWhen someone dies in a violent encounter with police, people have come to expect to see the video. A police body camera captured Daniel Prude’s death after he was physically restrained by police in Albany, New York last year. In Minneapolis, both police and private cameras caught officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck…
Read MoreN.H. Advocates: Driver’s Licenses Would Improve Relations Between Undocumented Immigrants And Police
A bill in the New Hampshire State House that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s license faces an uphill battle this year. Immigration advocates say the legislation is key to improving relationships they’ve been building with police chiefs across the state’s Southern tier. Aloisio Costa spends a lot of time doing what pastors…
Read More‘Why’d You Pick Me?’ Eyewitness Reforms Offer Limited Help To Those Convicted Decades Ago
In 2011, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court put together a task force of people from all over the criminal justice community. They studied how eyewitness evidence is used in the courtroom and offered science-based recommendations going forward. But it left many people who were convicted before the report still in prison. Read the rest of…
Read MoreVermont Is Trying To Shrink Its Prison Population, But 350 Inmates Are Locked Up Past Their Minimums
Prisons are like cruise ships or nursing homes: they are among the riskiest places to be during this pandemic. Today, about 350 Vermont inmates are past their minimum sentences and could be released. And while Vermont prison officials frequently mention that the department has reduced its population by nearly 300 people in response to the…
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