Alabama ACLU Proposes Plan to Cut Mass Incarceration
Earlier this month the American Civil Liberties Union announced a goal of releasing 50 percent of Alabama prisoners by the year 2025 through a report aimed at tackling mass incarceration. These reforms range from addressing state legislation, drug sentencing and racial disparities in sentencing.
Many of the reforms in the ACLU report target laws and policies that send more people to jail and impose long sentences. The report also says for-profit bails systems mean that people who haven’t been convicted for a crime are often locked up because they can’t afford bail. It estimates that more than 70 percent of inmates in Alabama county jails are awaiting trial.
Practices likes these disproportionally affect the poor and people of color, officials with the ACLU say. The ACLU’s report is included in a nationwide project to address mass incarceration. The goal is to have at least 12,500 fewer people in Alabama prisons. That would mean hundreds of millions of dollars freed up to spend on schools and other resources.
Trump administration shuts down EPA’s scientific research arm
The agency is closing the Office of Research and Development, which analyzes dangers posed by hazards including toxic chemicals, climate change, smog, wildfires, water pollution and more.
Nearly 100 people killed seeking aid in Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian officials say
Dozens of Palestinians were killed across Gaza on Sunday as they tried to get food aid, according to local health authorities, one of the deadliest days in recent months for those seeking assistance.
Jake Larson, a WWII veteran who became a TikTok star as ‘Papa Jake’, has died at 102
Papa Jake Larson joined the US National Guard at 15 years old.
“We are on our knees”: U.S. tariffs devastate Lesotho’s garment workers
The government of the tiny African kingdom of Lesotho has declared a two-year state of disaster, as its once-thriving garment industry unravels in the wake of Trump's tariffs threats.
Exit polls show Japan’s ruling coalition is likely to lose key election
Soaring prices, lagging incomes and burdensome social security payments are the top issues for frustrated, cash-strapped voters. Stricter measures targeting foreign residents and visitors have also emerged as a key issue, with a surging right-wing populist party leading the campaign.
3 people are still missing from deadly floods in Texas county, down from nearly 100
Officials in a Texas hill country community pummeled by deadly flooding July 4 said Saturday that just three people remain missing, down from nearly 100, after people who had previously been reported missing have since been accounted for.
