Criminal Justice
A Healthy Start: Minnesota Is Pioneering an Alternative to Prison Nurseries, and Other States Should Follow Its Lead
March 28, 2022
by Rachel Pokrzywinski* In May 2021, Governor Tim Walz signed Minnesota’s Healthy Start Act (HSA) into law. The first of its kind in the United States, the HSA authorizes placement of pregnant and postpartum inmates into alternative housing—such as halfway houses and residential treatment facilities—with their newborns for up to one year after birth.…
Continue ReadingPunished Twice: Opioid Users Increasingly Handed Harsh Sentences for Friends’ Deaths
December 1, 2023
By: Bethany Jewison* A new phase of the opioid crisis. Jarret MacCasland and his fiancé Flavia Cardenas shared heroin on her 19th birthday.[1] Flavia tragically passed away and Jarret, who was only a few years older, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for the “murder” of Flavia.[2] Similarly, a 17-year-old…
Continue Reading“How Are We Supposed to Move Forward with THIS Police Force After This?”: The Stalled Reform Movement in Minneapolis
March 26, 2021
Gabrielle Maginn* On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. The horrifying incident, in which Floyd calls out for his mother and tells Chauvin and the other officers present that he can’t breathe, was caught on camera and broadcast widely. In the days and weeks that followed, residents of…
Continue ReadingA Constitutional Necessity, Not a Luxury: States Must Provide Public Defender Offices With More Resources to Provide Indigent Defendants With Effective Counsel
March 30, 2022
By Haashir Lakhani* The phrase “you have the right to an attorney” is so ingrained in our social conscience that we perhaps do not even give it a second thought. The task of upholding this right for indigent defendants falls largely on public defenders, with some cases being assigned to other court-appointed attorneys. However, underfunded…
Continue ReadingThe Bystander Standard: Do Survivors of Mass Shootings Qualify for U Visas?
February 23, 2024
By: Elizabeth Mansfield The aftermath of a mass shooting is never easy. This is especially true for those survivors who have to deal with the trauma of what they’ve just experienced as well as the trauma of the American immigration system. Undocumented survivors of mass shootings may have concerns about going to the police with…
Continue ReadingHow We Got Here: Race, Police Use of Force, and the Road to George Floyd
April 1, 2021
Long before the killing of George Floyd, the United States has struggled to mitigate racially arbitrary use of force by the police. This article seeks to explain how we got to the killing of George Floyd. This article contends that that the law—especially the decisions of the Supreme Court and political choices made by politicians—has helped to enable the relatively unchecked use of force against people of color.
Continue ReadingOut of the Cell and Into the Fire: Inherently Dangerous Prison Work Assignments, the Eighth Amendment’s Guarantee of Safe Conditions of Confinement, and California’s AB-2147
April 13, 2022
by River Lord[1] Using the labor of inmates in the United States has a long and controversial tradition. Many observers have identified how higher rates of policing and incarceration among minority communities, coupled with the widespread use of inmate labor in exchange for sub-minimum wages, create a system of labor exploitation and racial oppression…
Continue ReadingWill Minnesota’s New Automatic Expungement Laws Have an Effect on Federal Sentences?
February 14, 2024
By Britane Hubbard* On January 1, 2025, Minnesota’s new automatic expungement statutes will go into effect.[1] Under this new law, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension will identify eligible people and grant them expungement relief if they qualify.[2] Offenses eligible for expungement range from petty misdemeanors to felonies.[3] The possibility of a new wave of expungements…
Continue ReadingThis Week in News: Responses to the Killing of Daunte Wright
April 15, 2021
As part of JLI’s response to Daunte Wright’s killing by a Brooklyn Center police officer on Sunday, April 11th, Inequality Inquiry has compiled relevant news and legal-adjacent updates from the Twin Cities metro area.
Continue ReadingMore than Miranda: Exploring Preventive Solutions to Juvenile False Confessions
May 31, 2022
Juveniles, at a right rate, waiver their Miranda rights during interrogations with police, but they are also more likely to make false confessions. This blog explores solutions to this problem, including modifications to Miranda and requirements for counsel.
Continue ReadingAn Ongoing Struggle: Police Brutality and Native Americans
April 3, 2024
By: William Rauschenberg Per capita, Native Americans are among the most common victims of police violence of any minority group in the United States.[1] Depending on the year and statistics used, Indigenous Americans are either the most at risk or second behind Black Americans.[2] This is a striking figure that, like many Indian issues, is…
Continue ReadingThe Injustice of Inconsistency: Language Access in Judicial Proceedings
April 25, 2021
Rachel Pokrzywinski Judicial proceedings are often stressful. The stress is only compounded for an individual who must navigate the complex legal system in a language they are not proficient in. To ensure that these individuals receive adequate guidance and representation, federal law requires that, in all federal judicial proceedings, certified language interpreters must be provided…
Continue ReadingPurging False Narratives Around Cash Bail
October 28, 2022
By Christian Purnell. With Illinois’ Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA) set to take effect in a matter of months, opponents are stepping up their efforts to spread misinformation about the law on social media. Homing in on a provision of the PFA that abolishes cash bail in the state’s pretrial system, Twitter trolls, and even…
Continue ReadingConstitutional Avenues for Challenging Social Media Monitoring by Law Enforcement
May 25, 2021
Stephen Earnest* Introduction Most Americans use social media on a regular basis.[1] Indeed, according to a recent report from the Global World Index, the average American allocates more than two hours a day to social media interaction, and that number appears to be increasing.[2] It should then come as no surprise that law enforcement agencies…
Continue ReadingWhat’s Brewing with Bruen?
October 30, 2022
Kenneth Cooper examines the impact of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, 142 S.Ct. 2111 (2022), and New York’s public defender and legal aid offices unexpected involvement in the case.
Continue ReadingThe Long Scalpel of the Law: How United States Prisons Continue to Practice Eugenics Through Forced Sterilization
June 7, 2021
Brenna Evans* The modern discussion of reproductive rights—especially surrounding women’s reproductive rights—often focuses on the idea of the right not to reproduce, such as the right to abortion or the right to birth control.[1] However, one topic that seems to be left out of discussion is that of people who have had their ability to…
Continue Reading“It’s Absolutely Immoral”: The Denial of Mental Health Treatment in U.S. Prisons
January 9, 2023
Staff member Nicole Carter interrogates why prison inmates’ mental health needs are neglected in this new blog post.
Continue ReadingPass Senate Bill 355: How Proposed Minnesota Legislation Brings the U.S. into Compliance with International Norms
May 25, 2016
by Maria Warhol
As the 2016 presidential election approaches, the issue of voting rights in the United States is more salient than ever. While millions of people will take advantage of their right to vote in the election, nearly six million U.S. citizens are unable to vote as a result of a felony conviction. Of this disenfranchised population, only 25% are incarcerated. The remaining 75% are in the process of completing supervised release (probation or parole) or have served their sentence entirely. This concern only deepens when data reveals that disenfranchisement policy disparately impacts some communities more than others. These concerning figures impact almost every state in the United States.
Joint Publication: Racial Inequality in the Legal System Locally and Nationally
August 5, 2021
View/Download Issue PDF A note from JLI Vol. 39 Editor-in-Chief Navin Ramalingam: This special joint online issue, Racial Inequality in the Legal System Locally and Nationally, is a collaborative work among the six student-run legal academic journals across the three law schools in the state of Minnesota. The objective of the collaboration is to use our…
Continue ReadingState v. Khalil: How a Minnesota Supreme Court Ruling Led to the Amendment of a Minnesota Criminal Sexual Conduct Statute
February 6, 2023
In this blog post, staff member Remy Bell explores how the case of State v. Khalil impacted Minnesota’s criminal sexual conduct statute.
Continue Reading