News

The Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law is excited to announce a nearly $500,000 gift from Twitter and Square co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey’s #StartSmall philanthropic initiative, to support a new project aimed at rethinking policy regarding how forensic evidence is used in criminal cases. “Unfortunately, the need for forensics reform has […]

By Neiman Araque Charlton Roberson, a Harm Reduction Specialist who works with the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program in Fayetteville, NC, and Cumberland County, said his colleagues working in emergency services or law enforcement often experience compassion fatigue. He explained how repeat offenders often imbue police officers with a sense of hopelessness and despair […]

By Travis Thorpe Jr. Our Gov. Roy Cooper founded the Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice (TREC) with Executive Order 145 in June 2020. The mission of this task force is to promote equity in the criminal legal system for people of color. The main goal is to address the effects of systemic […]

Editor’s Note: If you’ve ever needed help but weren’t sure where to turn, then you know how important just one trustworthy guide can be. This blog post is part of an occasional series called “Connection, Trust, and Recovery,” by Michele Easter. The series is about how peer supporters can help people who are returning to […]

By Annie Han Danny R. Young won a city council seat with just two write-in votes, one from his wife and the other from his neighbor. The city of Anamosa, Iowa was split into four wards, with each one containing about 1400 residents. But in Young’s ward, over 1300 of them were from the Anamosa […]

By Ruthie Kesri More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, 10,000+ North Carolina prison-incarcerated people have tested positive for the virus. In the last three months though, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) has noted a striking drop in the number of cases in the prison system. “Once people were able to […]

Ben Finholt, Director of the Just Sentencing Project, joined the Wilson Center this month. He previously worked at North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services. Finholt’s work at the Wilson Center will aim to address extreme sentencing and racial disparities categorically through policy, the courts, and executive clemency, with the goal of developing a model that can be exported nationally. […]

By Carmyn Brown Recently, North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby announced a Task Force to address and study ACEs. ACEs are short for Adverse Childhood Experiences which suggests that childhood trauma and stress can lead to major illness, poor quality of life, and premature death, affecting children between the ages of 0 to […]