The Case That Started It All In 2016, a woman named Maranda ODonnell was stopped by police while driving to pick up her four-year-old daughter. The charge was driving with a suspended license. A Harris County judge set her bail at $2,500. She couldn’t pay it. She sat in jail, not because she posed any […]
Category: Blog
Life on Hold: The Real Impact of Driver’s License Suspensions
Announcing a New Webinar Series Life on Hold: The Real Impact of Driver’s License Suspensions Life on Hold is a three-part webinar series examining how driver’s license suspensions in North Carolina reverberate far beyond the roadway. In our state, if someone fails to pay a fine for a traffic infraction or does not show up […]
Event Recap: The Alabama Solution Screening and Talkback
(L-R) Vivian Sekandi, Craig Waleed, Daquan Peters, and Samantha Richter at the screening of The Alabama Solution Last month, we were privileged to partner with the Duke Justice Project, Duke’s undergraduate group focused on advancing criminal justice, to host a screening and talkback of HBO’s The Alabama Solution. The film exposes abuses and neglect in […]
New Resource: Our Life Sentences Dashboard
Users can explore two decades of life sentences in the United States The Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke University School of Law has released a groundbreaking new public resource: the Life Sentences Dashboard, a comprehensive, interactive platform bringing together decades of national data on life imprisonment in the United States. The dashboard […]
Wilson Center at Duke Law receives $5 million gift from alumnus Derek Wilson
New gift renews Wilson’s commitment, allowing the Center to continue and expand its work in creating a safer and fairer criminal legal system The Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law School has received a $5 million gift from Derek Wilson ’86, M.B.A. ’90, P’15 and the Wilson Foundation. This new commitment renews […]
Wilson Center Releases 2024-2025 Annual Report
We are proud to present our 2024-2025 annual report, a testament to an extraordinary year of progress. Our research, policy initiatives, and collaborations continue to shape national and local conversations and practices in the criminal justice system. Our team has advanced projects at the intersection of science, law, and policy, with new studies and tools […]
Wilson Center Releases Independent Evaluation of Fayetteville’s ShotSpotter Installation
Report analyzes first 18 months of implementation, highlights data patterns and limitations The Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law has released Evaluation of Fayetteville’s ShotSpotter Installation: Results from the First 18 Months, an independent analysis of the gunshot detection system’s use in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The report was commissioned by the City […]
Wilson Center Launches New Public Dashboard
Illuminating Court Debt and Driver’s License Suspensions Across North Carolina The Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law School has released a new public dashboard offering unprecedented access to data on driver’s license suspensions across North Carolina related to unpaid court fines and missed court appearances. The dashboard is an interactive tool designed […]
Gift from Duke Alumnus David McAtee Establishes the McAtee JustScience Lab at the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law
New initiative expands opportunities for students to engage in data-driven research, legal, and policy work aimed at improving our criminal justice system for all The Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law has received a generous gift from Duke University alumnus David McAtee (A.B. ‘91) to establish the McAtee JustScience Lab, a visionary […]
Ending Cash Bail for Most Misdemeanors Is Associated with Improved Public Safety
New Report from the Wilson Center for Science and Justice Analyzes Impacts Six Years After the Implementation of New Misdemeanor Bail Policies in Harris County, Texas In 2019, Harris County, Texas, eliminated a required cash bail schedule for misdemeanors as a result of the ODonnell v. Harris County settlement. Instead, most people arrested for misdemeanors […]