Yvette Garcia Missri, a leading legal and public health advocate for racial and social justice for over 20 years, joined the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law this week as the Executive Director. Garcia Missri most recently served as the Litigation Counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, where she used litigation strategies to combat […]
Category: Blog
Op-ed: NC is Failing the Wrongfully Convicted; HB 877 Could Help
Duke Law Professors James E. Coleman Jr. and Jamie T. Lau brought much-needed attention in an op-ed published Monday to the fact that even after serving 25 years in prison, North Carolina can get away with compensating the wrongfully convicted as little as $45. The op-ed was published by the News & Observer. For nearly […]
NC Supreme Court to Take on 3 Juvenile Life with Parole Cases in Coming Months
By Ben Finholt Last year, Brandon Garrett, Karima Modjadidi, Kristen Renberg, and I published a paper on juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) in North Carolina in The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology at Northwestern Law. We examined the cases of 94 North Carolina juveniles, aged 13 to 17 at the time of their offenses, […]
New Article Explores Police Officer Barriers to Mental Health
Wilson Center Postdoc Dr. Meret Hofer co-wrote an article identifying police officers’ treatment seeking barriers in order to outline a multi-pronged strategy for improving the accessibility of mental health services for police. The paper, “There Was No Plan in Place to Get Us Help”: Strategies for Improving Mental Health Service Utilization Among Law Enforcement — co-written […]
Aya Gruber Talks Feminist War on Crime at Novel Justice Event
By Annie Han On April 6th, Aya Gruber, professor at the University of Colorado Law School, joined the Wilson Center for the last Novel Justice event of the spring. She delved into her book The Feminist War on Crime: The Unexpected Role of Women’s Liberation in Mass Incarceration, which documents the American feminists’ role in […]
Planning Underway for Crisis/Diversion Facility in Orange County
By Ruthie Kesri Plans for a novel Crisis/Diversion facility are currently underway in Orange County. The facility, which will be dedicated to providing behavioral health crisis services and criminal justice diversion, will be the first of its kind in the county. “We have so many good things in place here,” said Caitlin Fenhagen, the Director […]
Viral Injustice: COVID-19 is Disproportionately Impacting Incarcerated Population
By Annie Han The COVID-19 Pandemic has disproportionately impacted people incarcerated in the US with 28% of the current incarcerated population testing positive for the virus compared to 9% of the general population. These outbreaks in prisons present serious health risks to the incarcerated, staff, and communities surrounding them, and they have forced courts to […]
Governor Creates Board to Review Juvenile Sentences
By Ruthie Kesri Gov. Roy Cooper recently announced the creation of a four-person advisory board to review the prison sentences of juveniles. “Developments in science continue to show fundamental differences between juvenile and adult minds,” Cooper said in a press release. “For those who have taken significant steps to reform and rehabilitate themselves, this process […]
NC Considers Raising Minimum Age of Prosecution From 6 to 10
By Annie Han “The 6-year-old dangled his legs above the floor as he sat at the table with his defense attorney,” said Virginia Bridges of the Durham Herald Sun. In March 2021, an article by Bridges described the case of a young boy forced to appear in court for picking a tulip from a lawn […]
Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Focuses on Services and Treatment Over Arrest
By De’Ja Wood Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) is a community-based diversion program with the goal of reimagining public safety by decriminalizing drug abuse. Within LEAD, officers reduce unnecessary justice involvement for those struggling with substance use by connecting people who use drugs to services and treatment that prioritize their health and wellbeing. On Thursday, […]