The Project In 2024, more than 20,000 people were released from North Carolina prisons, and over 76,000 were living under community supervision through the Department of Adult Corrections. “These people have served their time,” says Michele Easter, Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, “and it is in everybody’s interest that they integrate back into […]
Category: News
Psychiatric Advanced Directives: An Underutilized Practice That Could Change Psychiatric Crisis Care
Filling a Gap: Our Work on Psychiatric Advanced Directives Dr. Marvin Swartz is the lead of the Behavioral Health Team at the Wilson Center for Science and Justice, a Professor at Duke University School of Medicine, and Co-Director of the Services Effectiveness Research Program. Throughout his career studying mental health care across emergency departments, inpatient […]
The Field Drug Test Problem: Inaccurate, Widely Used, and a Pervasive Injustice in North Carolina
This is part two of a two-part series. For an overview of these tests, check out part one. The Problem In Iowa, a mother went public after her daughter was expelled from school when a cookie she brought to class tested positive for marijuana on a colorimetric field drug test. The cookie contained no marijuana. […]
False Positive: The $2 Drug Test Behind Thousands of Wrongful Arrests
The Scenario Imagine you are a college student driving home after a late practice. Your gym bag is in the backseat, there’s chalk on your hands, and a torn Splenda packet from this morning’s coffee is sitting open on the passenger seat. You get pulled over for a broken taillight. The officer spots the white powder […]
Does Suspending a License Really Get People to Court?
Driver’s license suspensions are often defended as a tool for accountability. North Carolina data shows it hasn’t solved the problem and has lasting consequences. In 2025, law enforcement across North Carolina made more than a million traffic stops. Most ended in a warning or no action at all. Of the citations that were issued, for […]
Duke University Researchers Launch Interdisciplinary SAFE HOPE Study to Evaluate Durham Guaranteed Basic Income Program for Reentering Community Members
New Durham-based pilot study explores the impact of choice in direct financial assistance programs on health and recidivism for formerly incarcerated adults Researchers at the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law, Duke University School of Nursing, and the Duke Department of Population Health Sciences have partnered to launch SAFE HOPE (Supporting Adult […]
Research Assistant Karina Lu on Punishment, Reentry, and the Questions that Don’t Fit Neatly into Data
As a freshman competing in moot court, Karina Lu was assigned a hypothetical case about a juvenile given a virtual life sentence. She started reading Eighth Amendment case law, trying to understand what the Constitution actually permits under “cruel and unusual punishment,” and found the question harder to put down than she expected. The following […]
Speaking Up for Youth: Law Student Daniela Hernandez-Gil on Juvenile Justice Advocacy
For rising Duke Law 3L Daniela Hernandez-Gil, working with the Wilson Center for Science and Justice has meant standing alongside young people navigating one of the most difficult moments of their lives. As a a member of our McAtee JustScience Lab student supporting Sam Lawrence’s work with incarcerated children, much of Dani’s work centers on […]
Join Our Webinar: Extreme Risk Protection Orders in Practice: Balancing Risk and Rights, Ensuring Justice
Join us for a webinar and panel discussion Date: Monday May 11 Time: 1pm Eastern Time Register here Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPOs) laws authorize law enforcement with a civil restraining order to temporarily remove and prohibit access to firearms for individuals who pose a significant risk of harming themselves or others. As ERPOs have […]
Work in Progress: Studying Death by Distribution
Michele Easter is currently conducting a comprehensive study of “Death by Distribution” prosecutions in North Carolina with co-authors Rita Grunberg, Madeline Stenger, Lindsay Bass-Patel, Jeffrey Swanson, and Abigail Lee (A.B. ’25). Death by Distribution refers to homicide charges to prosecute a lethal overdose, specifically against the person who shared or sold a drug that led […]