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Keystone Crossroads

Criminal Justice

Berks County, with the city of Reading, Pa. at its heart, has become a statewide leader in civil asset forfeiture. (Matt Smith for Keystone Crossroads)
Keystone Crossroads
Courts & Law

Cash grab: As asset forfeiture quietly expands across Pa., abuses follow

As counties have scaled up the practice to fund local police, our investigation found that seemingly innocent people are getting caught in the rush for cash.

6 years ago

Listen 6:02
(Bigstock, file)
Keystone Crossroads
Courts & Law

ACLU to end suit over Pa. public defender funding

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania says it’s dropping a long-running lawsuit against Luzerne County over lack of fu ...

6 years ago

Maura McInerney, legal director fo Education Law Center, talks about a class action lawsuit against Glen Mills Schools which charges that boys at the reform school were abused and deprived of education. She is joined by Chief Legal Officer Marsha Levick and Michael McGinley, a partner at Dechert LLP. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
Keystone Crossroads
Education

Advocates sue Pa. officials, say they failed to catch major problems at Glen Mills Schools

The suit holds two Pa. departments responsible for constitutional violations and other infractions against children sent to the prominent Delaware County reform school.

6 years ago

Insite, Vancouver’s supervised injection facilityyt, provides people with clean injection supplies. Photo by Elana Gordon, WHYY
Keystone Crossroads
Courts & Law

Is Philly’s supervised injection site legal? Backers make ‘moral and religious’ defense

Among their arguments: shutting down the proposed injection sites would violate the group’s Judeo-Christian convictions.

6 years ago

In this Oct. 4, 2017, photo, a device called a
Keystone Crossroads
Politics & Policy

Pa. gun owner among many nationwide fighting to overturn Trump-led ban on bump stocks

Federal officials are asking gun owners to immediately destroy or turn over bump stocks after a nationwide ban took effect this week.

6 years ago

Until now, it has cost more than $60 to apply to have a conviction pardoned. (AP Photo, file)
Keystone Crossroads
Courts & Law

Come Monday, Pennsylvanians can apply for pardons for free

The commonwealth's Board of Pardons has voted unanimously to get rid of all application fees, starting March 18.

6 years ago

John Wetzel, Secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections, in a 2018 file photo. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
Keystone Crossroads
Courts & Law

Fewer inmates will not mean a prison closure in 2019, Pa. officials say

The number of inmates in Pennsylvania has hit the lowest point in a decade, but prison officials say the time isn’t right to close a prison.

6 years ago

In this Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018 photo, barbed wire lines the top of a wall at the deactivated House of Correction in Philadelphia. (Matt Rourke/AP Photo)
Keystone Crossroads
Courts & Law

81 Pa. county jail suicides in 4 years: A look at how jails report deaths

Numbers from the state Department of Corrections provide context for the breadth of the problem across Pennsylvania. Figures for the most recent year were released in February

6 years ago

In this file photo, Pennsylvania State Police are seen in Philadelphia in  February 2018 (Jacqueline Larma/AP Photo)
Keystone Crossroads
Politics & Policy

Pa. taxpayers continue funding state troopers in towns without cops after years of capitol debate

Republican leaders want to charge municipalities for state police service based on workload indicators like calls for service instead of the governor’s proposed population-dri

6 years ago

Listen 1:22
Pennsylvania's corrections system tightened its legal mail security in September. The ACLU and other civil rights groups are trying to prove the move wasn't warranted. (Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo)
Keystone Crossroads
Courts & Law

The trial over Pa.’s prison mail policy may be heading toward a settlement

The unprecedented security measures at the center of this trial involved giving inmates photocopies of their mail, while the prison temporarily stored the originals.

6 years ago

Visitors wait to enter the Supreme Court as a winter snow storm hits the nation's capital making roads perilous and closing most Federal offices and all major public school districts, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019. The Supreme Court is ruling unanimously that the Constitution's ban on excessive fines applies to the states. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
Keystone Crossroads
Courts & Law

The end of civil asset forfeiture? U.S. Supreme Court ruling has advocates hopeful

The U.S. Supreme Court placed limits on the civil asset forfeiture, but Pennsylvania’s high court already reined in the program throughout the state.

6 years ago

Corrections officers arrive for a shift at the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. (Marc Levy/AP)
Keystone Crossroads
Courts & Law

Is Pa.’s prison mail policy legal? It might depend (in part) on how fast guards can read

A federal trial is underway on whether Pennsylvania's policy for handling legal mail sent to prisons violates inmates' First Amendment rights.

6 years ago

Critics of the law that is meant to stop witness intimidation, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, have called it redundant,  “excessively broad,” and potentially unconstitutional.(Junial/Bigstock)
Keystone Crossroads
Courts & Law

New law to curb witness intimidation in Pa. is criticized by watchdogs

Critics call the law redundant, “excessively broad,” and potentially unconstitutional.

6 years ago

U.S. Attorney William McSwain announces a lawsuit to prevent a supervised injection site from opening in Philadelphia.
Keystone Crossroads
Courts & Law

Federal prosecutors sue to stop nation’s first planned ‘supervised injection site’ in Philly

The civil lawsuit is the first time the federal government has intervened in the hotly debated issue of supervised injection sites.

6 years ago

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is pictured in the District Attorney's Office in Center City on Friday February 1, 2019. (Brad Larrison for WHYY)
Keystone Crossroads
Courts & Law

After year one, Philly DA Larry Krasner earns praise from reformers, scorn from victim advocates

After a year in office, Larry Krasner, considered one of the most progressive district attorneys in the nation, sees himself as orchestrating his own movement.

6 years ago

Listen 5:52
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  • Haddonfield’s historic Black neighborhood is now a destination on New Jersey’s Black Heritage Trail

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