Shannon GoodwillShannon Goodwill wants families affected by domestic violence to know that the community supports them. Goodwill, a sixth-grade art teacher at Brandon Middle School, is organizing "Art and Sole," an art project she and her students are donating to a …
Private Youth Prison Under FireBy corporate standards, the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility has been a success. Since opening in 2001, the private prison has generated roughly $100 million for the companies that have operated it.
[Balko] Draconian Gun LawsSue Aitken called the police because she was worried about her son, Brian. She now lives with the guilt of knowing that her phone call is the reason Brian spent his 27th birthday in a New Jersey prison last month. …
Councilmen Address Store ShootingAddressing tension between Indian storeowners and their African American clientele, Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes called for dialogue between the groups at a public hearing on crime yesterday evening.
Rev. Barron BanksWhen Barron Banks was 18, federal marshals had to accompany him to the polling precinct in Tchula, Miss., so he could vote without getting harassed or beaten. Nearly five decades later, Banks says his position as Jackson's Ward 6 election …
JPD Officer Involved in ShootingThe Jackson Police Department is investigating a Sunday shooting that involved a Jackson Police Department officer, WAPT reported yesterday.
Loving The SinnerWhen I was about 9 years old, my cousin Kim and I got into a fight. I don't remember what we were fighting about, but I got so angry I picked up a vase and hit her in the mouth …
Free the Scott SistersGov. Haley Barbour should pardon Jamie and Gladys Scott—and not because we believe beyond a shadow of doubt that they are innocent. He should pardon them because they have done the time for the crime they are accused of committing.
The Tragic Case of the Scott SistersJamie and Gladys Scott arrived at the Mini Mart gas station on Highway 35 in Forest, Miss., sometime between 10:30 and 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve 1993. It was just after Johnny Ray Hayes and Mitchell Duckworth had stopped in …
[Balko] More Democracy, More IncarcerationLast year the U.S. prison population declined for the first time in a generation. That's good news, but it doesn't begin to offset the damage done by a 30-year incarceration binge that has made America far and away the democratic …
Court Overturns Fulgham Death SentenceThe Mississippi Supreme Court has overturned a death sentence for Kristi Fulgham and ordered a new sentencing hearing for her 2003 murder conviction. The court issued a decision yesterday finding that the trial court erred by preventing a social worker …
‘I Am Emmett Till'Hank Thomas knew he was going to die. He only questioned how. As the Ku Klux Klan attacked and bombed the bus he was riding through Anniston, Ala., with 12 other Freedom Riders challenging Jim Crow laws, Thomas decided he …
Are Judges Up for Sale in Mississippi?In October, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to address an appeal by convicted Mississippi attorney Paul Minor and former judges Walter "Wes" Teel and John Whitfield, who a U.S. District Court jury convicted of corruption in 2007.
Providing StructureBill Skinner didn't expect to be a youth court judge. A former Jackson police officer and Hinds County Justice Court judge, Skinner wanted to hear adult criminal cases when he won a seat on the Hinds County Court in 2006, …
Jamie and Gladys Scott arrived at the Mini Mart gas station on Highway 35 in Forest, Miss., sometime between 10:30 and 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve 1993. It was just after Johnny Ray Hayes and Mitchell Duckworth had stopped in …
In October, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to address an appeal by convicted Mississippi attorney Paul Minor and former judges Walter "Wes" Teel and John Whitfield, who a U.S. District Court jury convicted of corruption in 2007.