Justice

Shannon Goodwill

Shannon 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 domestic-abuse shelter in Jackson.

Private Youth Prison Under Fire

By 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 Laws

Sue 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. If the state gets its way, he will be there for the next seven years.

Councilmen Address Store Shooting

Addressing 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.

Jackson Major Crimes Up 5.3 Percent

Download JPD's weekly crime report (PDF)

Rev. Barron Banks

When 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 commissioner could not have happened without the Civil Rights Movement.

JPD Officer Involved in Shooting

The Jackson Police Department is investigating a Sunday shooting that involved a Jackson Police Department officer, WAPT reported yesterday.

Loving The Sinner

When 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 with it. A chip of her tooth flew across the room, and buckets of tears gushed through her closed eyes as she gripped her mouth shut.

Free the Scott Sisters

Gov. 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 Sisters

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 to purchase beer and gas after getting off work at McCarty Farms.

[Balko] More Democracy, More Incarceration

Last 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 world's leader in putting people behind bars.

Court Overturns Fulgham Death Sentence

The 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 from testifying about Fulgham's background as mitigation evidence.

‘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 would rather suffocate than get off the bus and allow the Klan to beat him to death.

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 Structure

Bill 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, but senior county court Judge Houston Patton assigned him to the youth court.

Ellington