Police & Prison
Black Lives Still Matter
Every time a Black person is murdered, I am keenly aware that it could have been me, my son or any of my family members. On Aug. 30, 2019, Elijah Jovan McClain’s life was cut short at the young age of 23 after an encounter with the Aurora Police Department in Colorado. The Aurora Police […]
Feds expand Pell Grant program for prisoners working on college degrees
WASHINGTON — Prison inmates around the U.S. are getting the chance to do something that was almost unheard of a generation ago: pursue a college degree while behind bars and with financial support from the federal government. Inmates in 42 states, including New Mexico, as well as in Washington, D.C., have more access to federal […]
State officials don’t know how many Native American women are missing
When an Indigenous person needs support in a violent and dangerous situation, an ally in the community is a rare vital resource. In Nambé Pueblo, Chastity Sandoval is that person. “There is a high chance of no justice happening,” said Sandoval, the victim legal advocate in Nambé. “So how do we accommodate and accompany our […]
N.M. teachers’ retirement still tied up with prison phone company
The board that invests the pension fund for New Mexico teachers promised last year not to fund private prisons anymore. But critics say the pension fund still has millions of dollars invested in a related, exploitive industry: prison phone calls.
Gun storage law in the works after ABQ middle school shooting
Editor’s Note: We are not naming the suspect in the shooting because it is our policy to not name juvenile offenders who are not being tried as adults. A coalition of Albuquerque-area state lawmakers is drafting a bill to create the Bennie Hargrove Gun Safety Act during the coming 30-day legislative session or a special […]
Appeals court: Silver City PD brushed its own domestic violence policy aside
A federal appeals court upheld a ruling denying qualified immunity to police in Silver City for failing to protect to Nikki Bascom, a nurse and mother of two who was killed in 2016 by her former partner, a Silver City police captain, in a murder-suicide. Five years after she died, the ruling puts police on […]