In the last two weeks, the ACLU of Pennsylvania has released two new reports about the criminal legal system in the commonwealth. The first report, entitled More Law Less Justice, analyzes the bloating of criminal offenses in Pennsylvania over the last 47 years. The second report, Punishing Poverty: Cash Bail in Allegheny County, analyzes data from 2018 and 2019 on cash bail orders in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania's second-largest county.
The lead author of both reports is Nyssa Taylor, criminal justice policy counsel at the ACLU-PA. Nyssa sat down for this episode to talk about what the reports found, why the findings are so problematic, and what we can do about.
The reports are available at these links:
aclupa.org/morelawlessjustice
aclupa.org/punishingpoverty
