In this issue, and in part two that will follow, we ask a few questions that we think should guide our thinking about the future of our justice system. We highlight the current state of the issues that will most impact its future and what investments we need to make now to ensure that the next 250 years are not a return to regressive, failed tactics of the past.

Our country is at a crossroads, and we have the power to decide whether we will lean into or move away from mass incarceration. Those outcomes will be shaped by the choices we make today about safety, justice, and who gets to exercise power in our communities.

Download our one-page explainer that details what the administration is doing, it’s impact, and the ways to get involved.

CORCA allows DHS to circumvent constitutional safeguards by deputizing retailers like Home Depot to do the data collection for them.

At a moment when politicians across the spectrum claim to care about affordability, cash bail remains one of the clearest examples of how poverty itself is punished in America.

While it may look like a commonsense crime bill on the surface, the Combating Organized Crime Act would establish a central intelligence hub for retail theft within the Department of Homeland Security, expanding the agency’s access to protected data from corporations and their influence on local police.

CORCA is not a safety bill, it’s a surveillance bill.

Those closest to a community’s needs and risks are best positioned to shape its justice policies.

The evidence on bail reform contradicts Trump’s rationale for his executive orders.

A man sentenced to life in prison for sexually abusing two middle-school-aged children could end up benefiting from President Donald Trump’s massive slush fund. Andrew Paul Johnson was sentenced earlier this year, just months after being pardoned by Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Under Trump’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” beneficiaries could include Jan. 6 rioters. Johnson allegedly told the kids he abused that he would share millions of dollars in restitution money that he expected from the Trump administration for his Jan. 6 case.

American families across the country are feeling the devastating impacts of fentanyl, addiction, and overdose. In response, the federal government is dramatically cutting funding for proven health and treatment solutions that keep people alive and healthy. The cuts are being made to direct billions of dollars toward historic military spending and immigration crackdowns—dragging us into costly, endless wars that threaten our safety at home while leaving Americans more vulnerable to preventable deaths.

Through zoning ordinances and public pressure, localities fight plans to treat immigrants like packages. Their successes can offer a blueprint for broader resistance.

For those of us keeping score at home of President Trump’s shifting rationales for war this past weekend, one of his more striking claims is that bombs were dropped in Iran to protect the right to protest. Trump—who infamously mused about shooting American protestors during his first term—has not exactly shied away this time around from aggressively, if not forcefully, repressing dissent in his own country.

Criminal justice and immigration reform are facing unprecedented threats during the 47th presidency. From mass deportations and a more punitive approach to charging and sentencing to a weaponized Department of Justice and a constitutional showdown with the courts, Vera's researchers and policy experts are tracking this administration's actions and making meaning of the latest developments out of Washington and its impact across the country.

On October 23, 2025, Democracy Forward filed suit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to compel the release of public records about the Trump-Vance administration’s abrupt termination of more than $800 million in DOJ grants that supported programs on violence prevention, crime victim services, and community safety.

The past decade has seen increasing momentum for bail reform, with lawmakers, prosecutors, and courts across the country shifting the focus of bail decisions from ability to pay to fairness and public safety. However, reformers must frequently contend with fears that limiting or eliminating money bail will lead to a rise in crime. The data shows that these fears are unfounded, and they shouldn’t stand in the way of reforms that can make our criminal justice system more equitable and humane.

This newsletter is about the dangerous weaponization of crime, which prevents us from both taking a hard look at why crime happens and developing serious solutions to prevent it.

The Gulfstream IV jet was operated by Journey Aviation, a Miami-based charter company that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has previously used to carry out its third-country “deportations” to African countries, but it is owned by Michael Dezer and his family via a shell company. The wealthy often lease their private jets to charter companies part-time to qualify for a huge tax break that Trump signed into law in his first term.

A $608 million federal reimbursement that Florida’s been counting on to pay for the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” lockup won’t cover construction costs — if the money comes through at all, Justice Department lawyers have declared.

President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan accepted a $50,000 bag of cash from an undercover FBI agent last year in a since-closed U.S. Justice Department bribery investigation, two sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

Nearly half of the FBI agents working in the US’s major field offices have been reassigned to aid immigration enforcement, according to newly released data, a stunning shift in law enforcement priorities that has raised public safety concerns.