Anti-trans laws make everyone less safe
MAY 17, 2022 – Across the country, state legislators backing anti-trans efforts have created an illusory problem as a way to distract from the very real issues facing their states. Deeply troubling laws stigmatizing and potentially criminalizing transgender children and the people who care for them are putting both the lives of children and public safety at risk. Read more on how prosecutors can take a stand to protect trans children in this Washington Post op-ed by FJP Executive Director Miriam Krinsky and former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance.
“As long as states continue to enact hateful and misguided laws, local elected prosecutors — who take an oath to protect all in their communities — have no choice but to exercise their vast discretion and refuse to prosecute.”
The death penalty can’t be fixed. It’s time to end it.
APRIL 18, 2022 – There is no evidence that the death penalty makes us safer. Instead, it punishes the most vulnerable among us, threatens the innocent, and is rife with racial disparities. Yet some states continue to escalate their use of capital punishment. In this NBC Think op-ed, Arlington County and the City of Falls Church Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, and FJP Executive Director Miriam Krinsky explain why the death penalty can’t be fixed and call for an end to capital punishment, once and for all.
“No matter how horrific or heart-wrenching the case in front of us, we have to remember that as long as the death penalty exists, it will continue to amplify the worst parts of our justice system. We’re well past the time for quibbling over how to kill. Now it’s time to grapple, once and for all, with IF we kill. And the answer must be a resounding no.”
Children deserve protections that too many aren’t getting in the US justice system
MARCH 8, 2022 – In the United States, children have few, if any, protections during interrogations, which has led to numerous false confessions that landed innocent teenagers behind bars for decades. In an op-ed in USA Today, FJP Executive Director Miriam Krinsky and Fair Trials Global CEO Norman L. Reimer discuss how policymakers, prosecutors, and law enforcement can take a stand to safeguard young people during questioning and align our practices with international standards.
“Handcuffing, shackling, lying, threatening, cajoling and hours of questioning often yield false confessions from adults. History and data tell us that these practices are even more dangerous when used against children.”
‘Crack pipe’ rhetoric is not only wrong, it’s deadly. Harm reduction efforts save lives.
FEB 21, 2022 – After the Biden Administration closed its application period for a harm reduction grant program, there was a media firestorm and backlash from some around the funding of safe smoking kits, which have been proven to help save lives. The attacks were filled with misinformation and racist undertones stemming from decades of criminalizing drug use and “just say no” messaging. In an op-ed in USA Today, FJP Executive Director Miriam Krinsky urges leaders to reject false rhetoric around drug use and instead embrace proven harm reduction strategies – like this grant program – that can help save lives.
“The alternative to decades of failed policies can be found in dedicating resources to things like smoking safety kits, safe injection sites and other public health-based strategies. It’s time to chart a new way forward. Let’s not accede to overblown headlines and misinformation that will cost lives.”
Tough-on-crime laws and mass incarceration waste tax dollars and don’t make us any safer
JAN. 31, 2022 – Anti-reform forces continue to point fingers at reform-minded prosecutors for increases in crime, a dynamic fueling the recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. But as FJP Executive Director Miriam Krinsky writes in an op-ed in MarketWatch, these attacks are unfounded, at odds with the data, and ignore the need to proactively address the root causes of crime.
“[S]ome critics of [reform] … argue that more cops, more prisons and more people behind bars is the only way to address a rising tide of violence. Yet none of these strategies has been proven to prevent crime.”