The Garrison Project

Articles > Investigations > Reports and Body-cam Video Raise Familiar Concerns About Baltimore Police Plainclothes Unit This story was produced in partnership with Baltimore Magazine. On September 5, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office announced that it would not pursue criminal charges against BPD detective Connor Johnson, who pressed his service weapon against the temple of a restrained and prone Baltimore man during a controversial May arrest.

This story was produced in partnership with CalMatters When police pulled over Tommy Bonds III on a chilly January day in 2022, the San Diego State University student had an idea why. “What’s goin’ on, bro? How you doin’?” San Diego Police Officer Ryan Cameron said as he approached the car, shining his flashlight in Bonds’ face. Bonds told Cameron he recognized him.

This story was produced in partnership with The Baltimore Beat. Seven years after Maryland tried to reform the cash bail system, people who get arrested in Baltimore are being held in jail before trial at a higher rate than before the change.

This story was produced in partnership with The New Republic. In Democrats’ seemingly endless election postmortems—and in the postmortems on the postmortems—a persistent theme has been to blame the reddening of blue states like New York and New Jersey on crime in their big cities. On Pod Save America, the political commentator Ezra Klein emphasized the importance of taking crime seriously as a factor in voters’ decisions.

By Jacob Biba A lawsuit from a prisoner who been denied release more than 20 times claims that the state holds parole “perpetually out of realistic reach.” Articles > Investigations > North Carolina Parole System Accused Of Blocking Release For People Who Committed Crimes As Children This story was produced in partnership with WFAE, Charlotte, North Carolina's NPR News source. In the more than 40 years he’s been incarcerated in North Carolina, Brett Abrams has rarely faced discipline.

This story was produced in partnership with Split Ticket. Reform prosecutors entered the 2024 election year with significant headwinds: in recent years, they were recalled (Chesa Boudin in San Francisco), defeated (Marilyn Mosby in Baltimore City), and blowback to racial justice has mounted since the George Floyd summer nearly five years ago. But because prosecutors are elected at the county or circuit level, the politics of their elections are highly local.

Articles > Investigations > Bail Is A Longstanding Problem in Baltimore. Is Maryland Searching For A Solution? This piece was produced in partnership with The Baltimore Beat. On a foggy day in mid-December, a young Black man peers up from a grim-looking room at Baltimore’s Central Booking & Intake Center, tugging nervously at his hair. He is speaking through a computer screen to Commissioner Kathleen Puckett, who is sitting in a cubicle at a district courthouse six miles south of the jail.

This story was produced in partnership with Rolling Stone. Cortlen Henry pulled his Jeep into Memorial Hospital Miramar and ran into the ER just after 4:30 a.m. on October 26, 2018. In the shotgun seat, Anthony “YNW Sakchaser” Williams lay dead with gunshot wounds to his head and body. In the backseat was Christopher “YNW Juvy” Thomas Jr., also shot dead. Henry said the trio were victims of a drive-by shooting after they left a Fort Lauderdale recording studio.

Articles > Latest > The Garrison Project Folds Into Deep South Today, Focusing Its Criminal Justice Reporting on the Deep South Region The Garrison Project, an award-winning investigative reporting initiative that collaborates with national and local newsrooms to explore criminal justice issues, will fold its operations into Deep South Today, a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes Mississippi Today and Verite News.

Articles > Investigations > Baltimore’s homicide clearance rate is rising, but arrests for murder remain flat This story was produced in partnership with The Baltimore Brew. With homicides declining significantly in the last two years, Mayor Brandon Scott has lauded his administration’s role in the trend, calling Baltimore “the model for violence reduction” at his State of the City address in April. In 2024, there were 201 murders in Baltimore.