Criminal Justice

Often when people get arrested for minor offenses that arrest stays with them forever. Sarasota religious leaders are seeking alternatives. 

Yvette Lewis, president of the Hillsborough Chapter for the NAACP, has been a leader in the Black community for nearly 20 years.

In 2018, Desmond Meade helped helped shepherd through passage of Florida's Amendment 4, which requires automatic restoration of voting rights for felons who complete their sentences. In September, he won a Genius Grant from the...

Tampa Bay Times reporter Chris O'Donnell talks about his reporting on the Tampa polices department's crime-free housing program, which remains under fire even after Mayor Jane Castor announced changes to it. t.

Florida lawmakers introduced more than 3,000 bills in the 2021 legislative sessions, with about 8 percent of them being signed into law. Among them were bills with robust support from both Republican and Democrats.  These...

In the 2021 legislative session dozens of bills were introduced that would have done everything from shortening the sentences of inmates with good behavior to creating a registry of police misconduct.  But barely anything passed....

Two Republican congressional candidates embroiled in an alleged murder-for-hire plot had their case postponed until September. Anna Paulina Luna’s temporary restraining order against William Braddock will remain until the case’s new date. LISTEN: The race...

A Tampa man was sentenced to life in prison Monday after being found guilty of sexually battering a 10-year-old girl and pouring bleach on her genitals. LISTEN: A jury in Hillsborough County found 43-year-old Lewis...

The leaders of a Florida church were arrested for participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to federal court documents. The founder and vice-president of Melbourne’s Global Outreach Church were arrested after a member...

Florida law enforcement officials were praised Tuesday for implementing programs that offer civil citations instead of arrests for minor and non-violent offenses. Florida’s Direct Action & Research Training Center, or DART, is trying to push...

Florida congressmember and gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist met with local leaders in St. Petersburg Friday to call for a statewide investigation into Florida’s connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot in D.C. Listen: Crist stood...

With the specter of Florida’s HB1 “anti-riot” bill looming, protestors in St. Pete returned to the streets Friday to demand justice for Daunte Wright, the 20-year-old Black man killed by police in a Minneapolis Suburb,...