New York City officials on Thursday announced a $3.3 million settlement with the family of Kalief Browder, who died by suicide after spending nearly three years in Rikers Island, most of it in solitary confinement. Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images hide caption
President Trump, with Vice President Pence, poses with a plaque given to him by sheriffs from across the country during a meeting in September. Trump has campaigned as a strong advocate for law enforcement. Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Keri Blakinger spent nearly two years incarcerated on narcotics charges before becoming a criminal justice reporter for the Houston Chronicle. Nicole Hensley/Houston Chronicle hide caption
President Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House Wednesday as he announces his support for the first major rewrite of the nation's criminal justice sentencing laws in a generation. Andrew Harnik/AP hide caption
The exterior of the Supreme Court of Louisiana in New Orleans. Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says it found packages of cocaine with a street value of nearly $18 million inside a shipment of bananas. Russ Widstrand/Getty Images hide caption
Gov. Jerry Brown holds a copy of a bill to end bail he signed Tuesday, Aug. 28, in Sacramento, Calif. The bill, co-authored by state Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, third from right, and Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda, right, makes California the first state to eliminate bail for suspects awaiting trial. It goes into effect in October 2019. Rich Pedroncelli/AP hide caption
Any amount of opioid use was associated with a higher risk of arrest, parole or probation according to a new study. Marie Hickman/Getty Images hide caption
President Donald Trump speaks during an event on prison reform in the East Room of the White House on Friday. Evan Vucci/AP hide caption
Michael Skakel enters the Connecticut Supreme Court for a hearing in 2016. The court on Friday vacated Skakel's murder conviction in the 1975 slaying of Martha Moxley, his neighbor. Jessica Hill/AP hide caption
By some estimates, nearly half of the people confined in U.S. jails and prisons have a mental illness, notes Alisa Roth, author of Insane: America's Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness. Darrin Klimek/Getty Images hide caption
Anthony Graves, shown here in 2010, was imprisoned in Texas for nearly two decades for slayings he did not commit. Graves said being wrongfully convicted gave him special insight into the power prosecutors have. Pat Sullivan/AP hide caption
Yasmin Vafa, the executive director of the human rights organization Rights4Girls, says Cyntoia Brown's case is an example of the "sexual abuse-to-prison" pipeline that leads some of the most vulnerable women and girls into the criminal justice system. Bethany Bandera hide caption