According to a federal class action lawsuit filed in Alabama this month, the city of Alexander is incarcerating people who are unable to pay court fees and fines in a modern-day debtors prison. The suit argues the practice not only constitutes false imprisonment, but also violates inmates’ Fourth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights under the Constitution.

When Jesse Jacobs reported to the Galveston County Jail to serve a 30-day sentence for a DUI, he did so knowing that if everything went well, he would be out in 12 to 15 days. Six days later, he was dead. Jacobs was one of the nearly 1000 people who die each year in America’s jails, according to statistics released by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics. Like Jacobs, four in every ten of these people die in their first seven days in jail.

Carnage unfolds on a daily basis in Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, and other countries of the world. Atrocities that happen a distance away from the United States make it possible to go about life without having too care or worry about what is happening. Through song, an artistic collaborative called the Newmanov

New documents containing details on the inspector general investigation into collaboration between the CIA and “Zero Dark Thirty” filmmakers show ethics violations and potential federal crimes by former CIA director Leon Panetta and other CIA officers were uncovered. These were referred to the Justice Department for prosecution, but the department

Marcus Abrams, a 17-year-old autistic teen from St. Paul, who also suffers from seizures, didn’t belong on the tracks at a Metro Transit station, but his family is questioning the violence of his subsequent arrest during which police tackled him to the platform floor. Advocates for the autistic and disabled say the incident highlights the need for better police training.

Shadowproof Mailbag: Citizens United means we’re all “doing time” and only the 1% benefit from the law. Why we must bring Wall Street to justice. What the comic book fantasies of the intelligence community reveal about mass surveillance.

Young black men detained in Cook County, Chicago, face a higher mortality rate than the general population of the county, according to a bulletin published by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) as part of their “Northeastern Juvenile Project.”

The spy chief of the United States compared the American “intelligence community” to the Marvel superhero Spider-Man in a speech he gave at an intelligence summit on September 9. In a description for Director of the National Intelligence James Clapper, the organizers of the AFCEA/INSA National Security and Intelligence Summit wrote, “U.S. intelligence