We need to rethink our criminal justice systems.

Policing powers are expanding unchecked across Europe. States are continually relying on the deprivation of liberty to respond to societal harms. Criminal justice systems are too often the source of harm for marginalised communities, and they are not keeping societies safe.

Join us at the LEAP annual conference to discuss what needs to change and what we can do about it. Sessions include:

• The unchecked expansion of policing powers;
• Europe's carceral fever;
• Pre-trial detention, vulnerability and prison conditions;
• Training for legal professionals on coercion and defence rights violations;
• Civil society roundtable: alternatives to criminalisation and the carceral system; and more!

Around 97 percent of federal cases and 94 percent of state felony cases in the United States are resolved through plea bargaining. This system too often reinforces and worsens existing problems in the criminal legal system, including racial disparities, overcriminalisation, mass incarceration and wrongful convictions.

We have joined Fair and Just Prosecution to call on elected prosecutors to address these deep-rooted issues. Our new brief offers clear guidelines for prosecutors, as well as recommendations for systemic change, to ensure that plea bargaining does not undermine fundamental rights.

For too long, young people suspected of crimes in the U.S. have been subjected to coercive and deceptive interrogation techniques. In an opinion piece in USA Today, Fair Trials’ Global CEO Norman L. Reimer and Executive Director of Fair and Just Prosecution, Miriam Aroni Krinsky explain why youth interrogation needs to be urgently reformed. 

You can also join us at a webinar on the same subject, which will take place today (9 March) at 12:00 PST / 15:00 EST / 20:00 GMT.