Social Justice

The Arizona Supreme Court sided with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a controversial religious rights case brought by the children of a man who admitted to church leaders to sexually assaulting them for years.

Women are a small but growing segment of the state’s prison population, and their needs are distinct. Yet, many of the programs designed to prepare them for release were primarily tailored for men.There are efforts in Arizona aimed at giving incarcerated women a real second chance.

An audit of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has found almost three-quarters of the spending it attributed to complying with a settlement to reduce racial profiling had little to do with that purpose.

Last year, Arizona joined a national program aimed at reducing recidivism rates by 30% by 2030 through job training, education and other support. Still, the barriers for formerly incarcerated people are steep — from finding housing and work to staying sober and rebuilding relationships.

In January of 2018, University of Arizona professor Scott Warren was volunteering in the Southern Arizona desert with humanitarian aid group No More Deaths.

For two hours, students in a Phoenix college class — many studying criminal justice — will try to navigate life after prison. It’s a simulation, but it doesn’t take long to feel real.

State law requires that prosecutors charge 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds as adults if they’re accused of certain violent crimes. In Maricopa County, some of those young people are sent to a therapeutic treatment court run by the judicial branch.

A bill to repeal a state holiday honoring Cesar Chavez passed out of the Arizona Senate with near-unanimous bipartisan support after Democrats fought bitterly — and failed — to rename the holiday in honor of the farmworkers movement, rather than erasing it entirely.

Phoenix leaders have approved wiping the name of Cesar Chavez from city property after a bombshell report on sexual misconduct by the late labor icon.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and ASU President Michael Crow offer there thoughts on when the federal government should get involved in cases of antisemitism at universities.