Moiz Syed

Designer @Mozilla • Previously @ProPublica, @TheIntercept, @Wikimedia • he/him • @moiz.bsky.social • @[email protected]

[Marshall Project Guild @TMPGuild]

🚨Today, we sent a letter to @marshallproj leadership expressing concern about their denial of bargaining obligations. Management has repeatedly denied members Weingarten rights, engaged in an illegal layoff, and more — we need your help to demand that they bargain in good faith.

[Anna Flagg @AnnaFlagg]

@IlicaMahajan @ASankin @celinafang And all my thanks to the wonderful @Justice4EvanLee

[Anna Flagg @AnnaFlagg]

Thanks my fearless reporting partners @IlicaMahajan & @ASankin for all their work in the last year. Thanks Rahim Fortune for incredible photos, @celinafang for inspired art direction & Josie Norton for beautiful illos. Get in touch to share your thoughts about deaths in custody.

[Anna Flagg @AnnaFlagg]

Read Jacilet and Evan's story here: https://t.co/pRR75w8fX2

[Anna Flagg @AnnaFlagg]

The official failure to adequately track these deaths puts enormous burdens on families. Jacilet Griffin's son Evan Lee died in a Texas jail in 2022; ever since, she's been a warrior for her family and others facing grief and lack of answers after a loved one's death behind bars.

[Anna Flagg @AnnaFlagg]

Interviews with dozens of people from the Justice Department, law enforcement, Congress, research groups and advocacy showed that the federal government has simply never prioritized the DCRA law enough to build a workable system to track deaths in custody.

[Anna Flagg @AnnaFlagg]

One of the law's requirements is to use the data to prevent future deaths in custody. But 1 in 6 of the records didn't include manner of death.

How can you figure out how to reduce deaths if you don't know how people are dying?

More here @hereandnow: https://t.co/dd1hqtXbQI

[Anna Flagg @AnnaFlagg]

We found hundreds of people who died in custody but weren't listed in the official data. The overwhelming majority of records didn't meet the Justice Department's standards for accuracy and completeness. Still, the DOJ has never once penalized a state for poor reporting.

[Anna Flagg @AnnaFlagg]

One example of the problems plaguing the government's tracking of deaths in custody: an inadvertently leaked federal dataset showed that George Floyd's death—one of the most well-known cases of police use of force—is not called police use of force in the official records.

[Anna Flagg @AnnaFlagg]

In 2000 the Death in Custody Reporting Act passed, requiring the DOJ to track deaths in prisons, jails & police interactions.

Why, 25 years later, does the U.S. government still not know how many people are dying in custody?

*New @MarshallProj report*: https://t.co/NWm3PYJtmR

[ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild]

Today, we issued a letter — signed by 70% of our unit — to @SteveEngelberg and @RobinSparkman91 asking them to uphold ProPublica’s values of fairness, transparency and accountability at the bargaining table.

[queeralamode @queeralamode]

Never forget how Oprah helped sell the Iraq War to the public: