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Families bear the costs of alternative sentencing programs

Apr 12, 2019
Does alternative sentencing create a system of easily exploited free labor?
Judge John Kilgore presides over drug court at the Wise County Courthouse in Virginia.
Ben Hethcoat/Marketplace

As jail costs pile up, one county is taking a new approach to community service

Apr 11, 2019
The opioid epidemic is filling jails. Wise County, Virginia, is looking for alternatives.
Mitzi Bowen, 44, of Wise, Virginia, cleans up after a resident moved out of the Commonwealth Apartments on Dec. 7, 2018. Bowen said she became addicted to opioids after her dentist prescribed Lortabs for tooth pain. "One day I woke up and I couldn't feel good without the pills," she said.
Julia Rendleman/Marketplace

Full interview: ProPublica's Julia Angwin on biased sentencing algorithms

May 25, 2016
Looking at the racial bias of algorithms.
An algorithm created by the for-profit company Northpointe to predict future crime was only 61 percent accurate, according to a ProPublica analysis.
ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images