Blog
Hold Your District Attorney Accountable During COVID-19
Prisons are now more dangerous than ever, with little to no ways to protect those incarcerated from COVID-19. We are asking our friends and supporters to get in touch with your District Attorney, via email, phone, and social media and demand the release of caged...
Emancipate NC Files Suit to Release Incarcerated People During COVID-19 Crisis
Emancipate NC, along with our allies, filed suit today in the North Carolina Supreme Court. We are demanding the immediate release of hundreds of incarcerated people from the North Carolina prisons. COVID-19 is a crisis inside prisons and jails. We have seen the...
North Carolina is Failing the 418 Children Locked Up in Juvenile Detention
I am sitting here, working from home, listening to the buzz of my full house. During this pandemic, I find this bustle immeasurably comforting, but it also reminds me that there are mothers in my state who do not have full houses because they have a child in a North...
Twitter Storm to Reduce Incarceration: March 30, 2020
Emancipate NC is partnering with Forward Justice for virtual action on Twitter. It's time to turn up the pressure on Governor Cooper. Today at 3pm EST we're calling on him to act NOW. Use the Twitter Storm toolkit below to take action! Topic: Incarceration...
The COVID-19 Crisis Demands the Decarceration of North Carolina
This week, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Emancipate NC’s advocacy work has been thrust into a virtual mode. We have come together in Zoom meetings and conference calls with allies in all parts of the state to make strong demands to our officials to keep our...
Women AdvaNCe names Dawn Blagrove, a Woman to Watch!
by Nicki Faircloth, Women AdvaNCe Women AdvaNCe has named Dawn Blagrove, the Executive Director of Emancipate NC as a Woman to Watch! Dawn is an attorney and attended Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) and North Carolina Central School of Law (woot...
Wilson Gathering Inspires Community to Take Action Against the School-to-Prison Pipeline
On Thursday, January 23, 2020, over 100 residents gathered at Wilson Community College to learn more about the school to prison pipeline in Wilson County, including strategies for better supporting youth of color. The event was entitled “Juvenile Injustice: Pathways...
Executive Director Dawn Blagrove Wins 2020 King Leader Award
At Emancipate NC, we are thrilled to announce that our Executive Director, Dawn Blagrove, has received the 2020 King Leader Award from the Triangle Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee. Below is her winning personal essay, reflecting on how we must, as Dr. Martin Luther...
Our Growing Evolution to EmancipateNC
by Dawn Blagrove, Executive Director The American system of criminal justice is irreparably broken. There is no way to reform a system that cannibalizes the souls of all who have the misfortune to be touched by it. Those two simple truths led Carolina Justice Police...
Can the Taxpayers of Raleigh (or Any Municipality) Afford NOT to Have a Police Oversight Board?
The City of Raleigh is facing another lawsuit because it refuses to take the issue of police accountability seriously. According to WRAL, a 26-year-old woman claims that she was inappropriately touched by RPD officer K.E. Van Althius. A retired police officer who...
Citations Instead of Arrests Lower Wilson County Incarceration Rate
(Read full story from the Public News Service) Police officers in Wilson County are taking steps to reduce the region's high incarceration rate by issuing citations to people for nonviolent misdemeanors, rather than arresting them. Criminal-justice reform advocates...
Emancipate NC Says Law Enforcement Brutalizing Citizens Can Never Be Justified
Emancipate NC, a project of Carolina Justice Policy Center (CJPC), is a statewide criminal justice policy center. In reviewing the cell phone footage of the incident involving 18 year old girl, T’Ziah Kelly, we cannot find any justifiable reason for the level of...
More State-Level Progress Needed to Effectively Address Durham Rise in Gun Violence
By Wyatt Russell, CJPC Fellow On Friday September 13, CJPC fellow Wyatt Russell attended the Crime Cabinet in the Durham County Commission Chambers, and submitted the following reflection. This quarter’s Durham Crime Cabinet showed both progress and a lack thereof....
Police Accountability Scorecard for Raleigh City Elections
ACLU of NC, in partnership with the Carolina Justice Policy Center, North Carolina Asian Americans Together, Raleigh PACT, and El Pueblo, recently researched and released a candidate scorecard of the city of Raleigh officials about their positions on police...
A Black Mother’s Worst Fears
By Attorney Dawn Blagrove, CJPC Executive Director Most Mothers never stop wanting to protect their children from harm. For mothers of Black sons, two of the most dreaded harms are getting sent to prison and dying. With today's plague of mass incarceration across the...