Published articles, essays, and reports
An abridged list with links when available.
Reports are listed below, and also gathered separately here.
December 22, 2025 – Katal Center blog, Katal’s 2025 stewardship and impact letter
November 2025, Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College and Katal Center, Rikers Island and Mental Health: Pathways Toward Community-Based Diversion and Jail Population Reduction, coauthored with Michael Rempel, Krystal Rodriguez, Kellyann Bock, Yonah Zeitz, and Melanie Dominguez
May 29, 2025 – New York Amsterdam News, “With Rikers Island, Eric Adams Has Made a Bad Situation Worse,” cross-published on the Katal Center blog
February 28, 2025 – Katal Center blog, “Action Makes the Heart Grow Stronger: No Kings, No Nazis, No Oligarchs: Coming Together to Fight Back,” coauthored with Lorenzo Jones
February 3, 2025 – Katal Center blog, “This is Not Normal: It’s Time for Action,” coauthored with Lorenzo Jones
December 17, 2024 – Katal Center blog, Katal’s annual stewardship letter, coauthored with Lorenzo Jones
December 3, 2024 – Katal Center blog, “25 Fun or Otherwise Lesser-Known Facts to Mark the 25th Anniversary of the WTO Protests in Seattle” (PDF version)
November 27, 2024 – Katal Center blog, “25 Years Since ‘Battle In Seattle’ ”
September 20, 2024 – Katal Center blog, “Whose Story of Seattle? A Protest History Misses the Point” (PDF version), a book review and response to One Week to Change the World: An Oral History of the 1999 WTO Protests by D.W. Gibson (Simon & Schuster, 2024)
July 2024 – Josh MacPhee and the Katal Center, Shut Rikers: A Brief History of Political Graphics in 15 Stickers, introduction coauthored with Melanie Dominguez, Ricky Forde, Lakenya Smith, and Yonah Zeitz
July 2, 2024 – Queens Daily Eagle, “Opinion: Jeffrion Aubry, a Champion for Justice in New York, Leaves a Remarkable Legacy.” (Read the unabridged version on the Katal Center blog.)
June 6, 2024 – Amsterdam News, “Op-ed: Mayor Adams Talks About Closing Rikers While Working to Keep It Open”
February 15, 2024 – Katal Center blog, “Rest in Power Joseph ‘Jazz’ Hayden”
January 8, 2024 – Katal Center blog, Katal’s 2023 stewardship letter, coauthored with Lorenzo Jones
September 28, 2023 – Medium, “Rikers must be shut down. Until then, a federal receiver may help save lives.”
July 28, 2023 – City & State New York, “Opinion: Eric Adams has failed. It’s time for a federal receiver to take over at Rikers.”
May 2023 – Katal Center and Prison Policy Initiative, Excessive, Unjust, and Expensive: Fixing Connecticut’s Probation and Parole Problems, coauthored with Leah Wang
January 3, 2023 – Katal Center blog, Katal’s 2022 stewardship letter, coauthored with Lorenzo Jones
December 2022 – Katal Center and Unchained, New York’s Less Is More Act: One-Year Anniversary Report, coauthored with Emily NaPier Singletary on behalf of the Less Is More New York coalition
November 17, 2022 – City Limits,“Opinion: Rikers Crisis Demands Federal Receiver”
June 30, 2022 – Medium, “Navigating the Perils of Community Supervision – and Working Together to Make Change,” cross-published on the Katal Center blog
April 12, 2022 – Katal Center blog, “What Are Technical Violations of Probation and Parole?”
March 25, 2022 – Medium, “An Update About Bail Reform in New York,” cross-published on the Katal Center blog
March 14, 2022 – Grantmakers in Health, “Less Criminalization = Better Health + More Justice”
March 2022 – Katal Center and Unchained, New York’s Less Is More Act: A Status Report on Implementation, coauthored with Emily Napier Singletary on behalf of the Less Is More New York coalition
January 27, 2022 – Katal Center blog, “Katal 2021 Wrap-Up and Thank You,” coauthored with Lorenzo Jones
October 29, 2021 – Katal Center blog, “ ‘This Is Your Brain on Racism’: Reflections on the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986”
December 13, 2019 – City Limits, “Opinion: Grassroots Movements Are Needed to End Mass Incarceration,” coauthored with Lorenzo Jones
November 21, 2019 – Katal Center blog, “#ShutDownWTO20: An Organizers’ History of the WTO Shutdown in 1999”
October 16, 2019 – Katal Center blog, “Making Sense of the Fight Over New York City Jails,” republished by the Institute of the Black World 21st Century
May 17, 2019 – Katal Center blog, “Making Sense of Bail Reform in New York (Part 2)”
March 18, 2019 – Katal Center blog, “Making Sense of Bail Reform in New York (Part 1)”
January 2019 – Katal Center, Connecticut Criminal Justice Reform Field Scan, coauthored with Katal staff and interns
February 20, 2018 – “Making Drug Policy Reform Work for Meaningful Decarceration,” a chapter in Decarceration in America: From Mass Punishment to Public Health (The New Press, 2018, ed. Ernest Drucker)
February 2018 – Katal Center, A Guide to Bail Reform in New York,coauthored with Katal staff
January 2018 – Katal Center, Reflections and Lessons from the First Two Phases of the #CLOSErikers Campaign: August 2015 – August 2017, coauthored with Melody Lee and Lorenzo Jones
April 2017 – Albany LEAD Program, Report to Albany on the LEAD Program: One Year Anniversary, coauthored with Keith Brown and Melody Lee
February 26, 2017 – Katal Center blog, “An Update from the Katal Co-Founders About Our First Year,” coauthored with Lorenzo Jones
January 25, 2017 – Katal Center, Summary of Select Reports & Papers on Criminal Justice Reform, coauthored with Alexis Wilson Briggs and Libbie Pattinson
September 15, 2016 – Philanthropy New York, “Funders Should Invest in Health Programs to End Mass Incarceration and the War on Drugs”
April 6, 2016 – Decarceration.org, “The Future of US Drug Policy”
April 1, 2016, HuffPost, “How the City of Albany Is Advancing Smart Criminal Justice Reform”
February 4, 2016, Northend Agent’s (Hartford, CT), “Marking a Transition: Lorenzo Jones Works to Build a National Movement for Health, Equity, and Justice,” cross-published by HuffPost, February 17, 2016
October 30, 2015 – New York Daily News, “Mayor de Blasio’s Diversion Distraction”
June 3, 2015 – HuffPost, “Reform New York: Untangling the Future of Marijuana Policy in the Empire State”
April 10, 2015 – AlterNet, “The Death of Hakeem Kuta: Trying to Make Sense of the Senseless”
April 9, 2015 – HuffPost, “A New Approach That Unwinds the Drug War and Produces Dramatic Reductions in Recidivism”
December 8, 2014 – Truthout, “From Ferguson to Staten Island, Justice and Accountability Are Nowhere in Sight,” cross-published by HuffPost, December 4, 2014
June 23, 2014 – New York Daily News, “Medical Marijuana, Out of Joint,” coauthored with Jules Netherland
February 6, 2014 – BKLYNR, “Arrested Developments: A Drug Policy Reformer on Why the Revived Debate About Marijuana Falls Short”
November 11, 2014 – New York Daily News,“Bratton and de Blasio’s Small Step on Pot”
May 8, 2013 – HuffPost, “40 Years Later: Drug Policy in New York After the Rockefeller Drug Laws”
May 7, 2013 – Albany Times Union, “Overhaul N.Y. Policies on Drugs,” cross-published by the CT Post
May 22, 2013 – AlterNet, “Rally in New York Demands End to Bogus Marijuana Arrests”
May 21, 2013 – HuffPost, “Is Cuomo Still Committed to Fixing New York’s Broken Marijuana Possession Law?
April 14, 2013 – Poughkeepsie Journal, “Marijuana Arrests in NYC: Millions of Hours for Injustice”
March 29, 2013 – The Buffalo News, “Wasting Money on Marijuana Enforcement
March 20, 2013 – HuffPost, “Marijuana Arrests in NYC Cost One Million Police Hours
March 12, 2013 – HuffPost, “New York Legislators and Community Groups Hold Urgent Rally to Reform State’s Broken Marijuana Possession Law”
December 19, 2013 – HuffPost, “What Health Care Reform Could Mean for Drug Policy and Mass Incarceration”
December 18, 2013 – AlterNet, “Healthcare Reform Could Transform Drug Policy and Mass Incarceration”
December 2013 – Drug Policy Alliance and ACLU, Healthcare Not Handcuffs: Putting the Affordable Care Act to Work for Criminal Justice and Drug Policy Reform, coauthored with Chloe Cockburn and Daliah Heller
November 18, 2013 – HuffPost, “Ending the New Jim Crow: Mapping New Drug Policies in NYC”
April 2013 – The New York Academy of Medicine and Drug Policy Alliance, Blueprint for a Public Health and Safety Approach to Drug Policy,coauthored with Ruth Finkelstein, Kassandra Frederique, Simone Marie-Meeks, Jules Netherland, and Tracy Pugh
March 2013 – Drug Policy Alliance and Marijuana Arrest Research Project, One Million Hours: Making 440,000 Marijuana Possession Arrests In New York City, 2002–2012,coauthored with Harry Levine and Loren Siegel
January 9, 2013 – HuffPost, “Gov. Cuomo Calls for Reform: Marijuana Arrests That ‘Stigmatize and Criminalize . . . Must End Now’ ”
January 12, 2013 – The Buffalo News, “Cuomo Proposal Creates More Fairness in Pot Enforcement”
November 15, 2012 – AlterNet, “Jon Bon Jovi’s Teen Daughter Arrested After Heroin Overdose – Why She Shouldn’t Have Been”
November 14, 2012 – HuffPost, “Saving Lives by Calling for Help: Overdose and Bon Jovi’s Daughter
February 4, 2012 – AlterNet, “How the NYPD’s Ongoing Petty Pot Arrest Crusade Hurts the Black and Latino Community”
December 8, 2011 – AlterNet, “Police Commissioner’s Order Was Not Enough: NYPD Continues to Make Thousands of Illegal, Racially Biased Pot Arrests”
July 31, 2011 – Syracuse Post-Standard, “New York’s 911 Good Samaritan Law to Limit Overdose Deaths a National Model”
July 31, 2011 – The Buffalo News, “Law Aims to Reduce the Number of Overdose Deaths”
July 24, 2011 – HuffPost, “Gov. Cuomo Signs Law to Help Reduce Overdose Deaths”
May 13, 2011 – AlterNet, Bi-Partisan Legislation Could Put an End to New York’s Costly Marijuana Arrest Crusade
March 17, 2011 – Cannabis Culture, “The Cost of NYC’s Marijuana Possession Arrests in 2010: $75 Million,” coauthored with Tony Newman
January 1, 2011 – Behavioral Health News, “Assessing Racial Equity Impact in Mental Health Policymaking: Reflections and Recommendations,” coauthored with Mimi Abramovitz, Sandra Bernabei, Carmen Collado, Robert Hawkins, Wayne Ho, Eri J. Kim, Larry Mandell, Jonathan Morgenstern, and Michael Stoller
October 15, 2010 – The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey), “On HBO, the Futility of Prohibitions,” coauthored with Tony Newman
August 5, 2010 – Newsday, “Voters Care About Drug Policies, Not Past Drug Use,” republished by HuffPost, August 16, 2010
July 30, 2010 – The Buffalo News, “Current Drug Policies Have Failed Miserably”
July 30, 2010 – HuffPost, “Smart Solutions to Overdose Can Save Lives,”
July 4, 2010 – HuffPost, “Censored: Ad Criticizing Mayor Bloomberg for Out of Control Marijuana Arrest Policy Is ‘Too Controversial’ ”
April 7, 2010 – The Buffalo News,“911 Bill Rightly Puts Focus on Saving Lives”
April 2, 2010 – Philanthropy New York blog, “The Rockefeller Drug Laws: New Opportunities for Investment with a National Impact”
March 1, 2010 – The Fortune News, “Rockefeller Drug Law Reform: A New Direction for New York and the Nation”
February 1, 2010 – Drug Policy Alliance blog, “After the Rockefeller Drug Laws: A New Direction in New York and the Nation”
January 15, 2010 – AlterNet, “False Claims on Rockefeller Drug Law Reform Lead to Credibility Gap for Prosecutors”
October 9, 2009 – AlterNet, “Change We Can Believe In: NY’s Rockefeller Drug Law Reform Takes Effect”
September 26, 2009 – HuffPost, New York City’s Massive Marijuana Arrests
August 28, 2009 – El Diario, “Detenciones masivas por tenencia de marihuana (“Mass Arrests for Marijuana Possession”)
August 27, 2009 – Cannabis Culture, “New York City’s Massive Marijuana Arrests”
April 9, 2009 – HuffPost, “Dumping the Rockefeller Drug Laws for a New Direction in New York,” coauthored with Russell Simmons
March 6, 2009 – Newsday, “Is It Finally the Moment for Drug Law Reform?”
March 5, 2009 – Syracuse Post-Standard, “No Rockefeller Drug Law Reform in New York Would Be a Real Crime,” coauthored with Tony Papa
March 5, 2009 – AlterNet, “Rockefeller Drug Laws Are a Crime,” coauthored with Tony Papa
March 26, 2009 – Global Grind reprinted “An Open Letter: Rocky Update from Albany”
2009 Winter/Spring 2009 – TwelveTen: The Magazine of the U.S. Human Rights Network, “The Drug War Through a Human Lens,” coauthored with Jasmine Tyler and Vera Leone
December 2, 2008 – AlterNet, “A New Approach to Drugs Would Save New York Hundreds of Millions of Dollars”
November 30, 2008 – Syracuse Post Standard, “A New Tack on Drug Policy Could Save the State Billions”
Fall 2008 – Drug Policy Alliance newsletter The Ally, “Fighting for Voting Rights in Alabama Prisons”
May 15, 2008 – Albany Times Union, “It’s Time to Dump Failed Rockefeller Drug Laws,”
letter to editor
April 8, 2008 – Albany Times Union, “Legislative Changes Can Cut Overdose Deaths”
August 22, 2007 – Albany Times Union, “Justice Reform Should Begin with Drug Laws”
July 29, 2007 – Newsday, “Too Many Marijuana Busts”
May 5, 2007 – AlterNet, “New York Must Reform Its Racist Drug Laws”
April 26, 2007 – Albany Times Union, “Spitzer Must Lead Drug Law Reform”
January 2, 2007 – Albany Times Union, “Put Drug Laws on Day One Docket”
November 21, 2006 – AM New York, “We Need to Reform Rockefeller”
October 1, 2005 – “Letters to Our Parents: Dear Mom,” in Letters from Young Activists (Bold Type Books, 2005, eds. Dan Berger, Chesa Boudin, and Kenyon Farrow)
October 2005 – Justice Strategies, Alabama Prison Crisis: A Justice Strategies Policy Report author of preface to report by Judith Greene and Kevin Pranis
October 1, 2002 – Freedom Road, “Redefining Success: The Whiteness of Politics in the Global Justice Movement”
Fall 2001 – Institute for Anarchist Studies, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, “Anarchism and the Struggle to Move Forward: Building a World of Vision,” coauthored with Kim Fyke
January 1, 2001 – Colours of Resistance, “Redefining Success: White Contradictions in the Anti-Globalization Movement”
May 1, 2000 – WTO Logistics Zine, coeditor and contributor