Udi Ofer

Insinuating that US aid for weapons in Israel is preventing health care at home is wrong. I don't want American money to be used to violate human rights. That's an argument that I respect and support. I don't respect arguments that make up false comparisons www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

SCOTUS rejects Trump policy restricting treatment for transgender prisoners. If the policy had gone into effect, the only treatment transgender people would have been able to receive in prison would be mental health services and antidepressants. www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...

It's become a ritual at this point. Israel Central Elections Committee tries to ban Arab parties from running in election, claiming they incite racism against Jews, and the Israeli Supreme Court rejects the ban www.timesofisrael.com/supreme-cour...

In 2026, states passed 425 criminal justice reform & immigration laws across 45 states and DC, including 76 laws on reentry, 52 on sentencing reform, 54 on law enforcement accountability. The movement remains bipartisan: Republican and Democratic states passed reforms www.vera.org/state-level-...

It’s a record for a midterm in Georgia: roughly 185,000 people voted in person today, on Day 1 of early voting. The prior record was set in 2022, with roughly 130,000 voters.

How can we treat people with dignity when they’re alive when we can’t even treat them with dignity when they are dead? crimjj.wordpress.com/2026/10/08/t...

Thank you, 60 Minutes, for giving attention to this important issue:

All too often, when someone dies in prison, jail or immigration detention, their body is disrespected. How can we treat people with dignity when they're alive when we can't even treat them with dignity when they are dead? www.themarshallproject.org/2026/10/08/d...

Thank you to @reason.com for covering the data I collected with my students showing that between 2021 and 2025, states passed at least 654 criminal justice reform laws. The number of reform laws passed actually increased in 2025, the first year of Pres Trump's second term reason.com/2026/10/07/i...

Thank you to @themarshallproject.org for covering our new report analyzing policies that dictate what happens after someone dies in prison in all 50 states, 3 federal agencies, and 6 U.S. jurisdictions. Our findings? Dignity of the dead often disrespected www.themarshallproject.org/2026/10/08/d...

I got to chat about the state of criminal justice policy reform in the run up to the 2026 midterm elections with the folks on Drugs on the Docket. Check it out: youtube.com/shorts/r9ovg...

Christa Pike should not face execution in the first place, let alone be tortured by surviving two doses of lethal injection last night. After failing to kill her, Tennessee sent Pike to a hospital for medical care. This is TN's second botched execution this year. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/u...

It is absolutely right of Congres Members to support a measure to ensure that recipients of U.S. taxpayer dollars act in line with human rights. This should be done with Israel and with every nation that receives U.S. taxpayer dollars. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/u...

The Nation highlights the Princeton Policy Advocacy Clinic, led by P•LAW affiliated scholar Udi Ofer, where students work with the UN on key human-rights issues in the United States. @uofer.bsky.social @princeton.edu @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/worl... #PLAW #LawatPrinceton

The federal Bureau of Prisons just established an office dedicated to implementing the bipartisan First Step Act, which passed in 2018 and which has already led to thousands of people facing less incarceration. This office will ensure the Act is implemented the right way www.bop.gov/news/pdfs/09...

Thank you to The Nation for profiling the work of my @princeton.edu Policy Advocacy Clinic. As I say in it, "human rights principles do not implement themselves," which is why we're educating next generation of policy advocates to tackle world's biggest challenges www.thenation.com/article/worl...

Violent crime rate today, lowest since 1968:

2023, 2024 and 2025 were all historic in terms of declining crime and 2026 is looking like it will be another historic year. Last year, murder fell at the fastest pace ever recorded to the lowest rate recorded since the FBI started its modern estimates. jasher.substack.com/p/summarizin...

More evidence of a Department of Homeland Security that is surveilling and investigating Americans engaged in First Amendment protected activities, including going after labor unions and nonprofits without any evidence of criminal wrongdoing. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/u...

Lebanon's parliament has voted to abolish the death penalty, making it the first country in the Middle East to formally end it. Tuesday's vote follows 2 decades of a de facto moratorium on executions. Contrast this to the US, where 27 states still allow the death penalty www.bbc.com/news/article...

ICYMI, an FBI report released earlier this year found that 27.5% of all violent crimes in the United States involve domestic relationships. In some states, it's even higher. We will never address violent crime in the US without addressing the problem of domestic violence www.fbi.gov/news/press-r...

Bombshell report from the Wall Street Journal: DHS has been tracking down Americans at work and on the road who are critical of immigration policies, spending millions on contractors to surveil First Amendment protected speech and create political dossiers. Outrageous. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Up to one-fifth of prisoners in Italy may be released to serve their sentences at home while undergoing rehab programs due to new law that allows the release of prisoners with drug and alcohol addictions. www.thenews.pk/print/142911...

Crime in US cities continues to fall dramatically. Homicide is down 51% in the first half of 2026 than the first half of 2022, carjacking down 73% vs. 2023, residential burglary down 56% vs. 2018, and motor vehicle theft down 51% vs. 2023. counciloncj.org/crime-trends...

Until recently, no state other than Alabama sent more young people to adult court, per capita, than Maryland, where children as young as 14 years-old have been automatically charged as adults. Now that has changed www.sentencingproject.org/press-releas...

Really big news out of Ohio today, as Republican Governor Mike DeWine comes out against the death penalty. Ohio has 30 executions scheduled over the next four years. This announcement comes at a time when the death penalty has its lowest support recorded in decades, at 52% apnews.com/article/deat...

Record low number of people find the death penalty to be morally acceptable. Annual Gallup poll finds 52% of Americans believe the death penalty is acceptable, down from 71% in 2006. news.gallup.com/poll/710981/...

Great new report by @micheledeitch.bsky.social on the problem of sleep deprivation in prison. Many of the conditions that undermine restorative sleep are not inevitable features of incarceration, but operational and policy choices that can be changed. lbj.utexas.edu/new-report-e...

Big news out of Israel: Yesterday, Israel's Supreme Court, in petition by @acrionline.bsky.social, found state's ban on visits by the International Committee of Red Cross to Palestinian security detainees had no basis. Court ordered resumption of ICRC visits: www.english.acri.org.il/post/repeal-...

Following the horrible school shooting in Uvalde, Texas passed a law requiring at least one cop at each public school. The result? Like in school districts across the country, police end up using force and arrests to enforce school discipline interactive-server.newsdev.nytimes.com/share/36804c...

Fantastic story about incarcerated people in New Jersey & the Inmate Legal Association, which is comprised of jailhouse lawyers representing their neighbors in prison. @prisonjournalism.bsky.social is doing great work to bring to life the stories of people in prison. Highly recommend following them

Dehumanization in prison leads to preposterous rules such as limiting toilet flushing to every 5 minutes. The result? People unable to flush their waste and the smell of feces filling prison spaces. Pennsylvania needs to change this policy. prisonjournalismproject.org/2026/05/14/a...

Judges have ruled against ICE mandatory detention practices in roughly 90 percent of cases since the agency mandated that millions of immigrants must be locked up while they face deportation proceedings. And ICE routinely defies these court orders. www.politico.com/news/2026/05...

Powerful piece by @nycpublic.bsky.social on the impact of deportations on US citizen children and others. "Even her college fund was gone, used to pay for her mother’s legal defense. The future Garcia so clearly envisioned...was derailed as soon as ICE detained her mother" www.nj.com/education/20...

The number of daily immigration arrests have dropped by nearly 40% from December to March, and immigration detention is also down. So now Trump is facing pressure from some in his base to increase mass deportations. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

The term "criminal justice reform" is politically loaded. Nationally, many efforts have halted. But that's just one of many places where new strategies can emerge. In @justsecurity.org, @uofer.bsky.social tracks recent state reforms, from eliminating court fees to adding second look legislation.

Important new report from @sentencingproject.bsky.social on reentry, based on interviews with 33 people who returned home after long-term imprisonment, having been locked away from 20 to 43 years, and after being home for as little as 3 months up to roughly 3.5 years at the time of their interview:

My article on how declarations of the death of criminal justice reform are wrong. In 2025 alone, 35 states passed 115 cj reform laws but got no national media attention. Organizations on left & right continue to work together. We're in quiet phase of the movement www.justsecurity.org/131987/crimi...

As a young lawyer post-9/11, my first exposure to bipartisanship was in the fight against needlessly sacrificing civil liberties in the name of national security. Left and right worked together to try to reform the USA PATRIOT Act. Similar fight now brewing on 702: www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Crime, violence, and drug use are now among the lower-ranked concerns of Americans: news.gallup.com/poll/707732/...

"The movement for criminal justice reform has not disappeared. It has adapted—and it now lives, principally, in the states,” writes P•LAW affiliated scholar Udi Ofer (@uofer.bsky.social) for Just Security. www.justsecurity.org/131987/crimi... #PLAW #LawatPrinceton

The data on criminal justice reform tell a surprising story, writes @uofer.bsky.social Despite federal rollbacks and a renewed punitive agenda, states have continued to advance incremental reforms and on a bipartisan basis. www.justsecurity.org/131987/crimi...

Yeah, I've been making the federalism point for a year, including the fact that we have about 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the US, and the president has no control over about 17,900 of them.

Wall Street Journal reports on Trump's attacks on free speech: Protesters and observers taken into custody by federal agents were declared terrorists in hundreds of social-media posts by U.S. officials and departments since the start of the immigration sweeps in cities www.wsj.com/us-news/immi...

An estimated 1 in 3 adults in Rhode Island has an arrest or conviction record. Under proposed Clean Slate Act, approximately 77,000 Rhode Islanders could become eligible to have their records fully sealed, all part of nationwide Clean Slate movement www.cleanslateinitiative.org/updates/clea...

Mississippi said he died of a heart attack in prison. But now, the FBI is investigating the 2025 death of Melvin Cancer at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility as a homicide, and the guards as the alleged perpetrators. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/02/24/m...

“When Liu, 20, decided to return to skating, she did so with conditions. She’d wear what she wants. Dance to the music she wants. Eat what she wants. Take breaks when she wants…. [Skating] would be the vehicle through which she displayed the real Alysa.” she did it! her! way!!

Associate Deputy AG Jordan Fox acknowledges violating court orders issued by NJ's federal judges more than 50 times, in stark contrast with previous statements from the Justice Department and ICE that have blamed “rogue judges” for the administration’s noncompliance www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

More than 7,000 protesters were killed over three weeks of protests in Iran last month — the vast majority of them from Jan. 8-10. Mourners plan to gather today at cemeteries where their loved ones are buried. It's infuriating that this is not getting more attention www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/w...

Hundreds of judges around the country have ruled more than a whopping 4,400 times, since October alone, that President Donald Trump’s administration is detaining immigrants unlawfully: www.reuters.com/legal/govern...