The Wren Collective
@wrencollective.bsky.social
The Wren Collective works to transform public safety and the legal system to ensure fairness, dignity, and opportunity for all. "Freedom is a pure idea." www.wrencollective.org
New messaging from the Wren Collective's We Are Safety campaign that covers #CORCA, #HR5213 and #HR5625, an extension of the federal weaponization of safety and crime to hide their power grabs and budget cuts. Visit the site: www.wearesafety.info/federal-bill
Read the report from The Wren Collective and UC Berkeley to learn more about the harms of flat fee criminal defense contracts: wrencollective.org/contracted-t...
Contracted to Fail, Part 2: How Flat-Fee Contracts Undermine the Right to Counsel in California - The Wren Collective
New data reveals that California’s public defense caseload crisis is far worse than previously thought–with some lawyers handling 500 to 600 cases a year. This Part 2 report, written with Berkeley Law...
wrencollective.org
CalMatters@calmatters.org · last wk.In 2025, a single lawyer in Kings County represented almost 600 poor people accused of crimes. That figure, which rivals some of the worst public defense caseloads in the nation, does not include the attorney’s private personal injury clients. cal.news/4gYmi3n 📸 Larry Valenzuela
The administration's "war of fraud" is really a war on poor people and people of color. Read today's Wren Collective which explains and contextualizes what's happening: defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com/p/the-real-f...
Essential reading about pervasive injustice in California via flat-fee contracts for criminal defense. Part 2 of The Wren Collective's Contracted to Fail publication with UC Berkeley Ctr for Criminal Law & Justice Read here: wrencollective.org/contracted-t...
How to build justice and safety for our next 250 years-- a two part Wren Collective newsletter Part 1: defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com/p/the-next-2... Part 2: defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com/p/the-next-2...
Thoughts from The Wren Collective's Julia Brown on the intersection of federal immigration detention and deportation policy pushed by the state of TX and the World Cup-- as North TX hosts it Read & subscribe: wrenactiongroup.substack.com/p/the-world-...
The Court just announced its 6-3 holding in Chatrie that a geofence warrrant is a 4thA search-- The Wren Collective newsletter covered this case earlier this year. Read and subscribe: defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com/p/mass-surve...
@beckysilber.bsky.social writes for the Wren Collective substack about seeing the play Fear of 13 - and what she wishes the audience knew.
Good news report: "The death row population in the U.S. has dropped below 2,000 for the first time since the 1980s"
U.S. Death Row Population Drops Below 2,000 for First Time Since 1980s
The death row population in the U.S. has dropped below 2,000 for the first time since the 1980s, according to the latest report on national capital punishment trends released by the civil rights think...
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The connection between Alligator Alcatraz and the Jan 6 rioter slush fund? Brazen corruption-- public policy as a series of $$ giveways to political allies. Read about "Justice for Sale" in today's Wren Collective newsletter: defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com/p/justice-fo...
Exciting news from CA courtesy of @calmatters.org -- The Wren Collective is a proud partner in this critical effort to advance justice in CA through public defense reform #RightToCounsel #sixthamendment #JusticeforAll
Join us next week for this Wren Collective conversation with Dr. John Roman Register here: zoom.us/webinar/regi... 6/18 @ 1pm ET
The Wren Collective's Jay Jenkins writes for TX on Fire about how school police in TX impair student learning and safety. Read and subscribe to TX on Fire: substack.com/home/post/p-... #letkidsbekids #justiceforall #schooltoprisonpipeline #texasonfire
The federal and state attacks on trans rights attack so many critical legal guardrails-- on privacy, liberty and jurisdiction, to name a few. The latest Wren Collective newsletter does a round up of what is happening. Link in comments. #transrights #wrencollective #justiceforall
A plea bargain from the TX AG's office is a reminder of how the TX politician outrage machine and scapegoating on crime only targets some TX prosecutors. Read more in Texas on Fire: wrenactiongroup.substack.com/p/what-we-ca... #texasonfire #communitysafety #criminaljustice
These attacks on the judiciary also undermine core democratic values like judicial independence and the separation of powers. Read the whole essay by Wren Collective executive Jessica Brand on our website from ABA Magazine: wrencollective.org/the-judiciar...
The Judiciary Is Under Attack - The Wren Collective
“Dismantling Democracy: Attacks on the Judiciary” by Jessica Brand, ABA Criminal Justice Magazine, Spring 2026
wrencollective.org
The Davis Vanguard@vanguardnewsgroup.bsky.social · 3mo agoABA warns that political attacks on US judges and courts threaten judicial independence and democratic institutions. These attacks, they argue, aim to intimidate judges, undermine judicial authority, and weaken the system of checks and balances in American gov. davisvanguard.org/2026/05/atta...
Read about how CA policymakers are grappling with the state's public defender workload crisis. This terrific piece by @calmatters.org cites the Wren Collective's research and staff.
The most recent Wren Collective newsletter puts the #scotus #Callais decision in context: part of a broader undoing of 20th century civil rights legislation and policy. read and subscribe here: defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com/p/jim-and-ja...
Great piece in the LAT on last week's important victory in the CA Sup Ct for pretrial reform. The Wren Collective esp appreciates the connection between pretrial reform and needed public defense reform in CA. #publicdefense #justiceforallCA #pretrialreform
Los Angeles Times@latimes.com · 3mo agoContributor: California law limiting bail is clear. Will judges keep ignoring it?
Wren Collective executive director Jessica Brand writes about the "new norm" of state and federal legislative and rhetorical attacks on the judiciary. In ABA's Criminal Justice magazine: www.americanbar.org/groups/crimi...
Join our Wren Collective briefing on FRIDAY, 5/8 @ 1CT/2CT to hear from the Minneapolis DA and City Council President on the FIGHT FOR MINNEAPOLIS: what happened and what is still happening; how they responded and what they've learned. REGISTER HERE: zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Terrific reporting; and in the same week as the Chatrie argument. We at the Wren Collective covered mass surveillance and the evisceration of the 4th Amendment earlier this year. Read on: defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com/p/the-assaul... #flockcameras #ALPRs #masssurveillance
The Assault on Fourth Amendment Protections
A Wren Collective Newsletter
defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com
Candice Bernd@candicequestions.com · 3mo agoI obtained Flock license-plate reader audit logs that show police conducted 117 immigration-related searches of local data from Jan to March. One dept's reason to search: "Obstructing Justice – Suspicious female filming traffic stop & making comments about ICE” www.texasobserver.org/license-plat...
Positive news alert! CA AB 2605 advances to Appropriations. The bill would require counties to report public defender caseload numbers, a significant step in tackling the state's caseload crisis. The Wren Collective full statement here: medium.com/@wrencollect...
Read today's Wren Collective newsletter about the expansion of criminal penalties for voting as part of federal and state efforts to suppress the franchise. Subscribe here: defendingwhatmattersmost.substack.com/p/coordinate...
Candace Mitchell of The Wren Collective writes a post-script to the Afroman case.
Ballad of the Lemon Pound Cake
Once upon a time (because that’s what two weeks ago feels like in this news cycle) we watched a man wrap himself up in an American flag and insist upon his country-given right to make power the butt o...
open.substack.com
In this week’s Wren Collective newsletter we discuss the raft of Islamophobic action coming from the states— it’s dangerous rhetoric and goes well beyond rhetoric. open.substack.com/pub/defendin...
Islamophobia: State and Federal Governments Turning Hate into Policy
A Wren Collective Newsletter
open.substack.com
In this week’s Wren Collective newsletter we discuss the raft of Islamophobic action coming from the states— it’s dangerous rhetoric and goes well beyond rhetoric. open.substack.com/pub/defendin...
Islamophobia: State and Federal Governments Turning Hate into Policy
A Wren Collective Newsletter
open.substack.com
In this week’s Wren Collective newsletter we discuss the raft of Islamophobic action coming from the states— it’s dangerous rhetoric and goes well beyond rhetoric. open.substack.com/pub/defendin...
Islamophobia: State and Federal Governments Turning Hate into Policy
A Wren Collective Newsletter
open.substack.com
Writing for On The Sixth, the Wren Collective’s @ntbaszynski.bsky.social writes about Ohio’s “HB 741—another legislative attempt to reinforce a two-tiered system of justice, where your pretrial freedom is tied to the money in your pocket”
Breaking Down The Bad Bail Bill
New effort underway in Ohio to condition freedom on wealth
open.substack.com
Parole, clemency, second look laws are safety valves to provide mercy and second chances. Today’s Wren Collective newsletter explores how they are underutilized and narrowing. #parole #secondlook #justiceforall
Less Mercy, Less Justice:
The Shrinking Safety Valves in the Criminal Legal System
open.substack.com