The Wren Collective
Reimagining the Way Our Country Approaches the Criminal Legal System
The Wren Collective works to transform America’s approach to public safety, expose the weaponization of the legal system, and ensure every person has the chance to participate in civic society. For too long, those with power have exploited the criminal legal system to take away the rights of marginalized communities, people of color, immigrants, and increasingly, their political opponents.
Wren pushes for a world where everyone—not just those with money and power—can live healthy, safe, and dignified lives.
Read Our Recent Publications
Gideon Turns 60: How the Cuyahoga County Jail Stifles the Right to Counsel
In “Gideon at Sixty: How the Cuyahoga County Jail Stifles the Right to Counsel,” Wren investigated the state of visitation at Cuyahoga County Jail. Wren recommends that the Cuyahoga County Jail…
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Trump’s Evergrowing Deportation Network
The Trump administration’s war on immigration and immigrants is escalating and expanding. Just this morning, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan, alleging that she…
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Creating the Conditions for Violence
To change things up, we are starting with good news. Over the last several months in Louisiana, Governor Jeff Landry spent significant political capital trying to ram through four constitutional…
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The Shrinking Frontier: Attacks on the First Amendment
There was nothing normal about Trump’s remarks at the Department of Justice a week ago. Not the venue–most other presidents before Trump have deliberately maintained a firewall between the agency…
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Courts Under Fire, Judges on the Line: Right-Wing Attacks on the Judiciary
Starting with President Trump’s reelection last fall, we have witnessed an alarming escalation in rhetoric and action against the judicial branch at both the federal and state levels. From the…
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State Sovereignty Under Siege
For decades, conservatives championed the idea that power should remain with states and local governments. But Trump’s latest actions tell a different story: one where the federal government overrides local…
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The Resurgence of the Death Penalty
As recently as last year, the death penalty was in serious decline in the United States. Federal and state executions were at an all time low and public support for…
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In A Democracy, Dissent Is Not Terrorism
In this newsletter, we explore how the Trump administration and state leaders are criminalizing dissent by weaponizing the DOJ, ICE, and other law enforcement tools at their disposal. We highlight…
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The President’s Plan to Lock Everyone Up
Normally, our newsletters explore how states function as laboratories for authoritarian forms of government and the federal government’s utilization of those ideas in its own power grab. Today, we take…
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