“They don’t even try to fix the problem, they just look for a reason to deny it.” A 1996 law requires federal prisoners to complete a grievance process administered by the Bureau of Prisons before being able to file a lawsuit challenging poor medical care or other violations of their rights. But the process is so complicated and rife with pitfalls that, as of the most recent data available, BOP staff only grant about 2% of the grievances they receive. In collaboration with NPR’s Joseph Shapiro and The Montgomery Advertiser, TMP’s Christie Thompson, Ilica Mahajan and Anna Flagg have the first in a series of reports about a bureaucratic system that evidence shows rejects even valid requests for help. The Marshall Project

“The moral justification I had no longer exists.” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday called on state lawmakers to end capital punishment in the state. DeWine has stayed every scheduled execution in the state since January 2019. There are 109 people on the state’s death row. Statehouse News Bureau “I no longer believe the death penalty is a deterrent to murder,” said DeWine, 79. The Associated Press Abolition of capital punishment in the state is still very much a long shot despite DeWine’s support. Many of DeWine’s Republican colleagues in the state legislature say they vigorously support capital punishment. Cleveland.com TMP Context from 2015: Pennsylvania chooses a death penalty moratorium. The Marshall Project

Immigration nation. In West Texas’ Big Bend region, longtime property owners aren’t happy with the Trump administration’s threats to seize their land via eminent domain to construct a border wall. The Texas Tribune A new poll suggests that most Asian American and Pacific Islanders say the U.S. is no longer welcoming of immigrants. Many of those people surveyed say they have changed their routines or travel plans out of fear of federal immigration enforcement operations. The Associated Press A listening session hosted by Rep. Ayanna Pressley in Massachusetts draws people whose lives have been upended by the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies. The Boston Globe

Autocracy watch. Are you a billionaire facing federal fraud charges by the Justice Department? Try getting Boris Epshteyn, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, on your side. It appears to have helped Gautam Adani. Federal prosecutors asked a judge last month to drop the case against him. The Wall Street Journal Trump administration officials say that the White House’s plan to create a $1.8 billion slush fund for Capitol rioters and other MAGA allies is dead. But there are still hundreds of compensation claims pending from Jan. 6 insurrections seeking taxpayer dollars. Bloomberg California Gov. Gavin Newsom says that federal agents are investigating his friends, associates and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The New York Times

Will Trump pardon Sam Bankman-Fried? He is serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison for cryptocurrency fraud. He’s been critical of the Justice Department and its pretrial detention methods while remaining unrepentant about his crimes. Behind bars, Bankman-Fried has been busy with a multitude of tasks, including a serialized prison memoir he’s been writing for the past two years. Last week, a federal appeals court rejected his primary appeal. Will Trump add him to the list of pardoned white-collar criminals? “The ex-Democrat has few identifiable allies left in politics or the crypto industry and no organic connection to the MAGA movement,” writes Simon van Zuylen-Wood in this long and largely sympathetic profile. New York Magazine

The Justice Department indicts more alleged anti-ICE protesters. Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced they have charged 15 Minnesota residents with conspiracy for alleged interference with ICE activities during the immigration enforcement surge in the city earlier this year. Minnesota Reformer Federal prosecutors have already dropped 18 of the 36 cases they brought against protesters and others in December and January. MPR News Over 3,500 people were detained during Operation Metro Surge. Many ended up in immigrant detention facilities and were then deported to Mexico or Ecuador. Minnesota Reformer

A federal judge in Idaho on Tuesday struck down the state’s anti-transgender law that criminalizes the use of certain bathrooms if they don’t match a person’s sex at birth. The New York Times The law, set to go into effect on July 1, and one of the most restrictive in the nation, is unconstitutionally vague, the judge ruled. Idaho Statesman

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request by Alabama prosecutors to revive a 2021 capital conviction and death sentence against Michael Powell. The justices let stand a state appeals court ruling that concluded a prosecutor’s remark about Powell’s choice not to testify at trial violated his constitutional rights. WBRC Related: Read the dissent by Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. U.S. Supreme Court

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others in his administration have pressured local officials to sign onto cooperation agreements with federal immigration agencies. In Fort Myers, for example, city councilors received a threatening letter from the state’s attorney general after the council deadlocked on a resolution to enter into such an agreement. Mother Jones More: Four siblings, all U.S. citizens and all under 22, are caring for themselves in Florida after both of their parents were seized and detained by federal immigration agents. Mother Jones

A grand jury in Kentucky indicted a former Louisville police officer on manslaughter and reckless homicide charges for fatally shooting a man last month. Nathan Stotts fired a single shot at Martin Nitzken Jr. “Sometimes we have to make decisions to take people’s lives, and this was not one of them,” said Louisville police Chief Paul Humphrey. The Associated Press

Motive plus opportunity: It is (still) far more likely than not that Jeffrey Epstein took his own life in a federal jail in Manhattan. “The picture drawn most clearly by this new information is not the elaborate conspiracy that his murder would have required; rather, it is an unfortunate though not improbable convergence of longstanding institutional failures, human errors and chance events, which created an opportunity for Epstein to act on what was by then a well-established desire that he had already tried and failed to realize.” The New York Times

“I’d say good luck to the Feds in getting a Minneapolis jury to convict on these kinds of charges. But even acquittals leave defendants saddled with crippling legal debt and stress to families, marriages, children and more.” Federal prosecutors won’t say if agents were harmed by the anti-ICE protesters indicted in Minnesota on Tuesday. Talking Points Memo

A federal appeals court is protecting Justice Department lawyers from contempt of court sanctions for no good reason. Reminding people “of just how extraordinary and alarming DOJ’s efforts to circumvent Chief Judge Boasberg’s injunction were, and to explain how the majority of the recent D.C. panel went astray with respect to both of the two primary legal issues raised in the mandamus stage of the proceedings.” Just Security

Social media is both the cause of “teen takeovers” in U.S. cities and the online outrage that often follows them. The Economist More: Chicago officials scramble to come up with a safe response to teen takeovers as summer heats up. Chicago Tribune

“It’s not often that the right thing is also the most cost effective thing to do — but this is one of those times.” Expanding compassionate release from Massachusetts prisons isn’t just a humane and decent policy. It’s also a cost-saving measure. The Boston Globe

“You used the songs to keep time. It took your mind off what you were doing.” Here’s an appreciation of “Forty-Four Hammers,” a prison labor song, as we approach the Juneteenth holiday. The evocative song is part of a 1964 album called “Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons.” It was recorded by researcher Bruce Jackson at the Retrieve State Prison Farm near Galveston, the birthplace of Juneteenth. When Jackson recorded the album, there were roughly 12,000 prisoners across the state. Now there are more than 130,000. TMP’s Maurice Chammah highlights the song in the latest edition of “Redemption Songs,” our limited-run newsletter featuring music produced or performed behind bars. The Marshall Project

A preview of coming attractions. The U.S. Supreme Court this week agreed to hear a case at the heart of one of the Trump administration’s most aggressive immigrant detention policies. Courthouse News Service The justices are expected to decide whether longtime permanent residents who are locked away in ICE facilities for “prolonged” periods are eventually entitled to due process rights, including a bond hearing before an immigration judge. The justices could also conclude that the case is moot because the two detainees who brought it have already been deported or freed. Politico

Deliberate indifference in an Oklahoma jail. A federal jury in Oklahoma last week convicted a former Garvin County jail deputy of violating the civil rights of a pretrial detainee who died in custody. Paula Kelley was deliberately indifferent to the medical needs of Kayla Turley, a jury found. Kelley faces the possibility of a life sentence, but no sentencing date has been set. News9 Related: How the feds announced the news. Justice Department

Self-defense and a bystander. Matthew Alder faces a manslaughter charge in Utah for killing a man during a “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City last June. He also faces a civil lawsuit brought by the family of the victim in the case, Afa Ah Loo. The central question in the case is whether Alder can be convicted or held liable for what he considers an act of self-defense — firing his gun during a crowded protest — that killed an innocent bystander. The New York Times

The Trump administration acknowledges the grave risk of loosening gun regulations but continues to loosen them anyway. From a federal rule made public in April that seeks to relax gun restrictions: “This risk may be minimal, or may be considerably greater (up to and including potential mass casualty events), based upon the strength of state and federal processes regarding guardianship and involuntary commitment.” The Washington Post

Introducing Nova, an AI assistant for incarcerated people. The programmer who created it did so to honor his incarcerated father in the hope of giving prisoners a resource that can help them behind bars and prepare them for life after they are released. Prison Journalism Project