Meg Anderson
Meg Anderson is a reporter on NPR's National Desk covering criminal justice. Before that, she was a reporter and producer on NPR's Investigations team, where she reported on delays in medical care within the federal Bureau of Prisons, the failures of the Department of Justice to release at-risk prisoners to safer settings during the pandemic, and the award-winning series Heat and Health in American Cities, which illustrated how low-income neighborhoods nationwide are often hotter in temperature than their wealthier counterparts. Additionally, she served as a producer for the team, including on the Peabody Award-winning series Lost Mothers, which investigated the high rate of maternal mortality in the United States. She has also reported for NPR's politics and education desks, and for WAMU, the local Member station in Washington, D.C. She is based in the Midwest. [Copyright 2025 NPR]
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As President Trump ramps up deportations, ICE agents have been seen not just at immigration courts, but at criminal courts, too. Defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges fear a chilling effect on criminal proceedings. -
President Trump has ordered federal law enforcement agencies to begin policing the streets of Washington, D.C., citing crime in the city. -
Bail Funds — where community members donate money to help others post bail — exploded in popularity after the 2020 protests against police brutality. Since then, they've faced political blowback, and a wave of legislation working to restrict them. -
DOGE staffers have been working on changes at the ATF that would roll back dozens of gun restrictions. The DOJ wants to downsize the agency — a move some fear will hinder criminal investigations. -
Homicides are falling dramatically in many U.S. cities, after a surge in 2020 and 2021. Analysts say a reinvestment in communities from local government after the pandemic's disruption is a key reason. -
Vance Boelter was captured in a wooded area on Sunday night, and charged in the shootings of two state lawmakers and their spouses. He appeared in federal court after being charged with murder. -
A former Minnesota House speaker and her husband were killed and a state senator and his wife were wounded in targeted shootings Saturday at their homes near Minneapolis, officials said. -
The number of people in ICE detention has grown, and detention facilities are over capacity. So the government is intensifying its hunt for more space, and local police are playing a bigger role. -
A new report tries to capture the true cost of incarceration to families of people behind bars. It found it costs them around $350 billion every year — almost four times the government's estimate for the cost of incarceration. -
Five years after George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer, the future of the intersection where it happened is uncertain. Today, a memorial is set up in the partially blocked street. But some want to move on. How does a community reckon with its past and confront its future?
