By Kayla Richards I have been thinking a lot lately about good and bad, about harm and repair. About mutuality and forgiveness. About contradiction. Recently, my dear friend Zeke Caligiuri introduced me to a poem by the Greek poet C.P. Cavafy called Waiting for the Barbarians. In it, a whole civilization organizes itself, its laws, its ceremonies, its power, around the threat of the barbarians at the gates. The senators stop legislating. The emperor puts on his finest crown.

Each legislative session, we at the Minnesota Justice Research Center push for policies that reflect Minnesotans' priorities for public safety, community wellbeing, and justice. As this year's session begins, we are excited to share brand new, statewide data that reveals exactly what we knew to be true: Most Minnesotans, across political lines, want to see major changes or a complete overhaul to our criminal legal system. It also gives us helpful insight about perceptions of

The MNJRC is staying on top of the federal government's ICE operation known as Operation Metro Surge. This weaponization of our criminal legal system has put Minnesotans in danger and undermined public safety. We are providing guidance to public officials on how to navigate this operation with transparency and breaking down threats to justice in short videos for community members. Video Series January - March 2026 | Viewable on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn Blog and

Today, May 25, marks five years since former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, whose cries for breath and calls to his mother shook the world. It has been five years since our city rose in response, demanding acknowledgement of the rampant racism in our law enforcement and the need for a reckoning with the violence carried out by police against the Black community. As the movement quickly spread across the U.S. and globally, the world had a quest

On Thursday, May 8th, the Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC) hosted a powerful event alongside We Are All Criminals at the Weisman Art Museum titled "Let's Talk About Minnesota's Crumbling Prisons: A Community Conversation." At this event, we convened over 80 community members for a conversation about the viability of the century-old Minnesota Correctional Facilities in Stillwater and St. Cloud. After folks had a chance to walk through the powerful SEEN exhibit on carc

By Justin Terrell, MNJRC Executive Director On Monday, January 15th, 2024 the country celebrated the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on his birthday. Justin Terrell, MNJRC's Executive Director, had the privilege of joining the Rochester Minnesota NAACP as their keynote speaker for a day full of events. The following blog post includes his remarks from the day. As we reflect on Dr. King's legacy in 2024, I want to speak to what we all know is true: That our country has been