Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

U.S. Senator from New York

The scourge of sexual violence in the military should be intolerable to all Americans and it's time to bring it to an end once and for all. We must commit ourselves not just to a zero tolerance policy, but we need to get to a point of zero occurrence.

Juan Melendez

Exonerated from death row in 2002

My trial took less than a week. I was sentenced to death. I spent nearly 18 years on death row, a traumatic and heartbreaking time for me and my family. I never stopped fighting for my freedom.

Dana Beyer

Executive Director, Gender Rights Maryland

Anti-trans violence is not going away anytime soon. My last blog post on anti-trans violence touched on issues that deserve far greater consideration than I'm capable of providing in one post, so this time I'm responding to some comments I've received over the past week.

Jonathan Appel

Associate Professor of Psychology and Criminal Justice, Tiffin University

There is an order or organization in destructive human behavior which can be illuminated with research and clinical observation -- and can have many implications for intervention. Neuroscience is providing a major piece of the puzzle towards this understanding -- but only a piece.

Robert Koehler

Syndicated writer

Security is a real need, of course, but know-nothing security flouts that need, often enough both ignoring and aggravating the real dangers we face while, at the same time, inflicting massive inconvenience on people innocently caught in its web.

Vanita Gupta

Director of the ACLU's Center for Justice

For 30 years, CCA's profits have grown because more people are behind bars. For CCA, the fact that America incarcerates more people than any other nation in the world isn't a human tragedy -- it's something they celebrate, because it makes them rich.

Dimitri Mugianis

Activist, poet and public speaker

For me, ibogaine was my saving grace. After I returned from Holland 11 years ago, I was opiate-free, happier than I'd been in years, and had no desire to go back to using heroin or other drugs.

Miranda Petersen

Policy advisor, Protect Our Defenders

Rowan Scarborough's article published Sunday in the Washington Times is a perfect illustration of a culture of misogyny and victim blaming, which has perpetuated the ongoing epidemic of rape and sexual assault in the United States Military.

Bill Piper

Drug Policy Alliance, Director of National Affairs

On Thursday, the Drug Policy Alliance will release An Exit Strategy for the Failed War on Drugs. This comprehensive report contains 75 broad and incremental recommendations for legislative reforms.

Jeanne Bishop

Advocate for gun violence prevention and abolition of the death penalty

It's May now, and the Illinois legislature has already taken up measures to try to fix the concealed carry law. The fix on juvenile life sentences? Still waiting.

Steve Heilig

Health care ethicist, editor, epidemiologist, environmentalist, and ethnomusicologist

Mike Gray's book, Drug Crazy, effectively utilizes "street stories" featuring cops, addicts, drug treatment workers and more to illustrate the real-life impact of drug policies -- which are his primary focus. According to him, the "drug war" has been a failure on many fronts.

Mallika Dutt

Founder and CEO, Breakthrough

It's only a short step from "don't cry like a girl" and "don't be a bitch" to "women are inferior." These assumptions and connections, part of what many are calling "toxic masculinity," enable violence against gay (or "effeminate" men) and violence against women alike.

Dr. Gail Gross

Family & Child Expert, Educator, Author. Ph.D. Ed.D.

It is important to teach children how to avoid being seized, how to resist a potential captor and how to escape. Kids are vulnerable and trusting, and it is our job as parents to remind them of basic safety rules.

Jay Sterling Silver

Law professor, St. Thomas University School of Law

As millions of cable viewers hang on the question of whether Jodi Arias will be sentenced to death, a different question comes to mind: is it really a death-penalty case?

Florrie Burke

Chair Emeritus, Freedom Network

Some may argue that prosecutors need every tool at their disposal to find traffickers and hold them accountable. But allowing condoms to continue to be used as evidence in trafficking cases would be detrimental to the health of the very people we are trying to help.

David Protess

President, Chicago Innocence Project

A 20-year fight for freedom by two Northwest Side Chicago men will culminate tomorrow in a hearing on allegations they were railroaded.

Jim Moret

Chief Correspondent, 'Inside Edition'; attorney; author, 'The Last Day of My Life'

The Jodi Arias trial reminded me of the first "Trial of the Century" which I had anchored for CNN nearly two decades before. The OJ Simpson criminal trial ushered in a new era of cameras in the courtroom and TV trial addicts.