Yvette C. Hammett

Yvette C. Hammett is a journalist who spent much of her career in newsrooms, including The Tampa Tribune, The Mobile Register, and The Stuart News, covering issues from courtroom to environmental battles, a busy cop beat, and international news.

Biden has big plans, and many challenges, for immigration reform

Newly seated President Joe Biden has big plans to reverse many of his predecessor's changes regarding immigration, including establishing a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants.

By Yvette C. Hammett

/ 18 Feb 2021

View from inside an immigration detention facility.

Bayer agrees to another $2 billion to settle Roundup claims

Bayer, a company struggling for years to settle claims with those who say its weedkiller, Roundup, caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, reached a $2 billion settlement recently to resolve future

By Yvette C. Hammett

/ 15 Feb 2021

Garden store shelf displaying containers of Roundup weed killer.

NAACP scholarship program to aid next generation of civil rights lawyers

The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund is working to build a new civil rights advocate team, launching a scholarship program to pay for their law degrees. The Marshall-Motley Scholars

By Yvette C. Hammett

/ 2 Feb 2021

Concept image symbolizing racial justice and the protection of civil rights.

Evidence of war crimes and more lost as social media companies scrub posts

Social media platforms work to remove offensive and criminal posts and photographs from their sites for obvious reasons. But in the process, these platforms are hindering the work of investigators

By Yvette C. Hammett

/ 26 Jan 2021

Laptop screen displaying the Facebook app and an iPhone showing Facebook’s data policy.

Specifics of Capitol attack will decide which charges rioters face

Most Americans were astonished Jan. 6 as they watched a band of Trump supporters rush the Capitol, loot offices, threaten civilians and trash Congressional offices. This occurred shortly after President

By Yvette C. Hammett

/ 18 Jan 2021

U.S. Capitol on January 6 with a crowd of protesters outside.

What Biden might do, and not do, for criminal justice reform

Incoming President Joe Biden has said he will seek police reforms, end capital punishment in America and eliminate money bail. As with any president, some things he can do, but

By Yvette C. Hammett

/ 12 Jan 2021

Gavel placed next to a pair of handcuffs.

Numbers of women behind bars are soaring, report says

Over the past 35 years, drugs have played a significant role in the incarceration of women, resulting in a 216% increase in arrests during that period, according to the Prison

By Yvette C. Hammett

/ 29 Dec 2020

Perryville State Prison inmates listening to Olympic gold medalist Misty Hyman speak about making a fresh start after incarceration.

Feds herald first notable decrease in violent crime since 2015

The rate of violent crimes, excluding simple assault, dropped 15% from 2018 to 2019 and 27% for women, according to a recent report released by the federal Bureau of Justice

By Yvette C. Hammett

/ 22 Dec 2020

Handcuffs placed on top of a fingerprint file.

Race still a major factor in death sentences, study finds

A newly released study from the Death Penalty Information Center takes an in-depth look at the pervasive racial discrimination used when imposing the death penalty, in bringing charges and in

By Yvette C. Hammett

/ 16 Dec 2020

Close-up of a prisoner holding jail bars with a distressed expression.

Study: Jailing people on bail does not make communities safer

A study recently released by the Prison Policy Initiative shows very few people released before trial go out and commit another crime while awaiting their court date. “You see more

By Yvette C. Hammett

/ 10 Dec 2020

Study: As jail releases increased during pandemic, Black inmates were left behind

A new study commissioned by the Council on Criminal Justice shows a disproportionate number of young black men jailed on felony charges remain incarcerated as jail populations changed in reaction

By Yvette C. Hammett

/ 3 Dec 2020

African American prisoner handcuffed behind prison bars.

Reduced prison sentences lead to deportation for hundreds

More than 7,000 federal prisoners saw their sentences reduced by the 2018 First Step Act. But hundreds of those people face deportation. Some call First Step an example of

By Yvette C. Hammett

/ 30 Nov 2020