Even in Kyoto

“It makes us feel like we have nobody to talk to.” The federal prison system has a critical shortage of psychologists available to treat the thousands of incarcerated people who need mental health care across the U.S. More than one-third of the Bureau of Prisons’ psychologist positions are unfilled, a problem that became worse last year when prison officials began assigning mental health professionals to act as guards. Federal officials say this dual use is permitted, but patients behind bars say it undermines the trust and respect between doctor and patient that is a necessary part of any mental health treatment. TMP’s Beth Schwartzapfel has our story. The Marshall Project

An extrajudicial killing on the streets of Minneapolis. Fallout from the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents on Saturday. The identity of the masked federal agents who shot and killed Pretti remains unknown. The Minneapolis Star Tribune State and local officials have pledged their own probe amid concerns over the credibility of a federal investigation. Mourners paid tribute to Pretti on Sunday. MPR News Federal officials smeared Pretti’s reputation before his body was even cold. Wired Senate Democrats say they will block a federal funding bill that would help pay for federal immigration agents. The Guardian Related analysis: What a proper investigation would look like. Just Security

Evidence contradicts the administration’s story. Witnesses told a judge that Pretti did nothing to justify the deadly force used against him. The Minnesota Star Tribune “I don't know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him,” said a witness who provided testimony late Saturday for a lawsuit to stop the deadly federal immigration sweep in the city. U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota A doctor who witnessed Pretti’s death testified he was blocked at length by federal agents from providing medical care to the victim. U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota A federal judge issued an order late Saturday blocking the feds from “destroying or altering evidence” in the case. NBC News

Reaction to the shooting. Minnesotans mourned Pretti, a U.S. citizen and licensed ICU nurse with no criminal history. He was a licensed gun owner with a permit to carry a weapon. Minnesota Reformer Pretti’s parents, in Colorado, had warned him to be careful at anti-ICE protests in Minnesota. They say they heard about their son’s death from a reporter and, as of late Saturday, had not heard from any federal officials. In a written statement, they also called on Trump officials to stop slandering their son. Colorado Sun/The Associated Press Photographs from a weekend of heartbreak and fury in Minneapolis. The Associated Press

Another FBI purge. The FBI agent who tried to investigate the ICE shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis was forced out of her job by FBI officials. Tracee Mergen left her job as supervisor of the bureau’s Minneapolis field office. The Trump administration has refused to investigate the ICE shooter, Jonathan Ross, but instead has pushed to investigate Good, her spouse and Democratic officials in Minnesota. The New York Times A federal magistrate rejected the Justice Department’s effort to investigate Good after she was killed. MS Now FBI Director Kash Patel has just orchestrated a new purge of FBI agents and officials connected to the Biden-era investigation into criminal conduct by Donald Trump. MS Now

Criminal justice one year into the second Trump administration. The White House and Justice Department made sweeping changes last year to virtually every aspect of criminal justice. The Justice Department, purged of officials deemed not sufficiently loyal to the president, has recast itself as a redeemer of rights popular with Republican causes. The White House has called for an expansion of the death penalty to non-capital crimes. And the president has made a pattern of extending clemency to his political allies or to or to those who contribute financially to his enterprises. TMP’s Jamiles Lartey gives us the state of play at the quarter-pole in the latest edition of “Closing Argument,” our weekly newsletter. The Marshall Project

More from Minnesota. Federal immigration officials are demanding that prison and jail officials in Minnesota cooperate more fully with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement sweep. The Minnesota Star Tribune Local officials in Minnesota say the feds are exaggerating how many people behind bars may be suitable targets for deportation. The New York Times Faith leaders from across the U.S., representing many different religions, came to Minneapolis to peacefully protest the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement sweep there. Religion News On Friday, hundreds of businesses went on strike and thousands took to the streets in freezing weather to protest ICE’s presence in Minnesota. The Associated Press

An Oregon family went to a Portland hospital last week seeking medical care for their 7-year-old child. Federal immigration agents arrested and detained the family. The Oregonian

Police in Brookfield, Illinois, charged an ICE agent with a misdemeanor battery charge for allegedly assaulting an anti-ICE activist in December. The New York Times An Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient was arrested by ICE agents in Minnesota earlier this month and kept in a cell for eight hours without being able to contact an attorney. ABC News

A corrections officer recruit from Cumberland County, Maine, was arrested by ICE agents. The Associated Press “In America, we don’t believe in secret arrests or secret police,” said Gov. Janet Mills as federal immigration agents swarm into the state. The Boston Globe Sen. Angus King accuses ICE agents of “terrorizing” U.S. citizens in Maine. NewsCenter Maine

Massachusetts legislators move — quite slowly — toward passage of a sentencing reform bill that would help victims whose crimes were connected to experiencing domestic abuse. Bolts TMP Context: A close look at similar legislation in Georgia. The Marshall Project

A federal jury in Maryland last week awarded millions in damages to the family of Jacob Mace, a 23-year-old former Walmart employee who took his own life after purchasing a gun from the store at which he worked. Store managers knew that Mace was suicidal but did nothing to prevent him from buying the weapon, jurors were told. The Washington Post

Five people were arrested late last week in connection with the shooting of an Indiana judge and his wife in their home earlier this month. Both victims survived the attack. There is no known motive. CBS News

When will local police in Minnesota stick up for citizens they are sworn to protect and serve? Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti ratchets up pressure between state and local cops and federal immigration agents. The Atlantic More: “Citizenship is not a shield. It doesn’t protect anyone from racial profiling, ICE, or the wretched administration that has emboldened them beyond the law.” The Boston Globe The administration’s warped version of reality doesn’t match what we all can see on the ground in Minnesota. The New York Times

Will the ICE agent who killed Renee Good ever be held accountable? “[I]t is absolutely clear that the evidence at this point is more than sufficient to justify opening a criminal investigation into the agent’s conduct — a step that would be consistent with decades of DOJ practice and, until recently, would have been considered largely unremarkable.” Just Security More: Vice President JD Vance’s comments about Minnesota only made things worse. The New Republic

Search and seizure of a Washington Post reporter’s home and electronics. First Amendment protections for reporters are not nearly as clear cut as journalists and other civil libertarians would like to think. “The path from searching a reporter’s home to prosecuting her is not a straight one. But its slope might be slippier than we think.” Lawfare

A malevolent Justice Department. “Under the new conservative consensus on presidential power, Trump is welcome to refuse to investigate when government agents shoot Americans in the face, and he is welcome to try to charge their loved ones with crimes. He can openly blackmail government officials to manipulate the economy or to silence political opposition. No one can stop him from directing the Justice Department to indict his enemies for non-crimes while ignoring or pardoning the actual crimes of his political allies.” The Atlantic

A way, but no will, to reform prisons. Connecticut’s prison population fell about three times faster than the state’s corrections workforce did during a 10-year period that ended in 2024. Yet prisoners remain prone to indiscriminate lockdowns, often for frivolous reasons. CT Examiner

Release the Epstein Files. “Our founders considered the Rule of Law a cornerstone of our Democracy. It means that all people, including government officials, are equally accountable to the law. Ignoring this principle will cause significant harm to the foundations of all our institutions,” writes journalist Julie Brown. The Epstein Files

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ICE agents are doxxing themselves, even as Trump administration officials threaten people with criminal charges for doxxing federal agents. Wired The White House takes another step toward retaliating against “sanctuary” states and cities by cutting off federal funding. The Washington Post There is only so much state and local officials can do to fight back against the use of racial profiling and excessive force by federal immigration agents. Stateline Trump administration officials continue to lean on the doctrine of self-defense to justify the use of excessive force during ICE raids or in response to anti-ICE protesters. Video evidence and other strong proof undermines almost all of those claims. Stateline

Anatomy of a white-collar whitewash. Billionaire fugitive Roger Ver, dubbed “Bitcoin Jesus,” avoided federal prison time for cryptocurrency tax evasion by hiring a defense attorney with ties to the Trump administration. These so-called “Friends of Trump” have undermined enforcement of white-collar crimes in unprecedented ways over the past year. ProPublica

A heralded DEA agent’s “little dark secret.” Joseph Bongiovanni, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent well-known in Buffalo, was sentenced last week to five years in prison for years of corruption that included protecting drug traffickers. The Associated Press

White House uses AI to fake photos. Trump administration officials expressed no remorse after they were caught altering the social media image of a woman arrested last week for allegedly interfering with a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota. NBC News The images were altered to make the woman, Nekima Levy Armstrong, look like she was crying during her arrest. She was not. The images also appeared to darken Armstrong’s skin. The Guardian

A mythical concern over public safety. “An administration that campaigned on fighting crime and improving public safety has terminated, redirected or delayed more than $1 billion in federal grants related to gun violence, public safety, mental health and other efforts to save lives,” according to a new analysis of government spending. The Trace