Internet Explorer 11 is not supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.
Smith_Carl_Headshot-400RGB

Carl Smith

Senior Staff Writer

Carl Smith is a senior staff writer for Governing and covers a broad range of issues affecting states and localities. For the past 30 years, Carl has written about education and the environment for peer-reviewed papers, magazines and online publications, with a special focus on conservation and sustainability. He has guest-edited special issues of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health focused on the Precautionary Principle and the human rights dimensions of environmental degradation. Carl attended the University of Texas and the University of Georgia. He can be reached at carl.smith@governing.com or on Twitter at @governingwriter.

Sonja Diaz, a lawyer and scholar, talks about immigrants, who are disproportionately represented among essential workers but have received little in the way of COVID-19 aid. The pandemic has left them in limbo.
COVID-19 has already hit state and local government hard, and it’s still spreading at a time when it had been predicted to recede. Legislators are trying to keep up with the consequences with a range of new bills.
Peniel Joseph, one of the nation’s leading civil rights scholars, has studied and written about the history of race and democracy. He has some ideas on how cities and urban areas can begin to dismantle racism.
It's a health risk at any time and one that disproportionately affects Black individuals and families. During a pandemic, it's an unacceptable burden. Legislators are looking at ways to better cope with the problem.
Less than 10 percent of police responses involve a violent crime. Rethinking policing involves more than how police behave on the job. Often, they may not be the right people to answer calls of distress.
The national conversation about racism isn't about individual acts of violence or harassment, but about systems that perpetuate injustice. In the wake of recent protests, legislators have responded.
Legal experts are questioning our current system of “law and order” based on punishment. They are calling for restorative justice programs that can demonstrate how investments in accountability yield rewards.
Allissa Richardson, a pioneer in mobile journalism, discusses the emergence of smartphones and social media as tools to fight back against the mistreatment of marginalized citizens by law enforcement.
Residents of senior care facilities are particularly vulnerable to the most damaging effects of COVID-19. Recent legislation aims to prevent lack of resources or bad practices from making things worse.
Thanks to better video technology and the expansion of social media, citizens now have the means to monitor, disseminate and expose acts of police brutality. They are forcing the country to rethink policing practices.