Both Prisons and the Public Rely On Incarcerated Writers
New York tried and failed to limit art and writing behind bars. The attempt should remind us all of the public and personal benefits of encouraging creative expression inside.
Trusted Sources: Why Mainstream Media Needs Incarcerated Voices
By Juan Moreno Haines / Solitary Watch The mainstream media has traditionally gotten most of its information about what goes on inside prisons from corrections officials—government employees who feed stories…
Alabama Is Denying Prisoners Parole to Lease Their Labor to Meatpackers, McDonalds
No parole if you’re still profitable.
“To Be Free Is to Free Others”: Formerly Incarcerated Women Urge Decarceration
The fight to free women and end mass incarceration is long and ongoing, but these activists aren’t giving up.
He Rebuilt His Life After Prison. Then He Was Deported for a 23-Year-Old Drug Conviction.
Samuel Anthony moved away from Sierra Leone at six years old. That didn’t stop the U.S. from deporting him to a country where he doesn’t know anyone and doesn’t speak…
State District Judge Recommends Overturning Melissa Lucio’s Death Sentence
In a rare joint statement, the district attorney and the defense agreed that prosecutors withheld evidence that could point to a Rio Grande Valley woman’s innocence in the death of…
We Need Housing, Not Handcuffs
Too many communities are responding to rising homelessness by criminalizing the unhoused. It’s more humane and effective to house people.
The Slow Death of a Prison Profiteer: How Activism Brought Securus to the Brink
On the hook to repay $1.3 billion of debt this year, the nation’s largest prison telecom company, Securus, is on the verge of bankruptcy. Its failure would represent a remarkable…
Pregnancy in Jails: A New Report Finds Flagrant Violations of Illinois Laws
Jails throughout Illinois continually deny, restrict, interfere with, or discriminate against pregnant people’s rights to reproductive care.
“Tough-on-Crime” Policies are Back in Some Places That Had Reimagined Criminal Justice
Several states are considering or have already enacted legislation undoing more progressive policies.
Cops Running DNA-Manufactured Faces Through Face Recognition Is a Tornado of Bad Ideas
By Paige Collings and Matthew Guariglia / Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) In keeping with law enforcement’s grand tradition of taking antiquated, invasive, and oppressive technologies, making them digital, and then…
30 Political Prisoners’ Oral Histories Collected in an Unprecedented New Book
We speak with recently released political prisoner Eric King and abolitionist Josh Davidson, who have compiled in a new book, ‘Rattling the Cages,’ testimonies from dozens of political prisoners.
Texas Executes Ivan Cantu Despite Doubts of His Guilt
Faith leaders and jurors from the original trial launched a public campaign to reconsider recanted testimony in Cantu’s case. Texas courts declined.
Women Speaking Up About Sexual Abuse Behind Bars Face Retaliation in California
Despite highly publicized arrests and promises of change, sexual abuse and retaliation continue at the prison in Dublin.
Death and Redemption in an American Prison
By Markian Hawryluk / KFF Health News Steven Garner doesn’t like to talk about the day that changed his life. A New Orleans barroom altercation in 1990 escalated to the…