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activism

Alabama Rising

For the past decade, people incarcerated in Alabama have led successful national worker strikes. Could a new prisoners’ rights movement be underway?

Andrew Ross & Aiyuba Thomas

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collective action

Building Worker Power

How one labor union in New York is organizing and creating solidarity among formerly incarcerated workers—and winning.

Bernard Callegari & Han Lu

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Beyond Reform

Why Incarcerated People Work

A new research project seeks to understand present prison labor conditions—and build a path toward lasting freedom.

Stephen Wilson, Minali Aggarwal, Jacqueline Groccia & Lydia Villaronga

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Earlier essays from

Captive Labor

Essays exploring the intersection of labor and mass incarceration, presented in partnership with LPE Blog.

Read the whole series

social control

Against ‘Work’

Ivan Kilgore

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activism

Alabama Rising

Andrew Ross & Aiyuba Thomas

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In Their Words

A Community Judge

As a newly elected judge assigned to misdemeanor court in Los Angeles, a former public defender sees her new role as serving those impacted by the system.

Holly Hancock

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interventions

No Justice, No Pleas

Imagining the decarceral possibilities of plea strikes and defendant unions.

Andrew Crespo

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public health

Care and Carceralism

Disentangling medical care from policing, prisons, and other punitive institutions remains an imperative—now more than ever.

Ji Seon Song

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A portion of the cover of Clarence Earl Gideon's petition to the Supreme Court of the United States

New series

Beyond Gideon

A collection of essays examining how—or whether—public defenders can meaningfully contribute to the end of mass incarceration.

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organizing

An Organized Community

ICE entanglement in local law enforcement is just one iteration of a bigger system meant to police our communities. And we can fight it.

Felicia Arriaga

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advocacy

The Art of Freedom

How two formerly incarcerated artists are creating a community for people like them—and exposing mass incarceration through it.

Jesse Krimes, Russell Craig, Makeda Best & Premal Dharia

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Beyond Reform

Procedural Justice Isn’t Enough

In immigration court and beyond, fair process matters. But fair laws, fair legal systems, and fair societies matter far more.

Maya Pagni Barak

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Past, Present & Future of Mass Incarceration

Politics

Mass Incarceration on the Cheap

Fiscal arguments have only led to a reconfigured carceral state—one that replaces one type of punishment for another while still harming millions.

Jarrod Shanahan & Zhandarka Kurti

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Politics

Lessons from Ohio’s Bail Backlash

Fearmongering about public safety played a major role in the state’s midterm setback. But we can learn from it how to take control of the political narrative.

Nikki Baszynski

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Local jails

Pretrial Injustice

Incarceration ahead of trial is fundamentally unjust—a form of punishment that makes it virtually impossible to fight for your freedom.

Cyrus Gray

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A closer look

A Prosecutor’s Decarceral Potential

A new Minneapolis-area county attorney won’t end mass incarceration. But she has the potential to cause less harm and promote healing.

Jared Mollenkof

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Beyond Reform

Data and Liberation

We need more and better data about deaths in custody. But we don’t need this data to know that only decarceration will save lives.

Therese Quinn, Jose Luis Benavides, Erica R. Meiners & Matthew Yasuoka

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abolition

Slave Rebel or Citizen?

Abolitionist Ruchell Cinqué Magee is the country’s longest-held political prisoner.

Joy James & Kalonji Jama Changa

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activism

Black Power Meets Police Power

The experiences of Michael and Zoharah Simmons show that the fight against the carceral state is embedded in a larger project of building a just world.

Dan Berger

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In Depth

Data-Driven Decarceration

A close analysis of prison data can help us think concretely, and strategically, about the tradeoffs of different approaches to decarceration and prison closures.

Ben Grunwald

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democracy & power

Culture Wars and Criminalization

Absent a sustained politics of solidarity, culture wars will continue to erode civil rights while criminalizing, surveilling, and punishing those who claim them

Kay Whitlock

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Beyond Reform

Reclaiming Safety

In our imaginations, we need to break the equation of policing and public safety.

Mariame Kaba & Andrea J. Ritchie

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A closer look

The Evidence-Based Trap

Data-driven approaches to reform can reinforce aspects of a system that’s rotten to the core.

Erin Collins

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In Depth

A Future for Susanville

The prison town of Susanville, in California, is about to lose its livelihood. Its economic survival presents a test for abolition.

Piper French

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interventions

A Secret Stash of Power

Now more than ever, we need a clear understanding of the role of violence, trauma, and survivorship in our harm reduction practice.

Shira Hassan

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excerpt

The Problem With Innocence

Human sacrifice, and nothing else, is the central problem that organizes the carceral geographies of the prison-industrial complex.

Ruth Wilson Gilmore

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What we are reading

The Inquest bookshelf

A selection of recent books that invite us to imagine a world without mass incarceration.

Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism

by Leigh Goodmark

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Stayed on Freedom: The Long History of Black Power Through One Family’s Journey

by Dan Berger

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The Slow Violence of Immigration Court: Procedural Justice on Trial

by Maya Pagni Barak

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States of Incarceration: Rebellion, Reform, and America’s Punishment System

by Jarrod Shanahan & Zhandarka Kurti

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system actors

Resistance Is Futile

Matthew Clair

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Crimmigration

Court-Assisted Expulsions

Angélica Cházaro

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A closer look

And a Public Defender for All

Sara Mayeux

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interventions

Making Headlines

Glenn Christie & David Rangaviz

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ELSEWHERE on INQUEST

advocacy

A Passport to the Future

Abraham Santiago & Norman Gaines

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interventions

Brady ’s Failure

Thomas Dybdahl

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legal history

Blood in the Borderlands

Brian Behnken

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public health

Policing Health

Jessica T. Simes & Jaquelyn L. Jahn

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interventions

A Weapon of Last Resort

Candice Delmas

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In Depth

Anything But Petty

J.D. King & Andrea Roth

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