In Depth
Always a Mother
Maternal incarceration is but a phase for the people who experience it. It doesn’t define them.
A closer look
Cops and Counselors
Mental health professionals call the police, work with the police, and act like the police. But even in our ranks, an abolitionist future is possible.
Institutions
A Veneer of Benevolence
For many years, I believed that the child welfare system could be reformed, but no more. It needs to be abolished.
public health
Unwell in a Cell
Co-opting the language of mental health and treatment, jail expansion is taking root in several cities and localities. But these are cages all the same.
excerpt
Sexual Policing
Law enforcement of women’s bodies is a structural and systematic form of police violence. All of us are less safe if we don’t end this brutal expression of state-sanctioned power.
public health
Drug-Induced Panic
Criminalization of so-called drug-induced homicides is yet another manifestation of the failed war on drugs — and far from an adequate public health response.
Past, Present & Future of Mass Incarceration
Surveillance
A Model City
How e-carceration grabbed a hold of Camden is a cautionary tale for those of us who envision a future without policing.
Life Inside
The Ties That Bind
Imprisonment violently separates us from those we love most. Even those we come to love on the inside.
In Depth
Captive Consumers
How government agencies and private companies trap and profit off incarcerated people and their loved ones.
Life Inside
Burn the Spot
Writing about people you encounter in prison carries special responsibilities.
In Depth
Atonement
The American penal system renders invisible the many people in its grip who are working hard to make amends.
Crimmigration
No End in Sight
I finished my sentence more than seven years ago. But I’m still trapped in an immigration prison, where the punishment endures.
interventions
Making Headlines
The criminal legal system is massively punitive toward people who commit sex offenses. How we treat them jeopardizes their health and safety — and our own.
Essay
The Poverty of Access
Librarians have a responsibility to everyone in their communities — including those who are incarcerated.
Series
INCARCERATION AND THE COURT
A collection of essays on the Supreme Court’s relationship to our crisis of mass incarceration.
A closer look
And a Public Defender for All
We can celebrate the ascent of Ketanji Brown Jackson, while acknowledging that indigent defense remains woefully inadequate in this time of crisis.
public health
A World Without Roe
The loss of the fundamental right to reproductive freedom will only lead to more state surveillance and criminalization of pregnant people.
excerpt
Canaries in the Coalmine
We must not pretend that the countless people who are routinely targeted by police are isolated.
A closer look
No Compassion
Judge Michelle Childs’ many denials of compassionate release signal a carceralism that should have no place on the Supreme Court.
Institutions
No More Compromisers
The Supreme Court doesn’t need another Stephen Breyer. It needs someone who can openly confront the immorality of our criminal legal system.
ELSEWHERE on INQUEST
In Their Words
Finishing Sentences
interventions
The End of Public Defenders
In Depth
Home Rule
In Depth
Carceral Wisdom
public health
Treating Unfreedom
Crimmigration
The Border State
In the States
Moving Forward
campaigns
A New Sheriff in Town
In Depth
Follow the Science
What we are reading
The Inquest bookshelf
Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families — and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World
by Dorothy Roberts
The Streets Belong to Us: Sex, Race, and Police Power from Segregation to Gentrification
by Anne Gray Fischer
Borderland Circuitry: Immigration Surveillance in the United States and Beyond
by Ana Muñiz
Coal, Cages, Crisis: The Rise of the Prison Economy in Central Appalachia
by Judah Schept
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