Home - Inquest

Futures

Saving Austin

Emboldened reactionaries tried to super-fund our city’s police force. But we out-organized them, and voters rejected their message resoundingly.

by Marina Roberts

Politics

So Long, Cy

The end of the Cyrus Vance era at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office calls for a reckoning — and opens up opportunities for his successor.

Janos Marton

As Told To

Surviving Everywhere

Clemency gave me a chance to tell my truth — a truth the criminal legal system made invisible.

Tewkunzi Green

public health

Treating Unfreedom

Practicing correctional medicine is fundamentally an exercise in harm reduction. And it’s no match for freedom itself.

Rachael Bedard & Zachary Rosner

Culture

Copaganda

How pop culture helped turn police officers into rock stars — and Black folks into criminals.

by Mark Anthony Neal

As Told To

Second Class

For public defenders in New York, representing clients unjustly criminalized for gun possession is a matter of principle. Now, they have the Supreme Court’s attention.

Avinash Samarth, Michael Thomas & Christopher Smith

In Depth

Mass Clemency

In the age of mass incarceration, the president of can and should lead the nation by freeing from prison as many people as possible.

Udi Ofer

interventions

More Than a Number

Older New Yorkers are dying in state prison at an alarming rate. Once and for all, they need to come home to their families.

Wilfredo Laracuente

Past, Present & Future of Mass Incarceration

excerpt

An American Invention

In the struggle to end mass incarceration, one must understand how the criminalization of violence is largely a modern creation.

David Alan Sklansky

interventions

Saying Their Names

How public defenders in New York City organized to speak up for those who have died on Rikers — and to keep others from going there.

Big Data

Rigged by Design

Immigration imprisonment routinely relies on a racist notion of “risk” and should be abolished. A glimpse at how ICE’s pro-detention algorithm is manipulated to incarcerate immigrants shows why.

Aly Panjwani

Decarceral Pathways

From Crisis to Care

For alternative responses to policing to work and reduce the footprint of the criminal legal system, they must work in concert and holistically to address both immediate and longer-term social needs.

Katherine Beckett, Forrest Stuart & Monica Bell

In Depth

Follow the Science

Federal law enforcement has long called the shots in the field of drug scheduling. But in the case of fentanyl analogues, Congress has a chance to lead — by doing nothing.

Patricia Richman & Diane Goldstein

Culture & Politics

Fear of the Black Child

American society and its criminal legal system simply won’t let Black kids be kids.

by Kristin Henning

Institutions

Making Penal Bureaucrats

Now more than ever, legal education must come to grips with its role in shaping the minds of those who might help to dismantle — or strengthen — carceral institutions and practices.

Shaun Ossei-Owusu

voices

Divide and Conquer

For those of us on the inside who believe in prison abolition by any means necessary, prison closures really mean prison closures. The state and some of my fellow prisoners don’t like that.

Felix Sitthivong

Essay