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.
In Depth
Carceral Wisdom
Like the value they bring to the classroom, people who have experienced the harms of the penal system have much knowledge to bring to our nation’s jury trials.
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.
interventions
The True Jailers of Rikers
As demands grow louder for decarcerating and shutting down New York City’s deadly jail complex, judges and prosecutors have escaped accountability. But they’re the ones driving the crisis.
Essay
Where Choice Ends
Unless and until mass incarceration is ended, Roe v. Wade, and reproductive freedom writ large, will never be safe.
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.
Past, Present & Future of Mass Incarceration
Life Inside
‘We Are Men’
On the 50th anniversary of a flashpoint of the American penal system, the cries of Attica still resonate today.
excerpt
An American Invention
In the struggle to end mass incarceration, one must understand how the criminalization of violence is largely a modern creation.
As Told To
A Judge on a Mission
Here’s how a former public defender elected to judicial office in New Orleans works to chip away at mass incarceration.
Decarceral Pathways
Choosing Freedom
Would you rather have your wallet stolen on the street or spend two weeks in jail? How people answer this question can shed light on whether our detention policies make sense.
A closer look
Cracking the Black Box
One way to keep prosecutors accountable and check their carceral impulses is by shedding some light on their vast discretion to charge crimes.
In Depth
‘Organizers Change What’s Possible’
Before bold, decarceral changes can become a reality, community organizers tirelessly move the policy needle in other ways. Here’s how they did it in Illinois.
Life Inside
Learning and Liberation
One year after a governor’s clemency, Renaldo Hudson, who spent 37 years incarcerated, reflects on violence, prisons, and the vital importance of education and support for those incarcerated.
Reflections
When You Hear Me, You Hear Us
Incarcerated as children, four gifted poets share their art, their experiences, and themselves.
ELSEWHERE on INQUEST
Reflections
A Disruptive Innovation
DOJ
Keeping Them Home
Institutions
Maxed Out
Decarceral Pathways
The Entrenched Carceralism of Forensics
Institutions
A Most Carceral Friend
Crimmigration
Immigration Imprisonment Is a Choice
Institutions
Where Reform Goes to Die
In the States
A ‘Warm’ Closure
Politics
Carceral Democrats
How many people have to die in our city’s jails before DAs and judges’ actions are considered violent?
—Angel Parker
beginnings
welcome to inquest
a forum for advancing bold ideas to end mass incarceration
Our Mission
Is to create a space where the voices of those doing the hard thinking and work of decarceration can come together to share ideas and be heard.
A Note From Our Founding Editors
On why Inquest exists, and what we hope it will help to achieve.
What we are reading
The Inquest bookshelf
America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence
By Elizabeth Hinton
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation
By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
“Prisons Make Us Safer” and 20 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration
By Victoria Law
Privilege and Punishment: How Race and Class Matter in Criminal Court
By Matthew Clair
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