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.
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.
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.
In Depth
Train Up a Child
Many kids learn violent behaviors through intergenerational harm — and are then met with more harm by the state. Things don’t have to be this way.
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.
In Their Words
Finishing Sentences
Writing about prison from prison is a form of freedom-fighting. It is not without risks — and many rewards.
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.
Race and the Law
Reclaiming Whren
How a committed critical race theorist on the bench might have written one of the worst Fourth Amendment cases in history.
campaigns
150 Years Is Enough
The case for abolishing New Jersey’s youth prisons.
excerpt
Canaries in the Coalmine
We must not pretend that the countless people who are routinely targeted by police are isolated.
Essay
Beyond Private Prisons
Simply targeting the corporations caging migrants and other people for profit won’t create a future without mass incarceration.
interventions
The End of Public Defenders
One path to ending mass incarceration is ending our modern conception of public defense. And being transparent about our work is one way to start.
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.
campaigns
A New Sheriff in Town
New Orleans’ newest jailer won’t get us out of our crisis of mass incarceration. But her election still matters as we build a safer, healthier community.
In Depth
Atonement
The American penal system renders invisible the many people in its grip who are working hard to make amends.
interventions
Mass Disenfranchisement
The scourge of plea bargaining is robbing millions of a different, and just as fundamental, kind of liberty.
Life Inside
The Ties That Bind
Imprisonment violently separates us from those we love most. Even those we come to love on the inside.
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.
In Depth
Home Rule
In weighing the future of thousands placed on home confinement during the pandemic, the government should prioritize where they are now: in their communities.
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.
Local jails
The Sheriff and His Jail
Jails are key drivers of COVID spread. My experience with Chicago’s top jailer shows how politics can often stand in the way of public health.
interventions
Abolition Is Public Health
The largest public health professional organization in the U.S. took a stand against carceral systems as fundamentally antithetical to public health. Here’s why that matters.
In the States
Moving Forward
After a clean sweep in November, Republicans are now running Virginia. But the prospect of more progress, and justice, remains within reach for all Virginians.
Media
The Journalist Advocate
Since the days of Ferguson, I’ve used my editorial perch to amplify the voices of those crushed by our nation’s system of wealth extraction. If that also makes me an…
In Depth
Cages in the Coalfields
A growing carceral state has slowly replaced the coal industry in large swaths of Central Appalachia. But even here, a different future is possible.
interventions
Building Bridges
There’s a direct link between the penal system and community wellbeing. Here’s why, and how, I decided to teach that connection to a group of public-health students.
In Depth
The Invisible Violence of Carceral Food
There's no such thing as a 'humane' eating environment in a penal system that inherently produces illness and death.
interventions
A Safer Cleveland
Our movement was born out of our shared grief. Our voices reminded voters that the police should never police themselves.