Tessie is an international journalist and author from Raleigh, North Carolina, whose writing explores criminal justice, drug policy and harm reduction. Her first book, Crimson Letters: Voices from Death Row, offers a searing portrait of men on North Carolina’s Death Row and the broken systems that put them there. Sign up for her newsletter to receive her latest articles.
[This article is excerpted from Crimson Letters: Voices from Death Row by Tessie Castillo, Michael J. Braxton, Lyle May, Terry…
At dusk in Cebu City, the Philippines, Jonas takes the setting sun as a signal to wrap up his outreach…
The atmosphere at the Rattanakosin Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, was electric. It was the kind of energy that forms when…
Natauboo Jama started selling methamphetamine in northern Thailand after her second child was born. Known locally as yaba, it is…
After a flood wiped out Bexy Guerrero Salmiento’s home in 2013, her husband disappeared. Just days earlier, Manuel, Bexy and…
When Rodrigo Velez received a call in 2008 asking him to become Ecuador’s new "Drug Czar," he thought it was…
Smoking might be out of vogue, but flavored cigarette bans—like those of flavored vapes—are trending. Several cities in the United…
Commissaris Muyshondt, sorry to bother you,” said a voice over the phone. “We arrested your brother this morning. Just thought…
For six weeks this summer I had the extraordinary opportunity to visit harm reduction programs all over Western Europe. In…
In 2015 Tori Cooper decided to leave a successful nonprofit career to blaze a trail advocating for the rights of…