mass incarceration

Enough With the Sex Offender Registry

Law enforcement has done a good job of portraying recidivism as a kind of unfortunate tendency some people just can't…

October 23, 2024

DOJ Investigation Found Horrors in Georgia Prisons. It Missed a Lot, Too.

Four years after the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division opened an investigation into the whether the Georgia Department of…

October 3, 2024

Some Thoughts on Dying in Prison

Over the course of my nearly 30 years in Tennessee Department of Correction custody, I've seen many friends die painlessly.…

October 2, 2024

Georgia Won’t Fix Its Prisons Crisis. There’s Money in Letting It Get Worse.

When I began my sentence in Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) prisons over 30 years ago, bunk beds shoved into…

September 27, 2024

CA Proposes “Treatment-Mandated Felony” Sentence for Drug Possession

In 2014, California voters passed a ballot initiative that punished most drug possession and shoplifting as misdemeanors rather than felonies.…

September 24, 2024

Guards Delegate Security to Prisoners as Understaffing Crisis Evolves

Corrections officers (COs) have long relied on prisoners to do various parts of their jobs. But since the onset of…

September 24, 2024

Everyone in Prison Needs a Hustle. For a Small Fee, I’ll Help You Find Yours.

When you enter the men's prison system in Tennessee, you receive two blue, smock-like shirts and two matching pairs of…

September 9, 2024

In Defense of Contraband Cell Phones

As a transgender woman incarcerated in a men’s prison system, each day was a fight to maintain my sense of…

September 3, 2024

When the Prison Grievance Process Is Worth the Risk

For nearly three decades, I've been hearing people scream for help. Screams of people being raped, robbed, stabbed. Screams of…

August 5, 2024

To See the US Prisons Crisis, Look at the Books We’re Trying to Read

The library at South Central Correctional Facility, a Tennessee prison privately operated by CoreCivic, consists of a single wall of…

August 1, 2024