mass incarceration

Prison Suicide Watch Was Once a Staff Job. “Inmate Observers” Are Cheaper.

[Read Part 1 of this story here] Up until 2019, monitoring the people in the suicide watch cells at South…

April 6, 2026

With Suicide Watch Full, Prisoners Now Kept in Makeshift Cells

A decade ago when I transferred to South Central Correctional Facility, a medium-security Tennessee prison privately operated by CoreCivic, there…

April 1, 2026

Georgia Moves Backwards With New Forensic Mental Health Hospital

For the past 16 years, Georgia was under a federal injunction: It could not build any state-run psychiatric hospitals, because…

March 10, 2026

Georgia “One Strike Act”: Even More Life Sentences, Even Less Parole

In late February, senators in Georgia introduced a bill known as the One Strike Act. Though the name—a riff of…

March 2, 2026

Already Killing People, ICE to Scale Up With Warehouse Detention

“No puedo respirar!” Geraldo Lunas Campos yelled as guards pinned him down. I can’t breathe. The moments leading up to…

February 17, 2026

The False Promises of TRICOR, Tennessee’s Prison Jobs Initiative

For the past decade I worked at the print plant at South Central Correctional Facility, one of the few jobs…

February 11, 2026

The Last Days of Parole

For the first time in six years, in 2025 the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles allowed more people…

January 26, 2026

“Your Life Is Over”: Prison Guards on 16-Hour Shifts With No Backup

Three decades ago when I began my prison sentence, corrections officers worked eight-hour shifts. Some did the work well and…

January 6, 2026

Fixing Electronics in Prison

There are few soft surfaces in prison, so when one of us drops a pair of glasses or a radio…

December 29, 2025

The Georgia Parole Board Pardoned a Turkey

Each year when the president did the White House turkey pardons it always seemed kinda funny, even from prison. Seeing…

November 26, 2025