mass incarceration

Georgia’s Jails Are Less Violent Than Its Prisons. That Comes at Other Costs.

Six weeks after the United States Department of Justice published the findings of its investigation into Georgia Department of Corrections…

November 27, 2024

Advocates, Lawmakers Urge Biden to Expand Cannabis Clemency Now

On November 20, advocates, formerly incarcerated people, their families and congressmembers gathered at the United States Capitol, urging President Joe…

November 21, 2024

How Tablets Changed Georgia Prisons, More Than GDC Intended

In 2015, when I was about three years into a 14-year prison sentence, the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) started…

November 19, 2024

Georgia Probation Is an Alternative to Something, But Not Jail

[Part 1 and Part 2 of this series were published in October] Just about everyone who makes it out of…

November 6, 2024

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