mass incarceration

Out Early From a 15-Year Carfentanil Sentence, Her Next Fight Begins

Wendy Kraus-Heitmann has had a hard life, but one that someone could write a good book about. Raised in Nebraska,…

June 13, 2022

Prison Didn’t Rehabilitate Me, But Using Meth in Prison Did

It’s ironic in retrospect that drugs were part of why I went to prison, because drugs were also why, while…

June 7, 2022

Lifers, Lab Rats and the Mandatory Minimums Experiment

In the 1950s, John's Hopkins University Professor Curt Richter ran a series of experiments on rats that involved placing them…

June 6, 2022

Why Allowing Only Prison-Issue Cell Phones Hurts Our Reentry Prospects

The Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) is no longer allowing prisoners on work release to acquire their own cell phones.…

May 26, 2022

Judge Orders County to Offer OUD Meds to All Jailed Patients, in US First

A New York district judge has ordered upstate Jefferson County to offer medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) to all…

May 25, 2022

Traumatized Veterans Who Use Drugs Left to Suffer in Prison

About seven years ago, the Tennessee private prison where I’ve been incarcerated for the past 26 years created a special…

May 24, 2022

Is the “Progressive Prosecutor” Movement on Its Last Legs?

Once upon a time, Milwaukee elected Frank Zeidler, the last socialist mayor of a major American city. His last term…

May 20, 2022

Tobacco Bans in Our Prisons Are Rich Pickings for Me—and the COs

The first time the Georgia Department of Corrections tried to go tobacco-free was 1994. In the mid-'90s it was trendy…

May 5, 2022

“No Evidence” Higher Incarceration Rates Reduce Fears of Crime

A population that perceives itself at the top of the pile soon becomes fearful, runs one theory, because the only…

May 3, 2022

Biden’s Clemency Announcement Falls Far Short

On April 26, President Joe Biden announced that he was using his clemency powers to pardon three people and commute…

April 27, 2022