mass incarceration

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

“Like Two Cavalries”: After TN Prison Standoff, Fear of What Comes Next

On the evening of July 24, South Central Correctional Facility, a medium-security private prison in Tennessee, gave notice that 128…

July 29, 2024

“Soups Will Cook There”: How Prisons Became Heat Traps by Design

Before the days of modern air-conditioning, homes and businesses in the Southeastern United States were built with 10- to 14-foot…

July 24, 2024

NIDA Leadership Calls for “All Three” OUD Medications in Prisons and Jails

A top federal drug official is calling for the government to move “away from criminalization” under the drug war, saying…

July 16, 2024