‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Prosecutor’: Portland DA Seeks to Revive Broken Windows-Era Program
The Multnomah County DA’s rebranding of an old practice paints prosecutors as social workers, worrying local public defenders and civil rights advocates. Alex Zielinski | May 25, 2022 Along the riverfront in Portland, OR (Tony Webster/Flickr creative commons)...
How the Newest Federal Prison Became One of the Deadliest
Fatal beatings. A “torture room.” Pairs of men held around the clock in tiny cells, tempers rising. “They’re literally afraid for their lives,” one lawyer said. Bobby “AJ” Everson was killed at the U.S. penitentiary in Thomson, Illinois in December 2021. Everson had...
The 1990s Law That Keeps People in Prison on Technicalities
How the Supreme Court expanded the most important law you’ve never heard of. By KERI BLAKINGER and BETH SCHWARTZAPFEL Additional reporting by MAURICE CHAMMAH The Lowdown breaks down the rituals and routines of the criminal justice system. If you even half-paid...
Always a Mother
Maternal incarceration is but a phase for the people who experience it. It doesn’t define them. By Geniece Crawford Mondé May 10, 2022 Always a Mother When I sat down to interview 20-year-old Aaliyah in the small living space at Mother’s Love, a residential home for...
How Two Middle School ‘Desperadoes’ Ended Up in a Police Shootout
A 14-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy took up weapons after a torturous journey through Florida’s juvenile mental health system. Nicole Jackson, 14, is charged with armed burglary and attempted murder of a police officer. She is being tried as an...
I Got the Prison Transfer I Fought For. My Feelings Were Surprisingly Mixed
Demetrius Buckley’s long-awaited transfer to a lower-security prison means more time outside of his cell and a chance to see his daughter. But the transport process was like everything else in prison: slow, confusing and casually cruel. MARÍA MEDEM FOR THE MARSHALL...
Prisons didn’t prescribe much Paxlovid or other Covid-19 treatments, even when they got the drugs
By Nicholas Florko May 5, 2022 Federal prisons used just a fraction of the antiviral drugs they were allocated to keep incarcerated people from getting seriously ill or dying of Covid-19, according to new internal records from the Bureau of Prisons.KOBI WOLF/BLOOMBERG...
Skinheads allegedly killed his son in prison. Is the government accountable?
White supremacists are accused of beating Matthew Phillips in March 2020 at Thomson prison in Illinois. His death and others are raising questions about the federal facility. May 5, 2022, 10:52 AM PDT By Erik Ortiz In early March 2020, an ambulance delivered Matthew...
I Organized My First Art Show From Behind Bars. Here’s How Incarcerated Curators Can Help Us See the World Differently
Rahsaan “New York” Thomas describes why the role of incarcerated curators matters. Rahsaan Thomas, April 27, 2022 Rahsaan Thomas, photographed by Antwan Williams. Courtesy of "Ear Hustle." Two sisters, one consoling the other. Headphones and a microphone collaged onto...
Insufficient funds: How prison and jail “release cards” perpetuate the cycle of poverty
We examined release card companies’ fee structures to learn how this industry has evolved, and what government leaders can do to stop its worst practices. by Stephen Raher, May 3, 2022 Every year, roughly 5 million people are released from jail and another half...