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What Started a Mississippi Prison Riot? Depends on Who You Ask

by Seth Freed Wessler on May 22 2012, 9:37AM

A for-profit, Corrections Corporation of America facility holding non-citizen inmates is on lockdown after a weekend riot. Officials insist it was a gang feud. But reports from inside suggest a pattern of abuse and neglect that has recurred at privately run prisons.

Topics: Criminal Justice, Immigration

New Federal Rules Aim to Curb Sexual Assault in Prison

by Julianne Hing on May 18 2012, 4:57PM

One in ten inmates report being sexually assaulted or raped in prison, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Topics: Criminal Justice, /NOW Blog

The Criminal Cost of Talking to a Loved One Behind Bars

by Leticia Miranda on May 14 2012, 9:00AM

For years, states have worked with private phone companies to charge high rates on phone calls to and from prisons. Now activists are trying to force the FCC’s hand to do something about it.

Topics: Criminal Justice

An Interactive Look at the Heavy Price of American Freedom

by Jamilah King on April 25 2012, 8:55AM

An ambitious new timeline traces the brutal relationship between freedom and confinement in the United States.

Topics: Criminal Justice, History

The Prison Industrial (Retirement) Complex, by the Numbers

by Hatty Lee on February 1 2012, 9:14AM

After decades of indiscriminately locking people up and throwing away the key, states are discovering yet another consequence of over-incarceration: rapidly aging prison populations.

Topics: Criminal Justice

Secrecy Surrounds Inmate Suicides in California State Prisons

by Julianne Hing on November 21 2011, 10:00AM

Three inmates have committed suicide in recent months, but families and advocates are being left out in the dark.

Topics: Criminal Justice

New Report Finds Private Prisons a Threat to Criminal Justice Reform

by Noelle de la Paz on November 11 2011, 10:08AM

As state’s struggle to close record budget gaps, private prisons have become an easy way to make millions.

Topics: Criminal Justice

Study: Incarcerating Hordes of Youth is Costly and Ineffective

by Jorge Rivas on October 5 2011, 1:58PM

The Annie E. Casey Foundation says that prison is no place for kids.

Topics: Criminal Justice, Schools & Youth

Guards Retaliate Against Inmates In Growing Prison Hunger Strike

by Noelle de la Paz on October 5 2011, 10:00AM

As the strike spreads to Arizona, Mississippi and Oklahoma, prison officials have begun to crackdown on its leaders.

Topics: Criminal Justice

The Movement to Stop Prisons From Shackling Women in Labor Builds

by Miriam Zoila Pérez on October 4 2011, 9:31AM

Four more states passed laws banning the practice this legislative year, but the vast majority of state prisons still maintain the absurd idea that a woman in childbirth is a security risk.

Topics: Criminal Justice, Gender & Sexuality

Troy Davis’s Legacy: A New, Deeply Personal Movement

by Jen Marlowe, Kung Li on September 30 2011, 10:05AM

Thousands of young, black men and women in the South are declaring “I am Troy Davis” as if their lives depend on it. And they do. The fight against systemic racism in the justice system may have finally exploded out of the courts and into the community.

Topics: Criminal Justice, Troy Davis

California’s Prison Hunger Strike is Back On

by Julianne Hing on September 27 2011, 10:17AM

After refusing meals for nearly a month last summer, inmates say their demands still haven’t been met.

Topics: Criminal Justice

Where Were You When Troy Davis was Killed? [Reader Forum]

by Channing Kennedy on September 26 2011, 9:20AM

A roundup of our Troy Davis pieces from last week, and reader reactions to his execution and to the movement’s next steps.

Topics:

California Puts Into Motion Alternative Custody for Incarcerated Moms

by Julianne Hing on September 20 2011, 9:00AM

But most of these women won’t be going home any time soon. Here’s why.

Topics: Criminal Justice

Harsh Immigration Policies Push Latino Majority Into Federal Prisons

by Julianne Hing on September 12 2011, 9:45AM

The aggressive prosecutions are driven by a failed political strategy, immigration experts say.

Topics: Criminal Justice

Dispatch From Angola: Faith-Based Slavery in a Louisiana Prison

by Liliana Segura on August 4 2011, 10:03AM

Angola is the largest maximum-security prison in the country. At least 90 percent of its inmates will die there. And Evangelical Warden Burl Cain has made sure their lives look as much like “slavery times” as possible.

Topics: Criminal Justice, Dispatches