mass incarceration

51 posts

How prisons become ‘corridors of contagion’ during a pandemic

Victoria Law’s new book follows five incarcerated individuals who endured the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic behind bars

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5 Min
By: Britta Shoot

Activists call on Joe Biden to take action on these issues before leaving office

From Palestine to the death penalty to student loans, Biden has one last chance to make good on his campaign promises before leaving office

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6 Min
By: Victoria Valenzuela

Cooked in custody: Four incarcerated people describe dangerous conditions in Texas state prisons

In this collection of testimonials, Kwaneta Harris and others incarcerated in Texas state prisons describe their unsuccessful daily attempts to evade being cooked in custody

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11 Min
By: Kwaneta Harris, Xandan Gulley, Marissa Potts, Lanae Tipton

A notorious shuttered prison grapples with preserving—not celebrating—America’s dark carceral history

Eastern State Penitentiary’s CEO discusses the Philadelphia institution’s mission and vision

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10 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

The prison in 12 landscapes

Prism looks at the landscapes that prisons shape to better inform our understanding of the carceral continuum

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11 Min
By: Tamar Sarai, ray levy uyeda

Multiple states are building new women’s prisons, but can they be stopped?

Tiff Harrington spent 15 years of her life under Department of Corrections (DOC) supervision in Vermont, where she gave birth to two children while incarcerated at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility—a prison with a particularly bad reputation.  In 2019, Vermont DOC came under fire when Seven Days, a local independent

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10 Min
By: Sierra Dickey

PEN America doesn’t prioritize incarcerated writers, former staffers say

When Rowan Thompson began working at PEN America in the Prison and Justice Writing program, they were eager to make a difference in the lives of incarcerated people. However, it wasn’t long before Thompson noticed serious signs of misalignment between staffers and management, leading quickly to frustration and disillusionment.

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19 Min
By: Natalye Childress

San Quentin delays and denies hepatitis C care to affected incarcerated people

Luis Edward Gama arrived at California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi in 2016. While being processed, he tested positive for hepatitis C, but because he had 15 months left on his sentence, California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS) denied his treatment. Seven years later, Gama returned to prison and was diagnosed

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3 Min
By: Joey Scott, Timothy Peoples

New York prisons are illegally subjecting disabled people to solitary confinement

Disability rights groups and legal organizations have filed a class action lawsuit against the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) and the New York State Office of Mental Health for illegally subjecting disabled people to solitary confinement. Disability Rights Advocates, The Legal Aid Society, and the

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5 Min
By: Elly Belle

Who gets to benefit from changes in the law?

Johnny Lee Olds was born at his family’s home in Selma, Alabama. He was the youngest of 11 children, and he was and forever would be his mother’s baby. Being part of a large family had its upsides. Olds had a built-in group of friends, which was especially

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11 Min
By: Kendall Turner

Never eat the candy on your pillow: Breaking the cycle

Dear Reader,  When I came to prison nearly two decades ago, I believed my life to be completely over. Everywhere I looked behind the fences, there were broken people living broken lives. It was a cycle of brokenness. Prison isn’t a fix to anyone’s problems.  But the further

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5 Min
By: Derek R. Trumbo, Sr.

EXCLUSIVE: PEN America is both a lifeline and a ‘wasted opportunity’ for some incarcerated writers  

PEN’s decades-old prison programming lacks the organization and infrastructure to effectively communicate with and pay incarcerated writers

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18 Min
By: Tamar Sarai

Showing 12 of 51 total posts

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