The Appeal’s investigation into the Phoenix police killing of Jacob Harris was shortlisted for the Award for Feature by a small newsroom.

For the past seven summers, I have lived in solitary confinement without air conditioning. A trip to medical during a heat wave helped put the climate crisis into perspective.

Organizers say they’ve collected thousands of signatures for a referendum to put Cop City on the November ballot. But local officials seem intent on making sure it doesn’t reach a vote.

Municipal Court officials refuse to comment on efforts to cancel JusticePoint’s contract without lining up an alternative provider. A legal ruling allows the services to continue—for now.

Ten years ago this month, nearly 29,000 people in California prisons staged a hunger strike to protest solitary confinement.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, in some instances, incarcerated people can be barred from filing multiple claims of innocence, even if they did not commit the crime for which they’re in prison. Federal defense attorneys told The Appeal the ruling is already causing harm.

The blame game against trans people is just one of the many diversionary tactics the right has used in our intractable gun violence debate.

With heat indexes in the area regularly hitting triple digits, children incarcerated at Louisiana’s Angola prison have been locked in windowless cells for nearly 24 hours a day. One medical expert says the conditions put lives at risk.

Two years after its relaunch as a worker-led nonprofit newsroom, The Appeal reflects on its successes, challenges, and hopes for the future.

The conditions I faced were outrageous. But the prison administration’s justification for keeping me in the hole was even worse.

Lacino Hamilton spent 26 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit before being exonerated in 2020 after DNA evidence cleared him.

An investigation by The Appeal and the Yale Investigative Reporting Lab reveals how prosecutors use the state’s felony murder statute to imprison people who say they acted in self-defense. The majority of those convicted under the law since 2010 are Black. “I had to take the plea because they’re using this law to get people to stay locked up,” one man said.

A new lawsuit alleges that the city is discriminating against people with mental health disabilities by continuing to send armed officers to mental health calls.

The phrase “toxic masculinity” is ubiquitous these days, but there are few places where it’s more all-consuming than in a men’s prison

Los Angeles County lawmakers should enshrine the zero-bail rules into law so people in Los Angeles County jails can see their families.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has taken legal action against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to stop deputies from hitting incarcerated people in the head so often. Yesterday, LASD said it should not be forced to change.

A new survey of more than 500 people incarcerated in California state prisons warns that large numbers of people have been subjected to extreme heat, dangerous cold, flooding, and wildfires.

Lawmakers in seven states proposed bills to make abortion murder punishable by death. Cops arrested three women for their pregnancy outcomes.

As the saying goes, the first Pride was a riot. The only way queer people have won anything is by fighting—in the courts and in the streets.

Formerly incarcerated people are 10 times more likely to become homeless than people without criminal backgrounds. The Housing FIRST Act would ban credit-check companies from including criminal history information on prospective tenants’ files if enacted.

More than 150 detention facilities experienced “hazardous” air last week, according to an analysis by The Appeal. As wildfires have gotten worse, prisoners are facing a unique threat.

The third installment in The Imprint’s series on the fight to close California’s youth prisons.

Gwinnett County Jail’s for-profit health provider NaphCare has been sued more than 100 times for malpractice and neglect.

After a carjacking, I had to navigate a chaotic patchwork of resources in search of support. To heal, I would take recovery into my own hands.

A leader in the LGBTQ community weighs in on the attempts by elected officials to legislate gay and trans people out of existence.

David Shipley tells Phillip A. Jones, who has spent more than 30 years in U.S. prisons, about his experiences in a British “open prison.”

Youth in solitary confinement wrote letters to save their lives. One lawyer responded.

Incarcerated writer Nick Hacheney is getting ready to leave after being incarcerated for more than 20 years. He’s glad he’ll have his freedom—but he’s also worried about the lack of care for longtime prisoners, the trauma he’s endured, and what the world outside holds.

Three organizers were charged with “money laundering” and “charity fraud” in a direct attack on mutual aid and civil rights protests.

At least 26 women face the threat of deportation after reporting sexual abuse by prison employees. At least 11 have already been deported.

Incarcerated people in Massachusetts told The Appeal they’ve had to wait years just for Wellpath, the state’s prison medical provider, to give them dentures or basic dental care. Next year, Wellpath’s contract with the state expires, and advocates say they hope it’s not renewed.

Online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay make billions from shoplifted products. Why are police and lawmakers focusing on small-time thieves?

In Minnesota, Democrats used a newly won legislative trifecta to legalize marijuana, overhaul the pardons process, and limit no-knock warrants. But they also funneled hundreds of millions in new funding toward prisons and policing.

Instead, harm reduction advocates are calling for strategy to create a safer supply of currently criminalized drugs.

Jenkins won’t charge the security guard who shot Banko Brown to death. That’s precisely why San Franciscans elected her in the first place.

Months-long outages, equipment shortages, and unreliable service have plagued the roll out of new telecoms contract in California prisons.

As Phoenix begins to displace around 700 people from an encampment near downtown, the ACLU of Arizona is asking a judge to find the city in contempt of a court order prohibiting it from violating the rights of the unhoused.

A preliminary injunction issued this week forbids officials from forcing people charged with low-level offenses to remain in jail because they cannot afford bail.

Neely’s killing is once again a reminder that carceral approaches to homelessness reproduce, rather than ameliorate, poverty.

Uriah Courtney was sentenced to life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. His conviction was overturned due to DNA evidence.