punishment

Five women in Mississippi have been incarcerated longer than any others in the state. Each has been denied parole a multitude of times. Here, one of the women shares their stories.

The term short staffing is a euphemism to divert attention from the state’s continued addiction to incarceration.

Aging in prison meant realizing my son was also a victim of my crime due to my absence from his life. I try to do what I can on visits to help my son succeed.

Although my artistic pursuits began with material necessity, they have become a way for me to express myself and find inner peace within the oppressive environment in which I am confined.

“I was sentenced and put in prison for the choices I made. I was not sentenced to being raped and abused while in prison.” 

In June, I stepped into a body scanner outside the visitation room at the Washington Corrections Center and held my breath.

My checks came out to $300-400 weekly for about 70 hours of labor.

A new book uses parole to chronicle how the criminal legal system prioritizes punishment over actually rehabilitating people or making society safer.

Two years after Elena’s death, I try to understand why I was given a child just to lose her. 

If I protect and guide someone else’s child in here, maybe someone will do mine out there.

I experienced my first childbirth while I was incarcerated in a county jail.

I had to return to jail before a resentencing hearing. It meant taking a trip back through hell.

On Jan. 19, New York City Mayor Eric Adams vetoed a bill that would have effectively banned solitary confinement in his city’s jails. Incarcerated writer Chris Blackwell and CUNY Law Professor Deborah Zalesne share why the practice is so horrific.

Despite the frequency of in-custody deaths, their exact scope remains unknown and data is often intentionally obfuscated.

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

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

JShawn Guess recounts how being unable to earn money while in prison led to him missing out on his final moments with his mom.

A trans woman mutilated herself in a New Jersey men’s prison after officials refused to transfer her to a women’s facility.

Serving out a sentence in a Washington state prison, I was certain I’d never own a home. When my wife and I started the process, we found out just how difficult it would be.

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, “prison warehousing”—which used to be a derogatory term—would look like an upgrade. At least warehouses care about the value of the goods they store.

Corrections officials confirmed finding legionella at five facilities over the past 12 months.

A cycle of hopelessness is taking its toll in prisons across the country, amid continued restrictions on the things that make life more bearable.