In American Purgatory, Benjamin Weber links the rise of American prisons to the expansion of American power around the globe.

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

Police pretextual stops, in which traffic police pull people over as an excuse to search them, should no longer be allowed.

In her new book, “They Killed Freddie Gray”, Justine Barron reveals much of what the public has believed about Gray’s death is incorrect.

This excerpt from Survivor Injustice asks us to reconsider what justice really looks like for crime victims.

The birds quickly became the talk of the unit. Suddenly, everyone was an ornithologist, claiming to know whether barn swallows were endangered.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Inside the towering walls and razor wire fences of U.S. prisons, slavery remains legal—and it is carried out with little oversight, often under horrific conditions.

In Healing Justice Lineages, Cara Page and Erica Woodland document a history of care models that don’t involve the prison industrial complex.

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

Long before the murder-suicide, there had been numerous reports to CPS about suspected abuse in the Hart household.

I don’t know if I’ll ever receive the resentencing hearing I was once promised, but I do know this system must change.

A wave of bills threatens to channel more people toward incarceration, mete out longer prison terms, and limit prosecutors’ discretion.

Ron DeSantis called in the National Guard to staff Florida prisons. The staffing shortage is hurting incarcerated people.

Absent structural organizing and actual political change, societal consumption of anti-Black violence instead reinforces the dehumanization of Black people that is central to white supremacy.

Countless forms of detention and foster care facilities are profiting from warehousing the humans treated as remnants.

No system designed to make money by subjugating people intends to rid us of those harms. Abolition is a vision for the future.

There is nothing romantic about the police state. And yet, in some of the biggest rom-coms, white cops are underdogs looking for the right person to love.

I was lucky enough to get a lot of mail while imprisoned on Rikers Island. Paper mail is one of the few things that keeps prisoners feeling human.

ShotSpotter, Flock Safety, and Fog Data Science pitch themselves as third-party public-safety platforms, but they really are are “data brokers”—companies that profit by selling bulk information to others.

Newsom’s measure—called “CARE Court”—paves the way for family members, state officials, and first responders to force more unhoused people into court-ordered treatment programs for a period of up to two years.

For millions of families, this time of year is yet another reminder of all that is missed when a loved one is incarcerated

gorodenkoff / iStock by Getty Images Over-Reliance on Plea Deals is Damaging the Criminal Legal System by Nneka Ewulonu It’s easy for the average American to envision a courtroom trial. Shows like “Law and Order” inundate us with fictional depictions of trials—from the thud of a gavel to the inquisitive eyes of a jury—with an […]

New York law can leave people who are involuntarily committed financially liable for their hospital bills and ambulance ride

Some recent redevelopment projects show how the work of reforming and dismantling the prison system can move us towards a society centered around restorative justice and social wellness.

Youth curfews don’t work. Over 11,500 kids were arrested in 2019 for curfew violations or loitering, per FBI data. Nearly 30% were Black.

Police gave Alex Mingus an award for saving a shooting victim’s life. Mingus showed up wearing a shirt that said “Smash white supremacy”.

Midterm election results show the bad-faith “crime wave” narrative failed to con a critical mass of voters, who instead want a less draconian police state.

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Olayemi Olurin spoke with The Appeal about abolition, living in a police state, Rikers Island, and the media.