Incarceration Nation Incarceration Nation
America now leads the world in the number of people behind bars. But hope is emerging that state governments and the courts will seek to hold back the hand of the carceral state.
Jan 5, 2007 / Feature / Silja J.A. Talvi
Generation Lockdown Generation Lockdown
California's juvenile justice system is broken everywhere you look. An ambitious plan for reform could bring much-needed improvements, but does it go far enough?
Jun 25, 2006 / Feature / Mark Sorkin
‘They Deserve It’ ‘They Deserve It’
Prison rape is not a dirty joke; it's one of the most frequent and widespread human rights abuses in America.
Left to Die Left to Die
If a society is measured by the treatment of its prisoners, we are in deeper trouble in New Orleans than we realize. The biggest prison crisis since Attica is now unfolding in the ...
Dec 15, 2005 / Feature / Billy Sothern
Two Prisoners Named Williams Two Prisoners Named Williams
The lives and deaths of two prisoners intersected this week--Stanley Tookie Williams and Richard Williams, flawed men whose political perspectives and pursuit of personal redemptio...
Dec 14, 2005 / Feature / Dan Berger
Seeds of Abu Ghraib Seeds of Abu Ghraib
Americans wondered how Army Specialist Charles Graner could torture detainees in the gruesome Abu Ghraib scandal. In war, people do things that would otherwise be unthinkable. But ...
Dec 8, 2005 / Feature / Sasha Abramsky
Ban Torture or Protect Torturers? Ban Torture or Protect Torturers?
A showdown looms in Congress this week over two competing measures involving bedrock human and legal rights: John McCain's legislation to ban all forms of torture and Lindsey Graha...
Dec 2, 2005 / Feature / Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith
The Fight to Save Stanley Tookie Williams The Fight to Save Stanley Tookie Williams
As the clock ticks down to former gang leader Stanley Tookie Williiams's scheduled execution on December 13, football great Jim Brown is helping lead the fight to convince Governor...
Nov 29, 2005 / Feature / Dave Zirin
Toxic Recycling Toxic Recycling
Recycling electronics using US prison labor is a booming business, with a captive workforce paid pennies per hour for dangerous work that is largely unregulated. The human and en...
Nov 3, 2005 / Feature / Elizabeth Grossman
The Theater of Cruelty The Theater of Cruelty
The detainee abuses at Abu Ghraib were both a continuation and a divergence from historical prison practices.
Jun 29, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Amitav Ghosh