Jails and Prisons

Close Rikers

Close Rikers Close Rikers

Street demonstration, downtown Manhattan, November 3, 2022, organized by CampaignToCloseRikers.org. Eighteen people have died in Rikers Island this year, the deadliest since 2013.

Nov 16, 2022 / OppArt / Andrea Arroyo and Steve Brodner

The Pipeline Funneling US Deportees to Haitian Prison

The Pipeline Funneling US Deportees to Haitian Prison The Pipeline Funneling US Deportees to Haitian Prison

Patrick Julney is one of many longtime US residents who found himself detained under hellish conditions in a country in which he’d never been formally charged with a crime.

Nov 14, 2022 / Feature / Tanvi Misra

Forced Prison Labor Was Also on the Ballot

Forced Prison Labor Was Also on the Ballot Forced Prison Labor Was Also on the Ballot

Voters in four states—Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont—approved ending the practice of involuntary labor and slavery as punishment for a criminal conviction.

Nov 10, 2022 / Victoria Law

India Spellman pictured incarcerated.

India Spellman Was Wrongfully Convicted When She Was Just 17 India Spellman Was Wrongfully Convicted When She Was Just 17

That was over a decade ago. When will she walk free?

Nov 8, 2022 / Alyssa Oursler and Anna DalCortivo

The Problem With “Jihad, Rehab” Isn’t Filmmaker Meg Smaker’s Color or Religion

The Problem With “Jihad, Rehab” Isn’t Filmmaker Meg Smaker’s Color or Religion The Problem With “Jihad, Rehab” Isn’t Filmmaker Meg Smaker’s Color or Religion

The idea that a white woman cannot make a film about non-white men is absurd. But as “Meg,” the film’s narrator, her voice is the voice of the cop.

Nov 7, 2022 / Moustafa Bayoumi

Pamela Price

Can a District Attorney Dismantle Mass Incarceration and Fight for Gender Justice? Can a District Attorney Dismantle Mass Incarceration and Fight for Gender Justice?

Civil rights lawyer and anti-carceral feminist Pamela Price might just win the Alameda County DA seat—but can she resolve its contradictions?

Nov 1, 2022 / Piper French

Photo diagram from the Bruno Hauptman trial.

How the Courts Stack the Odds Against the Innocent How the Courts Stack the Odds Against the Innocent

A new book by Daniel Medwed examines the reasons the wrongfully convicted find it so hard to prove their innocence.

Nov 1, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Jed S. Rakoff

Police commander points to body camera

How to Talk About Public Safety How to Talk About Public Safety

It’s not an either/or proposition. 

Oct 31, 2022 / Svante Myrick

Lee Zeldin and Kathy Hochul participate in a debate hosted by Spectrum News NY1.

Why Isn’t Kathy Hochul Running Away With Her Race for Reelection? Why Isn’t Kathy Hochul Running Away With Her Race for Reelection?

Republican Lee Zeldin is pro-Trump, anti-choice, and running in a state Joe Biden carried by 23 percent—yet recent polls put him within the statistical margin of error of pulling o...

Oct 27, 2022 / Ross Barkan

21,000 Supporters Urge Alvin Bragg to Free Tracy McCarter

21,000 Supporters Urge Alvin Bragg to Free Tracy McCarter 21,000 Supporters Urge Alvin Bragg to Free Tracy McCarter

The Manhattan district attorney is prosecuting McCarter in the death of her estranged husband.

Oct 25, 2022 / Victoria Law

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