Criminal Justice

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Long Reads

A Future for Susanville

Plans to shutter a California prison offer halting glimpses of a different world: an economy that doesn’t revolve around incarceration, a country where losing your job isn’t tantamount to ruin, and an opening for abolition.
Piper French,

“I’m Just Another Traffic Stop”

Chicago built a new police team to rebuild community trust. It harassed drivers of color instead.
Pascal Sabino,

The Prison Next Door

How Arkansas’ secretive plan for a new state lockup angered people in a deep red corner of rural America—and changed how some see incarceration.
Lauren Gill,

The Human Cost of Jeff Landry’s Drive to Resume Executions

Chris Duncan’s death sentence—built on the testimony of two discredited doctors—illustrates just how faulty the system can be.
Piper French,

Who Elects their Prosecutors and Sheriffs in 2025?

Our Bolts resource has the answers. Despite being an odd year, 2025 will shape criminal legal institutions around the nation with hundreds of prosecutor and sheriff races.

Calls from prison and jail

January 8, 2024

San Francisco Expands Free Jail Communications by Adding Tablet Services

The move is part of a recent wave of jails and prisons starting to decouple carceral communications from a profit motive.
Kalena Thomhave,
August 4, 2023

Massachusetts Is Making Communications Free for Incarcerated People

The reform would eliminate the exorbitant charges people face to keep in touch with loved ones in jail and prison, removing a heavy financial burden for thousands.
Alex Burness,