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What Prisoners Eat
It’s not at all unusual to feed prisoners animal-grade food to save money. It happens all across the country every single day.
New York’s Worst Prison Isn't Rikers Island
Rikers is not the worst prison in the world, as many believe. It’s not even the worst prison in New York.
Public Safety and What It Means to Be a Community
Yehudah Pryce: Let’s stop falling for the politically expedient talking point of opening and expanding jails due to public safety concerns.
Chicago Food Industry Shaped by Formerly Incarcerated-Led Cooperative
April Short: Megacorporations tend to dominate food contracting with schools and other large facilities in America. In Chicago, Black formerly incarcerated people are prepping locally sourced meals for schools, nursing homes and transitional housing facilities.
Why Sealing Prison Records Is So Critical
Rosemary Jenkins: Many who have genuinely reformed, evolved, and transformed themselves, and are ready for well-deserved and diligently earned second chances, encounter seemingly impermeable roadblocks to promising employment.
Private Prison Corporations Want to Influence American Politics
Emma Peca: For companies whose profits depend on immigrant detention, it feels especially concerning that campaign donations could be used to secure influence over our elected officials.
The Prison Guard Green Wall Gang
Craig Farris: D.J. Vodicka sacrificed his decorated fifteen-year career, his livelihood, and even his own physical safety to blow the whistle on the shocking, systemic corruption that ruled the California Department of Corrections and its personnel.
Incarcerated Labor
There is no proof of anything that can be called a concentration camp or of forced labor, yet these stories are repeated endlessly.
Close Guantanamo Prison Now
Michael Rapkin: Guantanamo has shown us, and the world, that America’s justice system -- the rule of law -- does not apply to everyone equally and equitably.
Speaking for the Voiceless Behind Prison Walls
Shandre Delaney: I knew if my son could endure what he was going through, even at the threat of losing his life, then I could be brave enough out here on the streets.
How Jail Sentences Become Death Sentences
Andreya Garcia-Ponce De Leon: Given the increased risk of contracting COVID-19 behind bars, Sims’ already unjust sentence could prove fatal if he is not released from jail
Racists Make Bank
Robert Reich: The unregulated operations of prisons has increasingly mandated cheap service for maximum profit.
Closing California's Youth Prisons
Jeremy Loudenback: The deal also includes the creation of a new agency – the Office of Youth and Community Restoration – which will be tasked with providing oversight of the state’s juvenile justice system.
Youth Prison System Looks to be Phased Out
Jeremy Loudenback: The proposal increases costs for counties that decide to prosecute youth as adults, and if tried and sent to prison, the youth's county of residence is responsible for the cost.
Guards Without Masks, Tests With No Results
Jeremy Loudenback: As the virus spreads, one young man’s scary exit from California’s juvenile prisons
Ballot Proposal to Fund Alternatives to Incarceration
Jeremy Loudenback: If approved by voters in November, the Reimagine L.A. initiative would steer at least 10% of the unrestricted revenue in the county’s general fund each year toward the justice goals.
San Quentin Death Sentence
David Bacon: The coronavirus infection spread rapidly through San Quentin. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation [CDCR], as of the date of the vigil there were 928 active cases and eleven prisoners had died.
Efforts in Congress to Release Prisoners, Normalize Marijuana Industry
Phillip Smith: In such a huge—and hugely important—struggle, the fate of some federal prisoners and legal marijuana entrepreneurs may not loom large, but it hangs in the balance.
California Juvenile Justice System Proposal to Reduce Transfers to Adult Jails
Jeremy Loudenback: Such experiences bring more trauma and rage, advocates say, and make it harder for young people to emerge from jails and prisons with hope for a peaceful and productive future.
Newsom Calls for End to California’s Youth Prison System
Jeremy Loudenback: If the governor’s plan is approved by the state legislature, it would end the brutal legacy of a youth prison system in California that once housed as many as 10,000 youth and teens.
Jail Populations Are Sitting Ducks in Cages
Jamala Rogers: Once again Black and Brown people must fight for their lives. Only an aggressive, informed, coordinated, multi-racial, non-partisan strategy will get us through this pandemic.
A United World Must Break Out of Prison
Robert Koehler: Surely now is the time to open our minds, open our souls, to saner ways of maintaining social order. The prison system doesn’t work.
Safety Issues and Lax Oversight Plague Immigration Detention Centers in California
Robin Urevich: Orange County lost $1.7 million last year because it neglected to charge ICE the full cost of jailing immigrants in two lock-ups