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Commentary

Fresh context, analysis, and perspective on the world of criminal justice.

Demonstrators protest the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery at the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Georgia, on May 8. Gregory and Travis McMichael were arrested the previous night and charged with murder.
Commentary May 21, 2020
Ahmaud Arbery and the Local Legacy of Lynching
How the white vigilante killing of the unarmed, black jogger in Brunswick, Georgia, is both an echo of past violence and a modern call to action.
By Jennifer Rae Taylor and Kayla Vinson
Commentary December 19, 2019
Some of Our Best Work of 2019
Catch up on probing investigations, moving documentaries and the new print magazine that made our year.
By
Michael B. Jordan as Bryan Stevenson in the film, “Just Mercy”.
Commentary December 18, 2019
Our 2019 Picks for Criminal Justice in Movies, TV and Podcasts
The Marshall Project staff shares some of our favorite things to watch and listen to.
By The Marshall Project
Returned from Archive --- 30202809A. --- NYT AGGREGATORS OK --- --- 30202809A --- Orig. Caption: Springville, AL - Feb 15, 2017 - H-Dorm is currently used as the location of St. Clair’s "therapeutic community", housing inmates with needs including substance abuse and mental health counseling...St. Clair Correctional Facility is an Alabama state men’s prison located in St. Clair County, Alabama. The prison was originally built in 1983, and has an operating capacity of 1514 inmates. Within a two and a half year period ending September 2014, six inmates had been killed in the facility. The Alabama non-profit Equal Justice Initiative had already called for a change in leadership three months prior, after inmate Jodey Waldrop was killed in the early morning hours of June 3, for what they described as a pattern of serious neglect and violence, including an incident when the then-warden punched a handcuffed prisoner. As of June 2014 the prison was at 130 percent capacity...In March 2016 a correctional officer was wounded by a knife, trying to break up a fight. On May 13, 2016, another inmate was found dead of unknown causes. In June 2016 the Equal Justice Initiative filed a motion in federal court arguing that "severe overcrowding, understaffing and dangerous conditions violate the prisoners’ constitutional rights," and that the prison’s severe understaffing poses a safety risk to guards and correctional officers. The facility runs at 59.5% of full staffing levels, giving it a staff-to-inmate ratio among the highest in U.S. prisons. NYTCREDIT: William Widmer for The New York Times
Commentary December 17, 2019
How to Fix Our Prisons? Let The Public Inside.
We need a broad national effort to recruit and place volunteers to educate and counsel incarcerated people.
By
Prisoners at St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville, Alabama. Abolitionists do not propose bulldozing prisons and jails tomorrow; rather they are focused on a practical program of change.
Commentary June 19, 2019
The Case for Abolition
“We have grown weary of worn-out debates over the feasibility of a world without prisons.”
By Ruth Wilson Gilmore and James Kilgore
Aunjanue Ellis as Sharonne Salaam and Ethan Herisse as Yusef Salaam in a film still from Ava DuVernay’s “When They See Us.”
Commentary May 31, 2019
It’s Time to Change the Way the Media Covers Crime
Ava DuVernay’s ‘When They See Us’ revisits the Central Park jogger case. Here’s what we’ve learned since then
By
Donisha, left, with her daughter, Mayal, at Folsom Women’s Facility.
Commentary May 10, 2019
Let’s Make It Easier for Kids to Visit Incarcerated Parents
Nonprofits in a handful of states provide transportation to help children visit their imprisoned parents. Now New York may revive a state-funded free busing program.
By Jaime Joyce
The police at a march in Sacramento, Calif., to protest the officer-involved shooting of Stephon Clark.
Commentary May 1, 2019
How Fear Contributes to Cops' Use of Deadly Force
Police employ lethal violence in response to perceived threats at vastly different rates across the country. Racial bias is just one factor.
By Brendan O’flaherty and Rajiv Sethi
Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., wave signs in support of “Medicare for All” at an event in 2017.
Commentary March 21, 2019
“Medicare for All” Is Missing a Vital Group: The Incarcerated
“Can criminal justice reform succeed without addressing the health of incarcerated people?"
By Ashwin Vasan
Teofilo Chavez, an undocumented minor from Honduras.
Commentary January 15, 2019
Why We Bear Witness: Speaking Uncomfortable Truths About Immigration
We Are Witnesses: Becoming an American sparks a difficult but honest conversation about the U.S. immigration system.
By Jose Antonio Vargas
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