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Language of Incarceration

A group of people stand outside, with a vehicle nearby. A person holds a sign that says: "A felon in the White House? Um...NO".
Analysis July 25
The Problem With Labeling Trump a ‘Felon’
Here’s why language used to describe any person convicted of crimes matters, and affects more than the former president.
By
News Inside July 14, 2021
Broken Language
Issue 8 of News Inside takes on the words that define and label incarcerated people.
By
The Language Project April 13, 2021
People-First Language Matters. So Does the Rest of the Story.
While we have to be aware that any word we choose has influence, no amount of Googling will reveal the magic word that brings justice into American prisons.
By
The Language Project April 13, 2021
How I Convinced My Incarcerated Peers to Make Language a Priority
Rahsaan Thomas, an imprisoned journalist, has long fought to change the way outside media describe people in prison. One of his toughest crowds? His fellow reporters.
By
The Language Project April 12, 2021
Good Intentions Don’t Blunt the Impact of Dehumanizing Words
Of course not everyone means harm when they use prison labels. But that doesn’t make the language any less damaging.
By Lisette Bamenga
The Language Project April 12, 2021
The Language Project
Rethinking the words journalists use to talk about people who are currently or previously incarcerated.
By The Marshall Project
The Language Project April 12, 2021
What Words We Use — and Avoid — When Covering People and Incarceration
Journalism is a discipline of clarity. That’s why we’ve solidified our policy about how we talk about people who are currently in or have previously been in prison and jail.
By
The Language Project April 12, 2021
I Am Not Your ‘Inmate’
I didn’t always detest this term. But hearing officers use it as an insult reminded me to call incarcerated people — including myself — by our names.
By
The Language Project April 12, 2021
I Was Trained to Call Prisoners a Word They Hated
As correctional officers, we are conditioned to call prisoners ‘inmates.’ But at Sing Sing, where I worked for 25 years, that was as bad as calling them a snitch.
By Kevin Byrd, as told to
The Marshall Project Inside March 11, 2021
The Making of “Superpredators”
The first edition of The Marshall Project’s new video series, designed for audiences inside and outside of prison, examines a toxic media myth that damaged a generation of Black youth.
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