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A White woman in a pink jail uniform stands against a brick wall as she makes a phone call.
Closing Argument February 25
Fighting the High Cost of Prison Phone Calls
Tired of exorbitant phone bills, prisoners and their families are pushing to lower costs.
By Christie Thompson
A man in a white prison uniform with the label "Alabama Dept of Corrections" on his back stands near his bunk bed. There are multiple bunk beds lined up in the foreground.
Closing Argument February 18
How ‘Cruel and Not Unusual’ Conditions Persist in Many Lockups
Insight from a discussion with journalists, formerly incarcerated people and experts.
By Jamiles Lartey
Analysis December 22, 2022
Some of Our Best Work of 2022
From coverage of prison violence and abuses in a juvenile lockup to investigations by our new Cleveland team, our reporters told stories that made a difference.
By Terri Troncale
Three men in blue uniforms sleep on the floor, as one sits on a chair nearby.
News November 4, 2022
Why So Many Jails Are in a ‘State of Complete Meltdown’
Overcrowding, violence and abuse proliferate at jails across the country, as staffing problems make long-simmering problems worse.
By Keri Blakinger
The federal prison complex in Thomson, Illinois.
News June 14, 2022
Lawmakers Call for Probe Into Deadly Federal Prison
Following a Marshall Project/NPR report detailing violence and abuse at the newest federal penitentiary, three members of Congress asked the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate.
By Christie Thompson, The Marshall Project and Joseph Shapiro, NPR
An illustration shows a man shouting behind the window of a prison cell, while smoke and fire billows out of it. The window forms the eyepiece of a set of blinders being worn by a prison guard. Static is shown coming out of a walkie talkie worn by the prison guard.
Feature May 9, 2022
Burned to Death in a Prison Cell
After years of warnings about broken fire alarms, two men have now died in blazes at Texas prisons.
By Keri Blakinger
Terence Andrus, wearing a white prison uniform, looks through glass. A phone hangs on either side of the divider.
Death Sentences February 1, 2022
They Went to Prison as Kids. Now They’re on Death Row.
Fight clubs, solitary confinement and neglect make juveniles angrier and more violent.
By Keri Blakinger and Maurice Chammah
Life Inside January 14, 2022
People in the Scandal-Plagued Federal Prison System Reveal What They Need in a New Director
“This is kind of like AA: To move forward, first you have to admit there’s a problem.”
By Keri Blakinger
An incarcerated person received a COVID-19 vaccination at the Bolivar County Regional Correctional Facility in Cleveland, Miss., in April.
News December 22, 2021
Omicron Has Arrived. Many Prisons and Jails Are Not Ready.
Experts fear “another potential tinderbox scenario” akin to the early days of the pandemic.
By Beth Schwartzapfel and Keri Blakinger
As part of the settlement of Nuñez v. City of New York, a 2011 class-action lawsuit filed by Rikers Island detainees, federal monitors periodically report on use of force across the jail complex. This image from the Eleventh Report shows at least 12 officers in a recreational area responding to two detainees who refused to be handcuffed.
Life Inside October 5, 2021
Dispatch From Deadly Rikers Island: “It Looks Like a Slave Ship in There.”
Rikers Island has been notorious for violence and neglect for decades. But detainees, corrections officers and officials tell us the New York City jail complex has plunged into a new state of emergency.
By Beth Schwartzapfel
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