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Three men in blue uniforms sleep on the floor, as one sits on a chair nearby.
News November 4
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
Life Inside October 28
I Spent Over 40 Years Working in Corrections. I Wasn’t Ready for Rikers.
Rikers Island jail complex “reflects our nation’s racist and destructive fixation on imprisonment,” writes former New York City jails commissioner Vincent Schiraldi. “It’s Exhibit A for why we need to end mass incarceration.”
By Vincent Schiraldi
News July 15, 2021
Inside The Nation’s Overdose Crisis in Prisons and Jails
Behind bars, drug use is rampant and uniquely deadly, new data shows.
By Beth Schwartzapfel and Jimmy Jenkins
Feature July 29, 2020
Your Local Jail May Be A House of Horrors
But you probably wouldn’t know it, because sheriffs rule them with little accountability. After one man's death in a notorious lockup, residents of a Missouri town fought back.
By Maurice Chammah
Selmin Feratovic, 28, died at Rikers Island early Thursday.
Commentary October 22, 2017
Bad Bail Practices and Immigration Policy Led To My Client’s Death At Rikers
Selmin Feratovic might be alive today if not for our deeply broken system.
By Anisha Gupta
Men wait for an afternoon court appearance at the Milwaukee County Jail in 2009.
News April 28, 2017
Just Another Week in Hell
The news from your local lockup is not good.
By Ken Armstrong
Life Inside November 17, 2016
My Daughter Died After Spending Four Days in Jail
“Her eyes were slightly open, but vacant.”
By Stephanie Moyer
Feature July 6, 2016
Inside the Deadly World of Private Prisoner Transport
Tens of thousands of people every year are packed into vans run by for-profit companies with almost no oversight.
By Eli Hager and Alysia Santo
News August 4, 2015
Why Jails Have More Suicides than Prisons
A new report and a growing phenomenon.
By Tom Meagher and Maurice Chammah
A vigil for Sandra Bland at Prairie View A&M University on July 19 in Texas.
News July 22, 2015
The Sandra Bland Breakthrough
It’s not just black men who matter.
By Maura Ewing
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