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Melissa Lucio, who has long brown hair and is wearing a white prison uniform, sits behind glass at a prison.
Death Sentences February 24, 2022
How Melissa Lucio Went From Abuse Survivor to Death Row
Why some trauma victims are more likely to take responsibility for crimes, even when they may be innocent.
By Maurice Chammah
Life Inside May 6, 2021
Cadets Violently Strip Searched Us As Part of Their Training. For My Pain, I Got $325.
Willette Benford was one of several incarcerated women who sued the Illinois corrections department for using mass strip searches to train cadets. A small settlement check took her back to the shame and trauma of those incidents.
By Willette Benford
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
Life Inside August 13, 2020
During the Pandemic, a Prison Funeral for Our Angel
Despite coronavirus-related lockdown and a skittish staff, prisoners at California Women’s Facility pulled off a full-fledged memorial service for a beloved long-termer.
By Michele Scott
Melissa Ann Horn, right, died of COVID-19 while incarcerated in Virginia. She is pictured here with her daughter, Brittany Brown.
Coronavirus May 14, 2020
What Women Dying In Prison From COVID-19 Tell Us About Female Incarceration
Fatal victims illuminate women’s unique problems in prison, and the all-too-common ways they get there in the first place.
By Cary Aspinwall, Keri Blakinger and Joseph Neff
Pregnant and post-partum mothers from the film ‘Tutwiler’ share photos of their children with each other at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama.
Feature May 6, 2020
The Separation
Introducing “Tutwiler,” a new Marshall Project/Frontline documentary about women in an Alabama prison who support each other through pregnancy, labor and saying goodbye to their newborns.
Directed by Elaine Mcmillion Sheldon. Produced and Reported by Alysia Santo.
News and Awards March 31, 2020
“Tutwiler” Selected for Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
A new documentary from The Marshall Project and Frontline (PBS) offers a rare look at the lives of expectant mothers inside a notorious women’s prison.
By The Marshall Project
Tana Hackley pats a friend on the shoulder as she leaves prison as a result of Oklahoma's mass commutation of hundreds of people's sentences for low-level drug and theft cases.
News November 4, 2019
How More Than 50 Women Walked Out of a Prison in Oklahoma
The state slashed sentences for more than 500 people convicted in low-level drug and theft cases.
By Cary Aspinwall
Life Inside November 1, 2018
I Got A Life Sentence At 17. Then I Was Raped In Prison.
Even though my son was conceived in the most traumatic possible way, his birth was my saving grace.
By Laura Berry
Lt. Russell Hanes, left, and counselor Colleen McClay, in bright red at center, chat with women who are incarcerated at York Correctional Institution in Niantic, Conn., in August.
News October 9, 2018
More Women Are Behind Bars Now. One Prison Wants to Change That.
Connecticut’s WORTH program uses therapy, classes and mentoring to try to keep women from coming back.
By Maurice Chammah
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