The Marshall Project

“A Florida family opted for restorative justice over the death penalty for the man who murdered their mom. What happened next made them question the very meaning of justice.”

How the state’s “restitution program” forces poor people to work off small debts.

Every year, thousands of people are assaulted in federal prisons and left to deal with their trauma. Chuck Coma, a two-time combat veteran incarcerated for armed robbery, was nearly killed by his cellmate. When he was eventually released, Chuck returned home unable to remember years of his life and suffering from uncontrollable tremors.

A Texas con artist made millions promising prisoners’ families the thing they wanted most: To bring their children home.

Convicted murderer Scott Dozier sits on death row in Nevada, waiting to die. Called a “volunteer” for abandoning his appeals, in October, 2016, Dozier hand-wrote a letter to a judge asking to be put to death. His actions have sparked controversy in the justice system, creating “a dilemma for states that want the harshness of death sentences without the messiness of carrying them out.”

A feature, produced in a collaboration between The New York Times and The Marshall Project, about Harvard University’s eleventh-hour flip-flop on its acceptance of ex-convict Michelle Jones to its doctoral program in history. Jones, who spent more than two decades in prison for the murder of her four-year-old son, conceived non-consensually when she was 14, became a stellar academic and published scholar of American History while incarcerated. She was set to attend Harvard this fall, but after her acceptance, two professors questioned whether she had adequately portrayed her crime in her application — something that was not required. Jones will be attending NYU instead.

A wrenching new book recounts the bloodiest prison battle in our history.

I grew up idolizing my brother. Then he killed a man.

America’s prison population is rapidly graying. So what happens to the growing pool of older, ailing inmates incarcerated in institutions that weren’t designed to serve as nursing homes?

A clerical error freed a man from prison 88 years early—and then sent him back five years and eight months later after he found a stable job and started a family. This story was co-produced by Matter.