Houston Chronicle criminal justice reporter Keri Blakinger — who once served 21 months of a 2½-year sentence for felony drug possession — visits a women’s prison near Austin, Texas, and considers the ways in which women’s prisons don’t take into consideration women’s particular needs. She speaks with those involved in planning a new $97 million building […]
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Posted inEditor's Pick
Think Debtors Prisons Are a Thing of the Past? Not in Mississippi.
How the state’s “restitution program” forces poor people to work off small debts.
Posted inNonfiction, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Caitlin L. Chandler, Kelan Lyons, Daniel Loedel, John Colapinto, and Shay Castle.
Posted inCrime, Highlight, Quote Posts, Quotes
They Were Extortionists and the Calls Came from Inside the Prison
“At least 442 service members across almost every branch of the armed forces had been conned—by prisoners—out of a total of more than half a million dollars.”
Posted inHighlight, Quote Posts, Quotes
“Addiction is a thief of your goodbyes”
“I got angry, my mother cried, the addicts got high. That became a holiday theme for years to come.”
Posted inCuration, Nonfiction, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Daniel Engber, Sara Reinis, James Dolan, Irina Dumitrescu, and Amelia Tait.
Posted inNonfiction
Following the North Star
Shaheen Pasha explores how the trauma of a loved one’s incarceration unravels her carefully planned-out existence, and sets her on a new, unexpected path to find meaning in the meaningless.
Posted inFeature
Best of 2024: All Our Number One Story Picks
Every story that appeared in the number one slot in our Weekly Top 5, all in one place.
Posted inEditor's Pick
‘American Horror Story’: The Prison Voices you Don’t Hear from Have the Most to Tell Us
The Montgomery Advertiser interviewed more than two dozen inmates in the Alabama correction system, all of whom report extreme routine violence and “unhinged” drug-induced behavior among some inmates — often against elderly and vulnerable members of the prison population. Rehabilitation is impossible, they say with little access to programs, while guards remain indifferent at best, […]
