“From his prison cell, Hector Ortiz reexamines the traumas, hardships, and bad choices that led to his lengthy sentence—and ultimately taught him about the man he needed to be.”
Search results
Locked In, Priced Out
“The Appeal’s 9-month investigation uncovered prison commissaries’ exploitative, inconsistent systems with inside prices up to five times higher than in the community and markups as high as 600 percent.”
The Human Cost of Jeff Landry’s Drive to Resume Executions
“Chris Duncan’s death sentence—built on the testimony of two discredited doctors—illustrates just how faulty the system can be.”
Did Bad Fire Science Send Tim and Deb Nicholls to Prison?
“When he opens the bedroom window, there’s smoke billowing past his head. The next thing he recalls is waking up outside to a nightmare.”
She Tried to Kill a President. He Loved Her Anyway.
“A retired widower married Sara Jane Moore, who shot at President Ford in 1975. It tore his family apart.”
The Nuns Trying to Save the Women on Texas’s Death Row
“Sisters from a convent outside Waco have repeatedly visited the prisoners—and even made them affiliates of their order. The story of a powerful spiritual alliance.”
A Hockey Dad, a Cartel, and a $12 Million Fraud
“Kota Youngblood told his neighbors there were hits out on their lives — and only he could save them.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: inside a cyberscam compound, behind bars but ahead of the times, up into the beyond, away from home, and under the night sky.
At the Gates of Fortress Europe
“The story of Sajjad Mohammedhasan, who sought asylum but received a year in Lithuania’s border prisons.”

