I was never a Dungeons and Dragons person, but as a nerd, seems like they’ve always been nearby. I would not have expected a Venn diagram overlapping the D&D nerds I know — delightful, gentle weirdos who like elves and other imaginary creatures — with high security prisoners. Elisabeth de Cleer wrote about one such […]
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Posted inBooks, Current Events, Essays & Criticism, Story
Here is My Heart
Long after the shooting at her old high school, Megan Stielstra worries about her father’s heart. Part one of a three-part series on gun violence.
Posted inNonfiction, Story, Writing
Hierarchy of Needs
Angela Palm learns to find joy in a world filled with suffering.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Meet the Woman Who Helps Humanize Murderers
Mitigation specialist Jennifer Wynn investigates the upbringing of defendants on trial — often for their lives — to humanize clients in a bid to convince at least one juror to bypass the death penalty for a life in prison without parole. Wynn shares the stories of three of her clients — men charged with murder, […]
Posted inCrime, Nonfiction, Quotes
Schrödinger’s Convict: Actually Innocent, Actually a Felon
An “Alford plea” gets an innocent man out of jail, but keeps him on the books as a convicted felon.
Posted inNonfiction, Story
Finding True North
Thousands of Haitians who fled the United States on foot last summer have started very different lives in Canada.
Posted inBooks, History, Nonfiction, Story
The Roaring Girls of Queer London
Flashy hooligans like Moll Cutpurse and Long Meg sported broad-brimmed hats, wore “ruffianly short locks,” and carried swords. Other women lived quietly in secret same-sex marriages.
Posted inEditor's Pick
How Albert Woodfox Survived Solitary
A profile of Albert Woodfox, a man originally sentenced to 50 years in prison for robbery. A member of the Black Panthers and the Angola 3, Woodfox spent over four decades in solitary confinement, despite a stunning lack of evidence against him in a prison murder.
Posted inNonfiction, Story
Revisiting the Ghosts of Attica
A wrenching new book recounts the bloodiest prison battle in our history.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Over 40 Years in “Closed Cell Restricted”: How Albert Woodfox Survived Solitary
At The New Yorker, Rachel Aviv profiles Albert Woodfox, a man originally sentenced to 50 years in prison for robbery. A member of the Black Panthers and the Angola 3, Woodfox spent over four decades in solitary confinement, despite a stunning lack of evidence against him in a prison murder.
