“The ICE agents stuck out for their stillness and homogeneity.”
justice system
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Mercy Workers
“For three decades, a little-known group of ‘mitigation specialists’ has helped save death-penalty defendants by documenting their childhood traumas. A rare look inside one case.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
After Killing His Cousin, Clyde Meikle Found Purpose in Prison Through Service. Now He’s Asking to Go Home.
Incarceration led to a rebirth for Clyde Meikle.
Posted inHistory, Story
Watching a Fall
The allure and shame of watching America’s last public hanging.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Quotes
The Complicated Power of DIY Justice
Canadian vigilantes with names like Creep Hunters make popular videos busting pedophiles, and many are now refining their tactics to try and go mainstream.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Unlikely Roots of Solitary Confinement
In a perverse tribute to human endeavor, solitary confinement began as a reform. Thinkers in Britain, the Netherlands, and the United States in the late 18th and early 19th centuries imagined that it might be possible to induce criminals to change from within, especially if they could be kept isolated from one another and from the corruptions of the outside world. The philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s famous design for a Panopticon—a circular prison with a central “inspection house” that allowed authorities to look into any cell at any time—was predicated on the idea that the prisoner under constant surveillance would internalize authority’s gaze, and cease misbehaving.