Dismantling mass incarceration, one story at a time
Federal judges once weighed mercy and proportionality. Mandatory minimums made many of them spectators to injustice — and one chose to resign rather than watch. Here's how the movement to restore sentencing discretion is quietly winning, state by state.
America's prisons are graying faster than almost any institution in public life, and the data says elderly incarceration is fiscally indefensible. So why do so few states act? Inside the geriatric wards, family waiting rooms, and legislative corridors where this fight is being decided.
Security infrastructure in schools doesn't just reflect the carceral state — it feeds it. A data-driven look at two graduates from the same district, and a toolkit for the parents and school boards ready to dismantle the pipeline from the hallway up.
The Pretrial Fairness Act was hailed as a landmark, and in many ways it was. But a walk through any Illinois county jail suggests that ending money bail without shrinking police contact upstream just reroutes people into the same cells. Here's the checklist to fix it.
Cash bail turns a constitutional presumption into a paywall, caging tens of thousands of people who have been convicted of nothing. New Jersey and Illinois show what happens when states stop charging for freedom — and why the backlash is so fierce.
Felony disenfranchisement was engineered after Reconstruction to neutralize Black political power, and it still does that work today. From Mississippi ballot initiatives to Virginia's executive orders, the movement to restore voting rights is reshaping what democracy means in America.
More than 3.6 million Americans live under community supervision, bound by curfews, GPS monitors, and monthly fees that can devour a family's budget. This investigation traces how parole and probation have quietly become the nation's largest pipeline back to prison — and why reformers can no longer afford to ignore it.
District attorneys decide who gets charged, who gets bail, and who gets a second chance — making their offices the most underrated lever in criminal justice reform. This profile series examines five reform prosecutors who measurably reduced incarceration, and distills the organizing lessons for activists who want to hold the powerful accountable.
From state capitols to policy nonprofits, formerly incarcerated leaders are authoring the very reforms that once seemed impossible. Seven profiles that make the case: those who lived the system are best equipped to transform it.
Behind every cell door sits a supply chain of vendors, municipalities, and investors who depend on full beds and long sentences. We trace the $182 billion carceral economy — and show you how to spot it in your own portfolio and town budget.