Portside

A record number of inmates are dying in Georgia's five largest county jails, and that Fulton County Jail has led the state in such deaths since 2009. Overcrowding and understaffing plague the facility, where around half of the more than 3,000 inmates have not been charged with any crime.

Economic disparities that exist between men and women, particularly women of color, are exacerbated for formerly incarcerated women. Lack of structural support increases women’s chances of experiencing poverty, re-offending and returning to imprisonment.

Death by incarceration is the most prevalent and most overlooked form of state sponsored execution. They call it a life sentence, but that is a misnomer. Any prison sentence that a person cannot outlive is a sentence to death.

America’s wars on drugs, crime, terrorism and more — along with our endless involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan — have created a weapons-saturated politics of policing, border control and mass incarceration. This reshaping is not one-dimensional...

Even in the darkest of times, in the most hopeless of places, Eddie’s commitment to organizing for liberation was unwavering. And, despite the unimaginable toll that 44 years of incarceration had taken on him, Eddie’s organizing did not stop when he walked out of prison.

With virtually nothing but the clothes on their backs, many inmates are placed on a bus, given $50, known as ‘gate money,’ and if they’re lucky, they may be told to have a nice life. 

Just Mercy challenges us not just to abolish the cruel, oppressive, and racist system of death sentencing, but to move beyond soul-killing modes of thought that are part of what make such systems of oppression possible in the first place.

Abolitionists and advocates of criminal justice reform in Los Angeles County have amassed some impressive victories, laying out a vision for reducing incarceration and providing care that could have national significance.

Deadly COVID outbreaks in California’s prisons fed off decades of neglect—and spurred a wave of organizing that activists hope will further the push for decarceration.

Ten Florida men with felony convictions have been charged with voter fraud because prosecutors say they registered and voted illegally. Critics say the punishments are unfair.