This collaborative feature by Truthout and Earth Island Journal is supported by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. It will be followed by a series of online investigative reports on the environment and mass incarceration.
It is only when there is a particularly dramatic abuse, or a death that can’t be hidden, that the public gets any glimpse of what life on the inside is like for so many Americans. When ordinary citizens learn of atrocities committed behind bars, most are appalled, but the sad reality is that the public has few tools to gain access to those behind bars. Not knowing is what makes it possible for unimaginable suffering to take place in the name of safety and security.
Bruce Springsteen: This Land Is Your Land. Bernie Sanders: It's Our Revolution. RIKERS, Face to Face. President-Elect Trump: Last Week Tonight. T.I. | Warzone.
A vivid arc of life on Rikers as told by the people who experienced it — from the trauma of entry, the conflicts with other inmates and corrections officers, the stabbings and beatings, and the torture of solitary confinement to the psychological challenges of returning to the outside world
Our history of racial terror casts a shadow across the U.S. landscape. We must engage it more honestly.
Eighty percent of Riker's current population of 7,600 are imprisoned on the island because they are too poor to afford bail and 40 percent should be in a mental health facility instead.
While prisoners refuse to perform their jobs, some guards are not showing up to work.
Date on which prisoners across the U.S. are planning to strike over being forced to work for little or no pay, describing the protest as a "call to action against slavery in America": 9/9/2016
The US imprisons more women, both per capita and in absolute numbers, than any other country. As shocking as the statistics are, they don’t reflect the uniquely horrible circumstances many incarcerated women faced before their convictions. And, according to a report released Wednesday, women are also the fastest growing demographic in our jails, where people are booked and held pending trial, greatly exacerbating the societal disadvantages these women already face.
A new museum in Alabama is designed to reveal the racial challenges of our nation's history and the opportunities for a future where we engage in truth and reconciliation.
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