Portside

“This is not the solution to mass incarceration,” Rep. Ryan Clancy stressed. “This is harm reduction to the incredible damage that we do inherently when we incarcerate people.”

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.

Understaffed and underfunded, Mississippi’s Parchman prison has received media attention for its grisly violence, gang control and subhuman living conditions. Lawmakers have known about these issues for years, and have done nothing to fix it.

Lacino Hamilton has been locked up inside Michigan state prisons for over 23 years. He has “lived” in more than half of the state’s 40-plus prisons. Yet he has not wasted this time. He has become a powerful analyst, critical voice, an organic intellectual as some might put it. Here is one of his most profound contributions to our understanding of mass incarceration: Being Sane In An Insane Place. ~ James Kilgore

After budget cuts gutted prison higher-ed programs, Cheryl Wilkins demanded the chance to learn behind bars. Now she’s making sure others get the same life-changing opportunity.