Choose your location
The Marshall Project
This Radio Show Connects People Behind Bars With the Outside World
Radio is a lifeline behind bars. Unlike books, magazines or physical mail, it’s one of the hardest forms of communication for prisons to censor, keeping incarcerated people connected to the world outside. In recent years, incarcerated people have even taken to the airwaves to share their own stories from the inside, recording podcasts like Ear Hustle and Inside Wire from recording studios in prison.
One City’s Surprising Tactic to Reduce Gun Violence: Solving More Nonfatal Shootings
When Denver police sped to the scene of a shooting on June 27, 2022, they found a victim lucky to be alive — and a case that could just as easily have been a homicide. A man and woman had attempted to steal an unoccupied car that was idling at a gas station. When the owner chased them on foot, one of the assailants shot him in the face. Somehow, the bullet deflected off his mouth. He lost some teeth, but he didn’t lose his life. — The difference between life and death was a matter of inches or less, and in most big U.S. cities that arbitrary outcome might also have determined whether the shooter faced justice. That’s because major police departments devote far fewer resources to solving nonfatal shootings than they do fatal ones.
They Shot at Police. Were They Standing Their Ground?
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. Many Americans, especially on the right, have rallied around two political creeds: support for the police and the right to...
Hate Crimes Rose in 2022 — and Concerns Remain High
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. In televised remarks Thursday addressing the violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories, President Joe Biden lamented “the rise of...
How We Analyzed Changing Bail Trends in Cuyahoga County
Unpacking a complex, changing system. The Marshall Project’s ongoing series about the bail system in Cleveland’s criminal court is based on analyzing data from more than 80,000 cases from 2016 through 2022. We have a record of every bail decision made in these cases, including the date the bail was set, the type of bail, and its monetary value.
Here’s How I Use My Story to Teach Incarcerated Kids That Writing Matters
Recently, at one of the writing workshops that I teach at three juvenile lockups in and around my hometown of St. Louis, one of my students posed a provocative question:. “Why should I write about changing the world when the world doesn’t care about me?” — The tall, lanky 16-year-old asked his question in a slow, rebellious twang that reminded me of how I spoke as a child.
Justice Says Mississippi Court Rule to Give Poor Defendants Lawyers Isn’t Working
Three months after Mississippi’s Supreme Court directed judges in the state to ensure that poor criminal defendants always have a lawyer as they wait to be indicted, one of those justices acknowledged that the rule isn’t being widely followed. “We know anecdotally that there’s a problem out there,”...
Many Prisons Restrict Books to Stop Drug Smuggling. Critics Say It Doesn’t Work.
A book is not always just a book. Volunteers who mail books to people in prison said they see proof of that in the requests they get every day. A sign language dictionary for a man whose child was losing their hearing meant connection to family. Books for a woman taking a course behind bars was her path to a degree. A Buddhist workbook was comfort for a man on death row.
A Chaotic Moment For The Death Penalty
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. On Monday, federal appellate Judge Jerry E. Smith published an opinion that would have allowed Texas to execute Jedidiah Murphy....
A Death in Dallas, and a Family’s Long Fight for Justice
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. In 2016, a man named Tony Timpa called 911 for help in Dallas — and ended up dead. Initially, almost...
How to Report on Banned Books in Prisons in Your State
The Marshall Project spent over a year reporting on banned books in prisons, from a nationwide searchable table of banned book lists to Ohio's confusing book screening process. Use this reporting recipe to investigate the issue of banned books in prisons, whether you are a journalist or a curious citizen.
Should Money Decide Who is Kept in Jail? More Locations Are Saying No.
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. Starting tomorrow, the arrest process for most criminal defendants in Los Angeles will look very different. An administrative change by...
The Marshall Project Announces Mississippi Local News Team
The Marshall Project, the Pulitzer-winning nonprofit media organization covering criminal justice, is excited to announce the launch of its second local news operation in Jackson, Mississippi. The local newsroom aims to expose abuses in the local criminal justice system through investigative, data and community engagement journalism, supported by The Marshall Project’s national newsroom. The news team will serve local audiences, including people directly affected by the criminal justice system, who are often neglected or mischaracterized in media coverage.
Jacob Wideman Says ‘Vindictive’ Arizona Officials Violated His Rights
A “Violation” podcast update brings listeners into Wideman’s case against state corrections and parole officials. Lawyers representing Jacob Wideman recently argued before a judge in Arizona that state officials treated him in a “constitutionally impermissible” way when they revoked his parole more than six years ago.
Juvenile Detention Centers Face One Scandal After Another
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. A decision to remove minors from a notorious adult maximum-security prison in Louisiana highlights the crisis in one of the...
A Prison Medical Company Faced Lawsuits From Incarcerated People. Then It Went ‘Bankrupt.’
In 2020, Jonathan Arther sued a dozen state officials and employees of the Arizona prison where, he says, his medical care was bungled so badly that he went blind in one eye. He also sued Corizon Health Inc., the private, for-profit medical contractor that the state had hired to provide care in the prison where Arther was serving time for a DUI conviction. A few weeks ago, his wife got an email offering the couple $5,000 to settle the lawsuit — an offer she found insulting. The email said there was likely not enough money to cover all the legal claims against Corizon, and the couple could take the small lump sum instead of continuing to fight in court.
Mississippi Courts Won’t Say How They Provide Lawyers for Poor Clients
In 2017, the Mississippi Supreme Court’s then-Chief Justice William Waller Jr. helped mandate that judges throughout the state explain in writing how they deliver on their duty to provide poor criminal defendants with a lawyer. He hoped the rule would spur improvements in Mississippi’s patched-together public defense system, regarded...
This Homicide Victim’s Family Chose Reconciliation Over a Life Sentence
How a violent killing in North Carolina was resolved with a pioneering use of “restorative justice.”. This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. This week, I...
He’s Facing Execution For His Daughter’s Death. Now, Science Suggests It Was An Accident.
Long after he retired from solving murders in rural east Texas, Brian Wharton looked back on one of his biggest cases with unease. A father named Robert Roberson had shown up at an emergency room with his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. She was unconscious and turning blue. The father speculated that she’d fallen out of bed, but a pediatrician concluded that she had been shaken “very forcefully.” As a detective with the Palestine Police Department, Wharton deduced the father was to blame and testified at the 2003 trial, where Roberson was sentenced to death. But Wharton never could make sense of the man’s demeanor throughout these events. “He’s not getting mad, he’s not getting sad, he’s just not right,” Wharton recalled. Twenty years later, a defense lawyer showed up at the detective’s door, explaining that Roberson’s affect could be explained by Autism Spectrum Disorder. But that wasn’t all. Many in the medical community had turned against the diagnosis at the heart of his conviction: “Shaken Baby Syndrome.” Wharton quickly came to believe he’d helped send an innocent man to death row. “I took a deep breath and said, ‘Okay, now we begin to make this right,’” he said. “Fortunately, he’s still alive when science comes to his rescue.”
The Marshall Project
743+
Posts
5M+
Views
The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.