A 2013 prison hunger strike in California led to a dramatic decline in the use of solitary confinement. More than a decade later, people impacted by solitary reflect on the toll of separation.

"...the $25 a week I made was a nice hike from a job like pantry detail, which earned less than $16 a week. However, I soon learned that being detained for a crime isn’t easy on anybody, and that mental health woes can surface in many different ways."

Today’s Opening Statement leads with a ruling that blocks ICE from getting access to your tax information. We covered the flailing Justice Department, more wrenching coverage from Minnesota, and a story about open records abuse on YouTube: mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

Michael Papp’s body was cold and stiff inside his secluded Cuyahoga County jail cell when a corrections officer finally opened the door. Officers reportedly walked the pod 50 times, peeking inside cells for signs of life. Yet, somehow, they missed a dead body.

🚗 📧 For the next few weeks, our Closing Argument newsletter will be on the road, bringing you stories about the border, ICE, juvenile justice and bail reform from around the Southwest. Subscribe now and get the newsletter in your inbox tomorrow:

After the co-owner of a St. Paul store criticized immigration crackdown in a national television interview, workers said federal agents showed up to audit employee records. In another case, protesters observing ICE said officers called them by name, and even led them back to their own home.

As another round of extreme low temperatures sweeps parts of the U.S., people in dilapidated jails and prisons face an increased risk of illness and even death. The threat of losing power, poor heating systems and a general lack of medical attention can compound problems in frigid conditions.

"Death row breeds anxiety. Each of us faces himself and has a choice of whether to thrive or deteriorate. Some guys, even those with lots of education, lose their minds — maybe due to paranoia, drugs, complacency — and so you make it a priority to be there for them."

A key Mississippi lawmaker has passed a major hurdle on a bill that calls for tougher oversight of deaths inside the state’s notorious prisons, following an investigation by The Marshall Project - Jackson, Mississippi Today, Clarion Ledger, Hattiesburg American and The Mississippi Link.

Today’s Opening Statement, our daily newsletter, brings news of a guilty plea from a Cleveland judge whose conflicts and tampering case we’ve followed for years. There are dozens of new links on Minnesota and a grace note to a federal judge. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

“We’re talking about subtle transactions of intimidation here,” said Kalfani Ture, a senior fellow at Yale’s Urban Ethnography Project and former police officer. “Repression doesn’t always operate in the dramatic. It often operates in the mundane.”

A former judge admits to guilt in a criminal case sparked by reporting by The Marshall Project - Cleveland. Sentencing will be at a later date.

"I was losing myself. I remember my mother telling me, 'You gotta understand that they can lock up your body, but they can’t lock up your mind. In your mind, you have to find your freedom.' And that’s what acting became for me."

Today the @macarthurjustice.bsky.social held a memorial for Honesty Bishop, who @katiereports.bsky.social and I wrote about last year. She would have been 34. Her story is tragic and unbelievable, but her strength led to the end of the very Missouri prison policy that tormented her.

Michael Papp’s body was cold and stiff inside his secluded Cuyahoga County jail cell when a corrections officer finally opened the door. Officers reportedly walked the pod 50 times, peeking inside cells for signs of life. Yet, somehow, they missed a dead body.

The number of children in ICE detention on a given day has skyrocketed, jumping more than sixfold since the start of the second Trump administration. The Marshall Project analyzed data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and found that ICE held around 170 children on an average day under Trump.

Today’s Opening Statement, our daily newsletter, features a look at ICE intimidation tactics in Minnesota and a prison reform bill in Mississippi that follows our look at in-custody deaths there. There’s also plenty on Trump’s weaponization tactics. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

A key Mississippi lawmaker has passed a major hurdle on a bill that calls for tougher oversight of deaths inside the state’s notorious prisons, following an investigation by The Marshall Project - Jackson, Mississippi Today, Clarion Ledger, Hattiesburg American and The Mississippi Link.

In a scathing 83-page ruling issued Monday evening, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes sided with a group of five young Haitian adults who sued the government, claiming officials sought to end temporary protected status for them without adequately determining whether conditions had improved in Haiti.

In the case of Mischief Toys, ABC News reported that workers at the St. Paul toy store used a 3D printer to make thousands of free whistles for people to alert others of the presence of immigration agents. And then the federal agents came to the store.

Dr. William Weber, medical director of the Medical Justice Alliance, said the infrastructure in jails and prisons in many U.S. states is inadequate when it comes to extreme weather. That’s especially true when it comes to winter in the South, he said, where he’s heard of cell walls covered in frost.

Social worker Justyna Rzewinski saw people with mental illness “deadlocked” in their cells for months without sunlight, human contact — or medication.

Kevin Flynn, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., served under seven presidents and investigated scores of shootings. He told The Marshall Project that if these processes are done poorly or not at all, the investigation is “fatally flawed.”

In today’s edition of Opening Statement, our daily newsletter, we look at a ruling on refugee status that affects hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the U.S. We’ve got lots of Minnesota links and plenty of Justice Department news. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

There are reports of at least two measles cases at the DIlley Detention Center, an ICE facility that holds children and parents. This thread is to provide some important context. First, how many people are in there right now…

Jail administrators fail to fix mistakes that continue to cost lives, an analysis of state records by The Marshall Project - Cleveland shows.

After a few weeks delay, ICE just released new detention statistics. They show 70,766 people in detention as of 1/26/2026. I believe this is the first time this data source has reported a detained population over 70k.

A federal judge on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to end the temporary protected immigration status of hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in America. The government’s move would have cleared the way for ICE agents to begin mass deportations of people from the island nation.

"This job is not what I set out to do. I was in college for forensics and criminology, and I thought I might become a doctor. But at 21, I lost my boyfriend, Preston Freeman. He went out with some friends and a shooting started, and he got hit in the crossfire — one bullet killed him."

The number of children in ICE detention on a given day has skyrocketed, jumping more than sixfold since the start of the second Trump administration. The Marshall Project analyzed data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and found that ICE held around 170 children on an average day under Trump.

Falsely accused of eating pets, and worse, Haitians in Springfield have survived harassment, and now fear deportation.

In today’s Opening Statement newsletter, we have a TMP piece on Cleveland’s jails, and another on the impact of bitterly cold weather behind bars. Plus, dozens of links on the authoritarian crackdown by federal agents in Minnesota and how residents are fighting back. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

Michael Papp’s body was cold and stiff inside his secluded Cuyahoga County jail cell when a corrections officer finally opened the door. Officers reportedly walked the pod 50 times, peeking inside cells for signs of life. Yet, somehow, they missed a dead body.

The Trump administration’s efforts to exclude the state from investigations into the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti go against decades of practice.

As another round of extreme low temperatures sweeps parts of the U.S., people in dilapidated jails and prisons face an increased risk of illness and even death.

A 2013 prison hunger strike in California led to a dramatic decline in the use of solitary confinement. More than a decade later, people impacted by solitary reflect on the toll of separation. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/28/c...

In today’s Opening Statement newsletter, we lead with Trump’s children of ICE, a look at skyrocketing detention rates for young immigrants. There are more than a dozen links covering Minnesota. And was sentencing day for the former deputy sheriff who murdered Sonya Massey. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

The number of children in ICE detention on a given day has skyrocketed, jumping more than sixfold since the start of the second Trump administration. The Marshall Project analyzed data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and found that ICE held around 170 children on an average day under Trump.

The military has been used domestically about 30 times since 1807, mostly to enforce civil rights and quell riots. Can they be used to quash political protests?

The number of children in ICE detention on a given day has skyrocketed, jumping more than sixfold since the start of the second Trump administration. We analyzed data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and found that ICE held around 170 children on an average day under Trump.

Really beautiful work from @themarshallproject.org documenting the Californians who took part in a massive hunger strike 13 years ago to challenge the use of solitary confinement in state prisons

The civil rights law that has allowed lawsuits against local and state police doesn’t apply to federal agents.

The Arkansas chief of police who's refused to enter a formal agreement to work with ICE:

A 2013 prison hunger strike in California led to a dramatic decline in the use of solitary confinement. More than a decade later, people impacted by solitary reflect on the toll of separation. Read about their experiences in solitary, with portraits by photographer Brian L. Frank:

From immigration to the death penalty and beyond, here are some of the administration’s key changes in criminal justice.

A 2013 prison hunger strike in California led to a dramatic decline in the use of solitary confinement. More than a decade later, people impacted by solitary reflect on the toll of separation.

This tension — between federal immigration agents whose efforts surpass anything in recent history and local police who need the trust of their communities to solve crimes — is playing out all over the country.

When federal agents use excessive force, infringe on people’s civil rights or fail to offer medical aid, experts say it’s especially difficult to hold them accountable in federal court.

The Insurrection Act has been used by U.S. presidents about 30 times. President Abraham Lincoln used the act at the start of the Civil War. Decades later, President Donald Trump has threatened to send troops to Minnesota for a far different reason.

“There’s basically no right to sue federal officers for almost anything, including constitutional violations and including use of deadly force." (@themarshallproject.org)