The Marshall Project is proud to announce the relaunch of “Inside Story,” our groundbreaking video series that explores the people, policies and systems shaping life inside and outside America’s prisons, jails and immigrant detention facilities. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/06/22/n...

“I now wonder if every father feels that surge of energy when they hold their child for the first time. And I wonder if fathers who are in the streets like I was ever think about prison being miles away yet so close due to their actions."

The Marshall Project analyzed more than 9,000 death sentences handed down across the nation since states brought the punishment back. People on death row and the families of their victims often have to wait decades for a resolution to their cases.

Today’s Opening Statement takes one final look at Father’s Day behind bars in a poignant essay by a regretful incarcerated dad. We also have the latest analysis on the two big criminal-justice-related Supreme Court rulings at the end of last week. us3.campaign-archive.com?u=a92567c13c...

The death row commutation is the first Mike DeWine has issued in his eight years as Ohio governor and, with his call to do away with capital punishment, represents the final steps in his five-decade evolution from death penalty proponent to skeptic. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/06/22/o...

Happy Juneteenth! It’s worth remembering today that forced, unpaid labor is still common in this country: 13th Amendment, etc. BUT ALSO: people in prison keep finding ways to resist, including through music, which I wrote about for @themarshallproject.org: www.themarshallproject.org/2026/06/14/f...

Bruce Jackson recorded men singing "Forty-Four Hammers" at the Retrieve State Prison Farm, a former plantation located near Galveston, the birthplace of Juneteenth. Versions of the same melody and lyrics were sung by men earlier in the 20th century in prison recordings from Alabama and Louisiana.

Today’s Opening Statement has the latest on sentencing day for the man known as New York’s Gilgo Beach serial killer. We also have the latest on a murder mystery in Texas and an update on a fatal police shooting of a 1-year-old boy in Mississippi. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

In 1992, David Wood was convicted of murdering young women and girls in Texas. Now, his lawyers have one last chance to stop his execution. Listen to "The Last 12 Weeks," a new series following a team of defense attorneys as they try to save their client’s life. nyti.ms/4owiwzO

Check out my new podcast with NYT/Serial/Marshall Project on the death penalty.

About half of people in prisons have a child under 18. On any given day, nearly 3 million children have a parent in prison or jail. We're launching “Sending Kites”, a monthly column exploring challenges faced by people with incarcerated loved ones, starting with the topic of parenting from prison.

“The Last 12 Weeks,” a new five-part podcast from The Marshall Project, @serialproductions.bsky.social, and @nytimes.com, is NOW AVAILABLE wherever you listen to podcasts. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/06/16/i...

In 1992, David Wood was convicted of murdering young women and girls in Texas. Now his lawyers have one last chance to stop his execution. "The Last 12 Weeks," our new series with @themarshallproject.org, follows a team of defense attorneys as they try to save their client’s life. lnk.to/last12weeks

Today’s Opening Statement has our new report on the failures of the Bureau of Prisons’ grievance system, which frustrates incarcerated people with valid claims. Plus, a plea from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to abolish capital punishment. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

In the first years after birth, the human brain develops at a remarkable pace, shaping a person’s physical and emotional health for the rest of their life. Under the Trump administration, at least 500 babies and toddlers have spent some of that pivotal time in ICE custody.

It's always been difficult to get help inside federal prison. But it's become nearly impossible, according to federal data analyzed by The Marshall Project and NPR. The rate at which the bureau granted grievances has fallen to less than 2% in 2023, the last full year of data available.

Today’s Opening Statement takes a look at a rare defeat for gunmakers at the U.S. Supreme Court. Also, we are launching a new monthly column offering guidance from behind bars and a new podcast about a death penalty case. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

Bruce Jackson recorded men singing "Forty-Four Hammers" at the Retrieve State Prison Farm, a former plantation located near Galveston, the birthplace of Juneteenth. Versions of the same melody and lyrics were sung by men earlier in the 20th century in prison recordings across the South.

Prison life comes with specific constraints shaping how a parent can show up in their child’s life. We're launching Sending Kites, a new monthly column that explores different challenges faced by people with incarcerated loved ones, starting with the topic of parenting from prison.

Summer 1987. Six young women and girls were found buried in the desert outside El Paso. A jury sentenced David Wood to death. For three decades, he's maintained his innocence. Now a team of lawyers is trying to prove it. "The Last 12 Weeks," our new podcast with @themarshallproject.org, out June 18.

Today’s Opening Statement has the latest on the apparent assassination of the Tren de Aragua gang leader and more coverage of news about immigration detention and enforcement. Plus good news for the wrongful convicted in Illinois. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

Last month, members of The Marshall Project gathered in Atlanta with people from across the criminal justice system for a series of conversations about the South and its place in the national criminal justice landscape. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/06/13/s...

In 1964, researcher Bruce Jackson traveled to prisons in Texas to record the songs that Black work crews had inherited from their enslaved ancestors. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/06/14/f...

While George Jackson and other friends were studying Karl Marx and organizing strikes, Ike White was directing a church choir, writing songs in multiple styles, and going by the name “Ikedelic.”

Today’s Opening Statement has the latest on a landmark plea deal in the case of the man accused of assassinating a Minnesota lawmaker last year. That plus links to stories about immigration detention facilities around the U.S. and an ICE trial of sorts in New York City. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

In the first years after birth, the human brain develops at a remarkable pace, shaping a person’s physical and emotional health for the rest of their life. Under the Trump administration, at least 500 babies and toddlers have spent some of that pivotal time in ICE custody.

Nearly three months into a 10-year sentence, Denise Short asked prison staffers at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl to place her on suicide watch. Prison officials ignored Short’s request, instead placing her in solitary. A day later, correctional officers found Short’s body.

New @themarshallproject.org @ms.now report shows since Trump returned to office, ICE has taken a total of more than 500 babies and toddlers into custody: www.themarshallproject.org/2026/06/09/b...

Today’s Opening Statement features more of our original immigration coverage and the story of a tenfold increase in the number of babies and toddlers being held in immigration detention facilities. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

In the first years after birth, the human brain develops at a remarkable pace, shaping a person’s physical and emotional health for the rest of their life. Under the Trump administration, at least 500 babies and toddlers have spent some of that pivotal time in ICE custody.

On an average day under Trump, ICE has 25 children aged 3 or younger in custody. In total, at least 500 babies and toddlers have been detained. That number is 10 times higher than it was in the previous 12 months under former President Joe Biden.

"I told the judge at the sentencing, 'Your Honor, I don’t make that kind of money.' I tried to ask my lawyer to withdraw my guilty plea because I never understood what I had actually agreed to in the first place. But it was too late. I was going to learn that justice isn’t blind — it’s expensive."

After 20 years in solitary confinement and an overturned death sentence, Quintez Hodges died by hanging in 2021. “This is not a fucking suicide. They were killing this man," Joesph Patri Brown told me from death row. @themarshallproject.org www.themarshallproject.org/2026/06/09/m...

“There were tons of weapons, it was dangerous, and the guards said lots of racist shit ...but also Ike White could get a keyboard and play all night."

Denise Short, 21, pleaded for help. Instead, she was sent to solitary confinement, where she died by suicide. Despite a legion of evidence of its harms, solitary confinement was the common factor in nearly 75% of suicides in Mississippi prisons since 2015. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/06/08/m...

Today’s Opening Statement takes a closer look at another federal ruling blocking the administration's asylum policies and an extradition fight over a federal agent in Texas who is charged with shooting a Minneapolis resident earlier this year. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

Last week, the Supreme Court tightened the mechanisms of compassionate release in the federal system. In separate decisions, the justices ruled that compassionate release can't be used to revisit doubts about a conviction, or to reduce a sentence considered excessive by today’s penalties.

An investigation found there were at least 47 suicides in solitary confinement in Mississippi, where cries for mental health care were met with isolation and punishment.

Today’s Opening Statement features an original TMP piece about the burden of high restitution in cases where a defendant has no realistic hope of paying it. Plus, the latest on a sex abuse scandal within a popular Lutheran church. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

When someone is injured or dies in the Cuyahoga County jail, security cameras can help investigators understand what happened. But ceiling-mounted cameras have routinely failed to record some of the most significant events in the jail in recent years, including at least three deaths.

"I make around $4,300 a month. But once I pay to care for my two kids, my car note and insurance, and help my mom with utilities, I have nothing left. So while I’ve paid what I can on the restitution since May, I live in constant fear because I just don’t make enough money."

Today’s Opening Statement features a photo essay of one couple’s ordeal with immigration detention in Newark, New Jersey. There’s more on the widening rift at the National Rifle Association, and a look at why overdose deaths have fallen. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

Amid a wave of anti-trans legislation, and the violence that often follows, four people share their experiences in the criminal justice system.

Transfers have long been a feature of immigration detention. But during the past year, attorneys say, those moves have carried higher stakes because the legal landscape around detention has changed dramatically.

Latif Hafraoui rarely talks about the 108 days he spent in immigration detention, most of it at Delaney Hall. He and his wife, Sandra, say they want to forget the horrors he experienced. Photographer Corrie Aune documented the Hafraouis’ time apart, and their reunion, for The Marshall Project.

Nearly six months after resigning in disgrace, former Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze was sentenced to 60 days in jail and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine for falsifying records to steer work to a friend.

When someone is injured or dies in the Cuyahoga County jail, security cameras can help investigators understand what happened. But ceiling-mounted cameras have routinely failed to record some of the most significant events in the jail in recent years, including at least three deaths.

Today’s Opening Statement features three TMP original stories, from sentencing day for an Ohio judge to the consequences of the Supreme Court’s latest blow to the Voting Rights Act to some rap music conceived behind bars. mailchi.mp/themarshallp...

One detainee in Arizona told the paper that a guard told him, “It’s part of my job. I have to make your life miserable so that you request your own deportation.”

A major legal win for Black Mississippians that was supposed to lead to new elections for the state Supreme Court was wiped away.