"What are we to make of Democrats’ claims that DHS 'appears to have strayed far from its original purpose'? In their estimation, what, exactly, was its original purpose?" Spencer Piston on the bipartisan politics of immigration policing.

“We have journalists on the ground every place in the world, except in prisons” @chriswblackwell.bsky.social speaks with @inquest.bsky.social about Ending Isolation: inquest.org/we-have-jour...

This week Inquest reported on potential horrifying consequences of mandating body-worn cameras for prison guards, and offered a glimpse inside America’s most secretive supermax prison. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

For folks in the Boston area, an opportunity on 4/7 to be among the first to see a compelling new community-made film about violence interruption in Los Angeles—sponsored by one of our colleagues. Link to register for a free ticket:

"I was sentenced to prison to repay my wrongdoings, not create nonconsensual pornographic material." Incarcerated author Amber Martens on horrifying unforeseen consequences of guards' body-worn cameras in prison.

“We have journalists on the ground every place in the world, except in prisons” @chriswblackwell.bsky.social speaks with @inquest.bsky.social about Ending Isolation: inquest.org/we-have-jour...

Really looking forward to presenting tomorrow as a part of the session "Police Unions, Labor Politics, and the Penal State," with Stuart Schrader, Imani Radney, and Aaron Bekemeyer, historians who are doing cutting edge research on the rise of police unions! @inquest.bsky.social

"My natural instinct is to refuse. Then I remember that if I refuse this order, I’ll get a first-class ticket straight to segregation and possibly lose future visits with my family." Incarcerated author Amber Martens on state-sponsored assault in prison.

"Although these men are under restrictions designed to isolate them from their entire world ... hundreds of lawsuits against the federal government have come from within." A preview of former political prisoner Eric King's book on supermax prison ADX from PM Press

"This unit is a U.S.-soil Guantánamo Bay. People are taken from their nations, tortured brutally, and then dropped in a box for the remainder of their lives." Eric King's firsthand account of secretive supermax federal prison ADX—a preview from PM Press

This week Inquest covered a promising new strategy in public defense, and explored the power of using film to change the narrative about prisons. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

"Sharing your story can carry an emotional cost. Because of that, it’s important that the story reaches the highest number of people, in large clusters, as quickly as possible. Film can do that." Represent Justice's Daniel Forkkio on changing the story about prisons

"Represent Justice helps formerly incarcerated people share their voices and their experiences with communities around the country by training, supporting, and compensating impacted storytellers and by running campaigns to change the justice system."

"One of the fundamental injustices of the criminal legal system is that who ends up in court has more to do with how much money they have in their pocket than almost anything else." Sharone Mitchell, Jr. / @cookcodefender.bsky.social on the "hamster wheel" of public defense

"The poor people who end up being our clients don’t usually have lobbyists fighting for their interests, so we have stepped up." Sharone Mitchell, Jr., of @cookcodefender.bsky.social on imagining a powerful new role for public defenders—for Gideon Day 2026.

For those watching the Oscars tonight, a reminder that the incarcerated whistleblowers behind The Alabama Solution have been in solitary confinement as retribution for their whistleblowing. All the details:

This week, Inquest covered how Oscar buzz around 'The Alabama Solution' hasn't spared its incarcerated whistleblowers from being punished with solitary confinement, and we published an investigation into abuses in Georgia's youth detention facilities. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

"As of 2023 Georgia spends $217,517 annually to incarcerate a child.... The annual cost of a pupil in Georgia public schools in 2024 is $15,833." An investigate report with Prism & Mainline on Georgia's disastrously dangerous & expensive youth incarceration system

Despite decreasing crime rates in Georgia, the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice prioritizes spending on punishment & incarceration, particularly for Black children, reports Jadelynn Zhang. This investigation was co-published with @inquest.bsky.social & Mainline.

“‘The environment there is not good at all,’ Jay said. ‘It’s very dangerous—people fighting 24/7, people trying to make shanks and stuff like that.’” An investigative report into Georgia's youth detention crisis, with Prism and Mainline:

"Stories about prison conditions—whether abroad or at home—should not be illegal. They should be nurtured and safeguarded, including by law." Seth Stern of @freedom.press + Corinne Shanahan of @endmassinc.bsky.social + incarcerated journalist Jeremy Busby

"The US may sometimes protect those who expose tyranny abroad but those who shine a light on abuses back home are on their own." Seth Stern of @freedom.press + Corinne Shanahan of @endmassinc.bsky.social + Jeremy Busby on incarcerated whistleblowers

This week Inquest interviewed celebrated incarcerated journalist and activist Christopher W Blackwell about what it would take to level the playing field for prison journalism, and shared a deep-dive review of his book on abolishing solitary confinement. Full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

"What we’ve seen happening is that states pass groundbreaking legislation aimed at ending solitary confinement—but it turns out they haven’t actually succeeded in changing the practice of torturing and harming people. They’re just renaming it." Christopher W Blackwell

"I never knew I was voiceless until outside advocates kept telling me how voiceless I was. Even though people’s intentions usually aren’t bad, you don’t need to speak for other people. Let people speak for themselves and empower them to do so." Christopher W Blackwell

"Solitary confinement ... is just one of many harsh practices of our criminal legal system that has made seem natural and necessary, but which is in fact experimental and entirely deleterious."

Christopher Blackwell's 'Ending Isolation' "makes clear that we misunderstand solitary confinement if we think of it in terms of sensory deprivation." Joshua Manson on the carceral culture that underwrites solitary confinement.

This week Inquest covered how "reformist" prison policies are often a bait-and-switch, maintaining the carceral status quo, and published a grieving mother's take on how restorative justice can help communities heal from gun violence. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

"Prison systems have sold incarcerated people on the idea that good behavior leads to progress. But instead of transfer to a minimum-security prison, I was rerouted into a maximum-security warehouse disguised as a lower-security prison."

When incarcerated author Ivan Kilgore was moved by authorities to a more violent facility, he realized the underlying policy "was not an avenue for creating more opportunities for self-improvement and making facilities more peaceful. Rather, it was punishment in disguise."

"We cannot arrest our way out of violence. Incarceration does not erase trauma; it only buries it deeper. Real change requires us to create spaces for truth-telling, accountability, and reconciliation." —Dawn Poindexter, on healing trauma as a grieving mother

"Despite my personal loss, I found myself feeling empathy not just for the victims, but for the perpetrators who were, in many ways, victims themselves." A grieving mother's journey to heal her community—a collab with @thejusticecollab.bsky.social inquest.org/a-path-forwa...

This week Inquest covered the Minneapolis protests from the perspective of a writer who spent most of his life incarcerated, and explored how academics and violence interruption workers can partner to save lives. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

"We’ve sat in sterile university conference rooms where gun violence gets discussed with clinical distance and in community centers where the same topic, weighted with personal grief and pain, can make statistics seem absurd." A collab w/ @thejusticecollab.bsky.social

"This is what solidarity looks like in practice—not just alignment of goals, but the patient work of building shared understanding across different ways of knowing." A publishing collaboration with @thejusticecollab.bsky.social and their 'The Notebook' project

"My experiences protesting in Minneapolis have been so unlike what I think many people imagine the life of a long-term releasee would hold, and it felt vital to share them." Bill K on the power of democratic protest, inside and outside prison

"I am in the streets of Minneapolis and the protest is electric. Only three years ago, I walked out of Louisiana State Prison after forty-seven years of incarceration." @really-mad.bsky.social on what war and incarceration taught him about fighting for rights: inquest.org/iron-bars-to...

This week Inquest kicked off a new series on Carceral AI and shared a reflection on what Valentine's Day means for incarcerated people, penned by a married couple separated by prison bars. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

"Departments of corrections publicly claim to support family and community ties, yet their actions tell a different story." Ivan & Halima Kilgore: we are "writing this article because our relationship exists, it endures, and it refuses to be erased."

"This Valentine’s Day, millions of incarcerated Americans and their significant others will endure a paradox: Love is supposed to be a refuge, but in prison, it can become a weapon." Ivan & Hailma Kilgore on how prison authorities manipulate access to loved ones.

"Carceral AI is not a futuristic threat—it is a present-day reality, a logical extension of a system built to surveil and punish marginalized communities." Philosopher Dasha Pruss on how AI is worsening the crisis of mass incarceration.

"With the meteoric rise of AI, the U.S. criminal legal system has embraced the technology’s promise to streamline or automate traditionally human tasks under the logic of penal reform. But AI has worsened the system’s injustices." Dasha Pruss

This week, Inquest covered the woefully misguided efforts to reform immigration policing and the exploitative reliance of temp agencies on formerly incarcerated people. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

Today is the last day to submit presentation proposals! Conference attendance is free but registration is required. Get all the details:

"Decarceral and labor organizing are inseparable." —Maya Ragsdale of Beyond the Bars on how the temp labor market exploits formerly incarcerated people, to the detriment of all workers.

For formerly incarcerated people with work requirements, "the carceral system and the temp industry reinforce one another," keeping recently freed people stuck in risky, low-paying jobs under threat of reincarceration. Maya Ragsdale of Beyond the Bars on the "temp trap":

"An emphasis on professionalization portrays high-profile incidents of police violence not as moral failures but as proceduralist failures. The problem is located not in the violence itself but in the procedures that were (or weren’t) followed surrounding the violence."

We're cosponsoring this year’s Carceral Political Economy Conference at The New School for Social Research, NYC, March 27–28. Register to attend (it's free!) and *UNTIL FRIDAY* submit presentation proposals.

"The appeal of [police] reforms lies in their seductive promise to get it right next time: to enact violence only under a predetermined and legitimate set of circumstances." Spencer Piston on why immigration policing can't be fixed with professionalization, only worsened.

"It is not illegal to record and report on what people in power would rather keep hidden."