In 1901, "11,502 Black men, women, boys, and girls were arrested, comprising 64.5 percent of total arrests. Atlanta’s Black population was approximately 36,000." @jboothhistory.bsky.social on Atlanta's long history of racist policing

@interdependentstudy.com continues it podcast series based on our Abolitionist Lessons from the Prison Belt series w/ @lydiajean.bsky.social Judah Schept, Ruth Wilson Gilmore & @craiggilmore.bsky.social — read the article they're discussing here: inquest.org/custody-and-...

"Seeing today’s protesters as part of a long history of resistance to police oppression allows us to better appreciate the political continuities [&] to see where openings for potential change may appear." @jboothhistory.bsky.social on Black Atlantans' response to oppression

"Over the years, my sister has gone to Carnegie Hall to hear music I’ve written. She was an adolescent when I was arrested. Now, two decades later, this is how I spend time with her—giving her something to be proud of." Joseph Wilson on writing celebrated operas from prison

"It was important to me to highlight the realities of incarceration. The audience has to witness the humiliation of a strip search, late-night conviction in a lonely cell, separation from loved ones." Joseph Wilson on composing an opera from prison & trying to reach audiences

This week Inquest covered the devastating FCC vote that will cost families of incarcerated people at least $250 million more per year, and a reevaluation of the history of how the South become the most incarcerated region of the US. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

"We did not ask for a softer bed, a nightstand, a locker, etc. WE ASKED FOR LIFE!!" —incarcerated strike leader Marjorie Marsh. Read her story:

Attending #NLADA25 @nlada.bsky.social ? Don't miss our panel "Freedom Writers: The Importance of Writing from Experience to Challenge Mass Incarceration," TODAY 3–4pm, featuring @premaldharia.bsky.social @adammcgee.bsky.social & Inquest contributors Kenithia Alston & Ivan Kilgore @ubfsf.bsky.social

Political scientist Kirstine Taylor breaks down how the Jim Crow South transformed into the modern carceral state. Tl;dr threaded below, or get the whole story here: inquest.org/from-cha... [cont., 1/3]

I remember what it felt like to see that number pop up on my phone when my dad called from prison, and how devastating it felt to see it as a missed call notification. Phone calls are precious time for incarcerated people and their loved ones outside.

"Families will have to pay $215 million more to stay connected than anticipated last year, and there’s expected to be two-thirds fewer call minutes between families and their incarcerated loved ones due to the higher rates." @biancatylek.bsky.social @worthrises.bsky.social

"Families impacted by incarceration have spent years advocating to reduce the extortionary cost of prison phone calls. Tomorrow Trump’s FCC is expected to vote on revised regulations that would unravel" all recent progress. @biancatylek.bsky.social @worthrises.bsky.social

This week, Inquest examined why lethal injection remains so popular with death-penalty states despite its monstrous failings, and we found hope in Black Studies. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

"We have a pretty clear pattern: lethal injection is *so bad* that incarcerated people are actually able to meet these super high standards [for legal challenge]. And what is the Court’s response? 'Well, we’ll just keep raising the standard.'" @corinnabarrettlain.bsky.social

Why do states cling to lethal injection despite its documented failures? In a new interview with @inquest.bsky.social, legal scholar Corinna Barrett Lain reveals a disturbing answer: it hides the violence of state killing. Discover the full interview with Carol Steiker here:

"There’s one thing, *only* one, that lethal injection does well: it hides the violence of state killing." @corinnabarrettlain.bsky.social discusses her recent book 'Secrets of the Killing State' @nyupress.bsky.social and why state's are so determined to keep lethal injections

"Suffering cannot be overcome in isolation." Ariel Gilbert on the afterlife of slavery—and the power of study and struggle.

"It seemed there weren’t enough planets in the universe to count all the ways Black life was endangered: medical racism, drug overdoses, incarceration, food insecurity, physical violence. 24/7 hypervigilance was exhausting." Meeting peril head-on with freedom dreams: inquest.org/hope-you-get...

This week Inquest addressed how racial capitalism explains the overcharging of Luigi Mangione, and shared an incarcerated author's take on finding hope in a hopeless place. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

A thread on Mangione vs. how those who kill marginalized, poor, & Black people are treated—or read it all here from @ch4rlotte.bsky.social inquest.org/making-a... "The actions of Penny, Rittenhouse, & Zimmerman did not pose a fundamental threat to the established order." [1/4]

Check out my new article in @inquest.bsky.social about the prosecution of Luigi Mangione.

"The charges against [Mangione] make clear that the criminal legal system’s response to murder has everything to do with who is murdered—and who does the murdering." Political scientist @ch4rlotte.bsky.social on the workings of racial capitalism.

"I too am an incarcerated man with more time remaining in my sentence than is humanly possible." Tut Waterman on death by incarceration.

"Prisons are built in remote locations, shielded behind wire and walls, and utterly severed from society’s truth-seekers—its journalists, its documentarians, and its scholars—and from the families and loved ones of those inside." Read more:

"The image would not leave my mind: a man with cancer, dying in a state-issued uniform, his memory forgotten." Incarcerated author Tut Waterman on forging human connections in the face of state neglect.

This week Inquest interviewed philosopher Sophie Lewis about carceral feminism and shared a medical doctor's argument for making hospitals less like jails. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

Announcing a new initiative of @endmassinc.bsky.social called Defending Prison Journalism, which will include a series of articles from Inquest's incarcerated writers on the current state of incarcerated journalists' rights. Read all about it:

"Gender is a technology of work, and we don’t get free by securitizing little enclaves of gender oppression." @reproutopia.bsky.social on why asking the state to punish *more* in the name of helping women is always going to be a losing bet.

"When feminist struggles enter phases of rapprochement with the state, they throw Indigenous, 'deviant,' Black, sexualized, sex-working women and other gender minorities under the bus." @reproutopia.bsky.social talks with Aya Gruber about truly abolitionist feminism.

"Hospitals and health-care providers are duty-bound to care for all people who come through their doors, and care for them well. Our current policies policing free movement and drug use are not working." Dr. Divya Manoharan on how hospitals fail their patients who use drugs.

"Many hospitals have policies forbidding patients who use drugs from leaving hospital floors" to prevent them from using. "This [is] a form of pseudo-incarceration." Medical Dr. Divya Manoharan on how hospitals turn themselves into jailers—& harm patients

This week, Inquest covered how drug diversion programs are often extremely carceral in practice, and reviewed a new memoir by one of the greatest jailhouse lawyers of our time, Calvin Duncan. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

"Treatment providers are asked to exercise . . . coercive control over their court-mandated clients, warping the therapeutic relationship." Mary Ellen Stitt w/ @uchicagopress.bsky.social on how treatment ends up feeling a lot like punishment when courts get involved:

"Treatment-based alternatives to traditional punishment help to maintain the criminalization of illness and even intensify punitive interventions into the lives of the most vulnerable." Mary Ellen Stitt w/ @uchicagopress.bsky.social on the failed promise of diversion programs

"With Louisiana positioned to continue its ruthless reign as the nation’s mass incarceration capital," Calvin Duncan's new book 'The Jailhouse Lawyer' "arrives at a time and in a place it is needed more than ever." Read the full review now:

"We as a society don’t get to hear stories of Black men helping each other." The inspiration we need in this moment—from Calvin Duncan, one of the country's foremost jailhouse lawyers. Read about his new memoir in Inquest's latest:

This week Inquest covered how a long history of racist policing in LA set the stage for ICE's violent crackdown, and the false promise that facial-identification tech will "fix" eyewitness identification. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

"The use of facial recognition to ID witnesses is rife with the exact same problems as eyewitness ID—with the worsening factor of being presented as scientific, objective...." Will Collins on the crisis of police use of facial-recognition tech

We're looking forward to listening to this podcast based on the second article in our recent series "Abolitionist Lessons from the Prison Belts." Thanks @interdependentstudy.com ! You can read the whole series here: inquest.org/abolitionist...

"Faulty facial recognition matches are already contributing to arrests and convictions." Veteran public defender Will Collins on our broken eyewitness ID system—and how surveillance cameras and AI will only make it worse.

"To no one’s surprise, both LAPD and LASD forces were present at the protests that followed the raids and assisted ICE by blockading and brutalizing protesters." Leah Perez on the thinness of so-called "sanctuary" policies, in LA and beyond

We're back from our summer break with an incisive analysis from La Defensa's Leah Perez on how a history of racist policing in Los Angeles has amplified the violence of ICE and the National Guard to create the authoritarian spectacle of a city "under federal occupation."

Today is the anniversary of the start of the Attica uprising. "Those who led the Attica uprising wanted humane treatment. Their bravery resulted in meaningful improvements to prison regulations. . . . Those gains have . . . eroded. We want them back. We must remember Attica."

This week, Inquest remembers Attica—Tuesday will be the 54th anniversary of the uprising's start—and reports on the hope- and health-crushing burden of carceral medical debt. Get the full recap here: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

"Most prisons are so short-staffed that the National Guard continues to be necessary to maintain basic operations. And we continue to live with the indefinite suspension of recreation, programs, commissary. . ." Joseph Wilson on the current state of NY's prisons.

"Those who led the Attica uprising wanted humane treatment. Their bravery resulted in meaningful improvements. Those gains have largely been eroded. We want them back." Incarcerated artist Joseph Wilson on the perpetual near-lockdown conditions of NY prisons post–guard strike

A tale of carceral medical neglect *and* rapacious capitalism from @nclc4consumers.bsky.social told in three posts. Read the whole story here: inquest.org/medical-... "In some jails and prisons, when someone experiences a serious medical issue . . . [1/3—cont. below]

"Many jails & prisons have looked for ways to actively disincentivize [medical] care & shift the financial burden to incarcerated people & their families." Anna Anderson of @nclc4consumers.bsky.social on the staggering medical debt foisted onto incarcerated people

This week Inquest shared an argument for the decarceral potential of a prison general strike, and a conversation about what present-day activists can learn from the example of political prisoner and anarchist Martin Sostre. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

"I always really felt Martin Sostre’s revolutionary optimism. The odds are against us, the power is against us, but that doesn’t make revolution impossible. And if you don’t believe it’s possible, you’re not going to win." —Garrett Felber on new Sostre bio from @akpress.org