How These Jail Officials Profit From Selling E-Cigarettes to Inmates
The vapor cloud produced by a man with an e-cigarette in London. Yui Mok/ZUMA This story was published originally by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power, and the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter to receive stories like…
Van Jones Isn’t Ready to Give Up on Finding Common Ground With Trump
Mark Wilson/Getty As the Senate impeachment trail gets underway, lawmakers are sticking closely to the marching orders for their chosen tribe. Partisanship hangs over the nation, heavier than ever. But Van Jones says he hasn’t give up on meaningful bi-partisan cooperation. The CNN star worked in the Obama White House as the “Green Jobs Czar”,…
Immigrant Kids Were Restrained to Chairs With Bags Over Their Heads at a Juvenile Hall in Virginia
An 18-year-old Honduran who said he suffered abuse inside a Virginia immigration detention facility stands in front of a window in San Francisco. Eric Risberg, File/AP Antonio was tired of people calling him names. Staff members at the Virginia juvenile hall where he was held would call him pendejo and “onion head,” he said. After…
Stabbings, Fires, Flooded Cells: Mississippi’s Prison System Is Falling Apart
A protest about prison conditions outside the Capitol in Jackson, Mississippi, on January 7Rogelio V. Solis/AP Mississippi prisons are in crisis. On Tuesday, a congressman called for a federal investigation after at least five people incarcerated in the state were stabbed or beaten to death during a week at the start of the year. A…
Should Judges Have to Weigh the Price Tag of Sending Someone to Prison?
AndreyPopov/iStock/Getty There’s one trial that Buta Biberaj will never forget. Biberaj, a former defense attorney, remembers how Virginia jurors in 2017 requested 132 years of prison for a man who stole car tires. The jurors may have been unaware that taxpayers could pay more than $25,000 a year to keep someone incarcerated—so by proposing their…
Jail Inmates Worked for a $16 Billion Company Without Pay. Now They Want Their Wages.
The Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, CaliforniaSalwan Georges/Washington Post/Getty The last time Bert Davis was booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California, he was assigned to Housing Unit 31, the pod for inmate workers, and promptly sent to work in the facility’s industrial kitchen. This was routine for Davis, who had cycled in and…