Prisons
Reopening Alcatraz Is an Expensive, Unnecessary Pipe Dream
The Bureau of Prisons is struggling to staff the prisons it currently operates. Reopening Alcatraz would be unrealistic and redundant.
Trump's Understanding of Due Process Is Just As Farcical As His Definition of 'Alien Enemies'
A new ACLU lawsuit argues that the government still is not giving alleged gang members the "notice" required by a Supreme Court order.
Not Guilty but Punished Anyway
Sentencing defendants based on acquitted conduct violates basic notions of justice.
Trump Says Alleged Gang Members Don't Need Hearings Because the Government Is Infallible
The Supreme Court unanimously rejected that claim, upholding the right to due process in deportation cases.
American Prisons Don't Work. California Is Trying Something That Might.
What America can learn from prisons in Norway and Sweden.
Ksenia Karelina, Imprisoned in Russia for Donating $51 to a Pro-Ukraine Charity, Is Freed
The American citizen had been sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for treason.
Bill Would Require Federal Prisons To Notify Families of Serious Illness and Death
Families described not being told their loved one was in the hospital or even when they had died.
Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Claim That He Can Summarily Deport Anyone He Describes As an 'Alien Enemy'
Although the Court lifted an order that temporarily blocked removal of suspected gang members, it unambiguously affirmed their right to judicial review.
Kristi Noem Uses El Salvador's Nightmarish Megaprison To Create Content
The Homeland Security secretary's use of El Salvador's largest prison for propaganda is unethical and an endorsement of an autocratic justice system.
New York's Illegal Prison Guard Strike Challenges Law Limiting the Use of Solitary Confinement
It's also a reminder of the disarray that ensues from strikes put on by state employees, who hold monopolies on public goods.
Review: Rethinking the Stanford Prison Experiment
Did participants exhibit a natural inclination for cruelty, or were they just doing what they thought researchers wanted?
North Dakota's 'Truth-in-Sentencing' Bill Could Cost More Than $250 Million
The bill would also create mandatory minimum jail sentences for fleeing the police.
Marc Fogel, Who Was Imprisoned in Russia for Having Medical Marijuana, Is Freed
Fogel's story closely mirrored that of Brittney Griner's. But he did not receive the same urgency from the Biden administration, even though he was arrested six months prior.
El Salvador Offers To House Violent U.S. Criminals and Deportees
Yet its penitentiary centers are already running at over 300 percent capacity.
El Salvador's Bukele: Authoritarian or Model President?
Frontier magazine's Peter Gietl and Salvadoran journalist Ricardo Avelar debate the merits of Nayib Bukele's criminal justice policies.
Trump's Aggressively Broad Executive Order on Transgender People
Like many of his other "Day 1" decrees, the order seems more concerned with scoring points in the culture war than advancing sensible policy.
Sister Helen Prejean on Capital Punishment, Justice, and Meeting Victims' Families
"Jesus said, 'Love your enemy.' Jesus didn't say, 'Execute the hell out of the enemy,'" the Catholic nun and anti–death penalty activist tells Reason.
This Holiday Season, Remember That Charity Is More Effective Than Government
Charities can focus resources on those who genuinely need a hand while saying no to those who just need "a kick in the butt."
Women Allegedly Raped in Prison by Trans-Identifying Inmate Will Have To Refer to Attacker as 'She/Her'
The recent ruling means that on the stand those women may be subject to speech policing from their alleged rapist—who has opted for self-representation.
CNN Presented a Syrian Jailer as a Torture Survivor
The fiasco around the “Syrian prisoner” filmed by CNN demonstrates that sometimes institutions aren’t the best judges of misinformation.
5 Years After Giving Birth, a Mississippi Mother Was Arrested for a Felony Based on a Postnatal Drug Test
Brandy Moore, who stopped using meth midway through her pregnancy, was charged with "aggravated domestic violence" because she decided not to have an abortion.
What Happened to Biden's Ambitious Criminal Justice Reform Plans?
Joe Biden ran on some good ideas to reform policing and incarceration, which he mostly failed to deliver.
New York City's Push To Ban Mail at Rikers Was Based on Drug Test Kits With an 85 Percent Error Rate
The problems with these test kits are well-known, and there have been hundreds of documented cases of wrongful arrests based on them.
Amanda Knox: 'I Have Felt Utterly Exploited' by True Crime
Amanda Knox falsely confessed to murder after law enforcement subjected her to "psychological torture." Now she wants to stop it from happening to others.
The Bureau of Prisons' Casual Cruelty to Families of Those Who Die Behind Bars
Families whose loved ones died in federal prisons describe outrageous delays in being notified, ignored phone calls, and troubling discrepancies in the official reports.
Russian Court Denies Appeal of U.S. Citizen Sentenced to 12 Years for Donating $51 to Pro-Ukraine Charity
Ksenia Karelina was prosecuted as part of a larger “treason” crackdown that is unprecedented even by Russia’s illiberal standards.
Texas Lawmakers Temporarily Save Death Row Inmate Robert Roberson From the Execution Chamber
Roberson was scheduled to become the first person in the country to be executed based on "shaken baby syndrome" evidence, until Texas lawmakers subpoenaed him to testify.
These Texas Inmates Wrote a Book. Then the Prison System Banned It.
The government will prevent prisoners from getting TEXAS LETTERS, an anthology about experiences with solitary confinement.
The ACLU of South Carolina is Suing To Publish Interviews With a Death Row Inmate
South Carolina bans all media interviews with incarcerated people, a policy the state's ACLU chapter says is the most restrictive in the country and infringes on its First Amendment rights.
Nashville Attorney Sues Federal Judges Over Gag Order Barring Him From Talking About a Notorious Prison
Daniel Horwitz often represents people illegally silenced by the government. This time he says a court violated his First Amendment rights when it gagged him from publicly speaking about a troubled state prison.
Federal Judge Rules Inmate Death Records Can Remain Secret Because They Could Embarrass Prison Officials
The Reason Foundation filed a FOIA lawsuit last year seeking reviews of deaths at two federal women's prisons with numerous allegations of medical neglect.
A Federal Prison Was Warned About Synthetic Marijuana. Then Inmates Started Overdosing.
"We are living in pure chaos," an incarcerated woman at a federal prison in Minnesota tells Reason following a string of suspected overdoses.
America Criminalizes Too Much and Punishes Too Much
When those on parole or probation are included, one out of every 47 adults is under “some form of correctional supervision.”
Texas Prisoners Are Being 'Cooked Alive' by High Temperatures, Investigation Says
Last year, one prison's temperatures stayed above 100 degrees for 11 days.
The DOOBIE Act Would Limit Government Discrimination Against People Who Have Smoked Weed
Under the law, the feds couldn't deny you a job or security clearance just because you've used marijuana in the past.
FCC Will Cap the Cost of Prison Phone Calls
The move would lower the per-minute cost precipitously and allow inmates to better keep in touch with friends and family.
