Portside

As Black men in prison, we live the tension between celebrating the abolition of slavery and struggling inside the system that replaced it.

As the numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases climb inside the nation’s jails and prisons, incarcerated people and their family members fear for their lives.

Regardless of the name, the reality is that people spend nearly 24 hours locked in their cell each day with little to no human contact.

We must hold these dual, overlapping realities in our minds, as we strive to comprehend the interrelated horrors to which the United States — not just Trump, but the United States — subjects millions of people every day.

By the end of 2015, jails and prisons nationwide reported 24,661 allegations of sexual abuse, nearly triple the number in 2011. More than half (or 58 percent) of these allegations were against prison staff.

We continue our conversation about California’s incarcerated firefighters with a look at the women fighting the state’s climate change-fueled blazes. We speak with Amika Mota, a former prisoner firefighter.

Prison Strike; Superdelegates and Race; Star-crossed Platonics; New Patriotism; Pinterest Meets 8chan; Animal Crackers

Some warn that the radical overhaul of Puerto Rico’s prison system – which was badly affected by Maria – may have dire consequences for inmates’ civil rights.

For nearly three years, the LA No More Jails Coalition has been organizing against the construction of a new women's jail in the city of Lancaster, California, which sits at the northern edge of LA County -- home to the largest jail system in the country. The fight has been a long one, and organizers continue to work to ensure that public funds are diverted away from another jail, and instead invested toward alternatives.

The trend toward larger prison populations has finally stopped and reversed in many states. Ten years ago, only ten states had reduced their prison populations, in 2012 prison populations declined in 27 states and incarceration rates fell in 29 states.