Prison Reform

A New York State prison told Lonnie Hamilton that his son had hanged himself. He believed there was more to the story.

In recent years, New York’s largest jail complex has gained a reputation as one of the country’s most brutal detention centers.

Garrett Bradley’s documentary evokes the passage of life’s moments, the power and the pain of memory, the keen sense of loss that it brings, and, the feeling that the time a person has is the substance of life.

“Hard Times at Douglass High” and “Toe Tag Parole” follow the social through line and the creative methods that the Raymonds established in their seminal documentary “The Police Tapes,” which presciently discerned the making of social and political history.

The children of Black immigrants in Italy are dispossessed by a country that doesn’t offer birthright citizenship. Plus, an economist on whether—and how—to reopen schools.

David Remnick talks with the hip-hop star about political change at the local and national levels. And two prison abolitionists talk about reforms that may do as much harm as good.

With the coronavirus putting inmates—who cannot maintain social distancing—and also corrections workers in danger, the decarceration movement suddenly seems politically possible.

WNYC’s Kai Wright sits down with two advocates of prison abolition to discuss the why and the how of decarceration.

In 2010, Michelle Alexander’s book spelled out how mass incarceration harms communities of color. Assessing its impact, she looks back, and forward, with David Remnick.

Michelle Alexander reflects on how her book, hardly an immediate best-seller, encouraged a discussion about criminal-justice reform and racism in America.

A group asked inmates to fill out a form describing a picture that they would like to receive. A volunteer would then create it.

The book was translated into ten languages, became a feature film, and ignited a national debate about capital punishment.

What the 1971 uprising and massacre reveal about our prison system and the liberal democratic state.