Voting Access For All

This article was originally published by Prison Policy Initiative as “Mass incarceration is on the ballot,” authored by Mike Wessler. Election Day is right around the corner. While presidential campaigns get most of the attention from the news media, many lesser-known down-ballot races can have a much more dramatic impact on criminal legal system reform…

This article was originally published by Prison Policy Initiative as “Prison Banned Books Week: Books give incarcerated people access to the world, but tablets are often used to wall them off,” authored by Mike Wessler. Books have long served as a bridge to the outside world for incarcerated people. They allow people cut off from…

Students and teachers are heading back to the classroom. In addition to math, science, and language arts, many will also focus on the criminal legal system and mass incarceration. Unfortunately for them, the carceral system operates like a black box, making it hard to study what’s happening inside the walls of prisons and jails. Fortunately,…

This article was originally published by Prison Policy Initiative as “Research roundup: Evidence that a single day in jail causes immediate and long-lasting harms,” authored by Brian Nam-Sonenstein The criminal legal system views pretrial detention as a necessary sacrifice that prioritizes crime prevention and court attendance over personal liberty. However, detention is demonstrably ineffective on…

This article was originally published by Prison Policy Initiative as “Calling on the FCC to make the most of its upcoming rulemaking on prison and jail telecom rates,” authored by Wanda Bertram The landmark 2023 Martha Wright-Reed Fair and Just Communications Act set in motion a new round of rulemaking at the Federal Communications Commission…