This summer, I worked at a small non-profit organization called Humans of San Quentin, whose primary aim is to humanize incarcerated people through personal narratives and other creative contributions. I not only read about the lives and experiences of countless people in prison, but also talked to them on the phone and asked questions that […]
Tag: prison reform
El Salvador’s New “Mega Prison” and Bukele’s Crackdown on Gang-related Crime
“Our one rule, besides stick together, is don’t get caught.” This simple quote from S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders highlights the struggle between group identity and self-identity, as seen through the eyes of a 14-year-old boy who believes he is an outsider to society. In his world, there are only two types of people, “Greasers” and […]
The Precarious Balance of Closing California Prisons
California: the golden land of opportunity and new beginnings. But for whom? Those idyllic visions of gold and success are out of reach for the around 115,000 inmates currently incarcerated in the California prison system, filling 137.5% of the design capacity for 35 state-operated prisons. This number might seem low, given how many people live […]
Rikers Island Illustrates the Issues Endemic To America’s Horrific Prison System
A dozen deaths at Rikers Island Jail this year alone. 5 suicides, some within days of one another. The debate on closing Rikers Island is quickly becoming less of a partisan issue and more of a human rights one. But this New York City jail complex is not unique in its inhumanity — rather, Rikers […]
A Death Sentence for a DUI — The Devastating Impact of the Pandemic in Prison
In March of 2020, as it became increasingly clear that COVID-19 would be a catastrophic threat to the United States, numerous criminal justice experts warned that the impending pandemic would have a devastating impact on correctional facilities and their surrounding communities. These early warnings proved to be prescient, as seven months later, amidst an unprecedented […]
Dangers of Predictive Policing Algorithms
As more and more states are employing algorithms in policing, the dystopian world of The Minority Report might be more of a reality than a sci-fi film. The use of algorithms in policing is not a new topic. Predpol, a for-profit company pioneering predictive policing algorithms, was a largely controversial issue in 2012, sparking criticisms […]
A Place Run by Criminals: An Insight into The American Prison
Over the course of three years, prisoners from across the United States sent letters to Human Rights Watch detailing cases of sexual assault in prisons, most of them first-hand experiences. An inmate labeled A.H. wrote, “I have been raped by up to 5 black men and two white men at a time. I’ve had knifes […]
Murder in Lockup
In recent years, it has become abundantly clear that security does not always come hand-in-hand with safety. Although they house the most closely guarded of California residents, state prisons have become dangerous for prisoners and, as a recent report by the Associated Press suggests, prison assaults have increased by an approximated 40% from 2011 to […]