This collaborative effort between National Public Radio (NPR) and Picture Projects offers an intimate portrait of the US criminal justice system, involving inmates, legal and law enforcement professionals, victims, and families. This site features two stories, but also offers a number of photos, additional audio commentary, transcripts, and background information. Other resources include a...

Court upholds ban on inmate playing Dungeons & Dragons http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/01/court-upholds-ban-on-inmate-playing-dungeons-and-dragons/1 The Volokh Conspiracy: 7th Circuit Upholds Prison Rule Forbidding Inmates to Play Dungeons and...

California a leader in number of youths in prison for life http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/scotus/la-me-juvenile19nov19,1,231437.story?coll=la-news-politics-supreme_court Crack cocaine sentence cut is stalled by retroactivity http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07323/835088-85.stm NPR: Should Sentencing Reform Be Retroactive? [Real...

This new special project from Mother Jones magazine examines the "real price of prisons" as the American inmate population continues to balloon, currently topping two million persons. The site contains a number of brief essays (including two written by New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson and the Rev. Jesse Jackson), discussion boards, and a well-organized directory of resources. The heart of the site...

This report, posted May 14, 2001, from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), prepared by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, presents the results of a national study to examine the efficacy of prison privatization. The report looks at the factors that have contributed to the increase in prison populations (which has in turn fueled the movement to privatize prisons) as well as the role...

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) conducts research on a wide range of topics and its work is frequently cited by scholars around the world. This intriguing piece was authored by Carolyn M. Moehling and Anne Morrison Piehl and released in May 2013. The 39-page paper looks into the statistical patterns behind immigrant assimilation into US prisons from 1900-1930 by drawing on newly...

Released on March 4, 1999, as part of its Rights For All campaign on the US, this comprehensive report from Amnesty International documents "violations of the internationally guaranteed human rights of women incarcerated in the United States," including sexual misconduct and abuse by prison officials, mistreatment of pregnant prisoners, and inadequate medical care. As the report reveals, these...

This collaborative effort between National Public Radio (NPR) and Picture Projects offers an intimate portrait of the US criminal justice system, involving inmates, legal and law enforcement professionals, victims, and families. This site is the homepage for a new series from the producer of the acclaimed Teenage Diaries radio series. The Prison Diaries series is based on audio journals kept by...

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) funded projects to assist ten states with the revalidation of their external objective classification systems that determine which facility an inmate should be housed. The ten participating states included Delaware, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Written by Patricia L. Hardyman, James Austin,...