The False Alarms That Get Kids Arrested
Teens are paying the price for school-shooting threats—whether they’re real or not.
The Presence of Justice
Beyond the age of mass incarceration
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This work was commissioned, produced, and edited by The Atlantic's editorial staff. Support for this work was provided in part by the organizations listed here.
This project is supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge.
A Prison Lifer Comes Home
Imprisoned for decades for a crime he committed as a juvenile, “Red Dog” Fennell was released as an old man into a baffling world.
The Private Option
One company has become the biggest provider of jail health care. Sheriffs are worried: “If you’re the only dance in town, you can pretty much call your own shots.”
This Man Says His Anti-violence Plan Would Save 12,000 Lives
Why aren’t more cities using it?
The Capricious Use of Solitary Confinement Against Detained Immigrants
FOIA documents and a whistle-blower uncover how the Obama and Trump administrations used solitary in ways that critics say are arbitrary, cruel, and in violation of federal rules.
In Prison, and Fighting to Vote
A campaign for suffrage is growing inside prisons. Is anyone listening?
Do Algorithms Have a Place in Policing?
How a Pakistani-born retired pilot took on a controversial, data-driven policing program in Los Angeles—and won
Saved From Death Row, Only to Be Returned
A set of unusual cases in North Carolina brings new attention to racism in death-penalty trials.
The Bad-Apple Myth of Policing
Violence perpetrated by cops doesn’t simply boil down to individual bad actors—it’s also a systemic, judicial failing.
Who Will Hold the Police Accountable?
When a Nashville officer killed a black man, his mother and other activists didn’t just seek an indictment—they fought to give citizens oversight of the whole police department.