A man worked for almost 500 hours without pay in Broome County Jail's kitchen, according to his lawsuit. When he refused to work on his day off, an officer threw him in solitary confinement. My latest for The Appeal with editor Nick Wing. theappeal.org/broome-county-…

NEW: The Appeal has published the first national database of prison commissary prices. The project covers 46 states, revealing an exploitative system that forces incarcerated people to pay up to 5x the outside price for some items. theappeal.org/locked-in-pric…

Important and infuriating project by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg 🇵🇸, Ethan Corey, Tara Francis Chan & more uncovering the depths of predatory price-gouging at prison commissaries across the country.

Does this make it better or worse?

Learned a lot editing this piece about the role activists have played in orchestrating the downfall of one of the nation’s largest prison profiteers. After years of work, even wealthy investors—who aren’t known for having a moral compass!—are seeing that this industry is toxic.

“After decades of exerting nearly unfettered power and influence over carceral policies and practices, the prison industry racket could finally be coming to an end.”

Weird this doesn't mention the scandal around Proove Biosciences, a DNA testing company that claimed it could predict w/ 93% accuracy whether a person was at risk of opioid addiction. Proove went bankrupt in 2017 following allegations of fraud and federal charges (since dropped).

'I now carry with me the irreversible memory of being party to a cruel attack on innocence. On paper, my name might not appear as a perpetrator. But ... I knew that my work and the institutions I represented bore responsibility.' Powerful reflection in The Appeal newsletter.

Looks like a hive of bees decided to start a new colony on the camera floating above the Alcaraz-Zverev match. Definitely a new way for nature to interrupt sports.

Dutch courts sound remarkably reasonable. US courts looking at this like… wait, aren’t excessive sentences and “chilling effects” the entire point? amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/03/11…

Hochul’s subway safety plan is a full-throated embrace of the cynical politics of governing by tough-on-crime *optics.* She cares most about *being seen* as “taking crime seriously,” even though her proposals are deeply unserious and unlikely to be effective.

Hochul’s subway safety plan is a full-throated embrace of the cynical politics of governing by tough-on-crime *optics.* She cares most about *being seen* as “taking crime seriously,” even though her proposals are deeply unserious and unlikely to be effective.

If all you care about is making people 'feel' safe—statistics and reality be damned—is flooding the subway with cops and soldiers the best way to do it? Since when do people *feel* safe in settings that look like dystopian hellscapes?

Why even say 'we care about civil liberties' and 'we don't want over policing'? If you're trying to beat Republicans at the tough-on-crime game because you've decided it's better politics, why continue to give lip service to the 'worse' politics? You can't have it both ways!

A good reminder that the 'war on woke' crusade we're seeing play out in public schools and libraries has been going on in prisons forever.

An incarcerated teacher was fired and disciplined for telling students about the racist intent of Jim Crow laws, according to a lawsuit. A supervisor ordered him to say literacy tests were meant to ensure people 'knew what they were voting for.' theappeal.org/illinois-priso…

The only part of this plan that seems feasible & designed to address the issue at hand is the $20 million for mental health outreach teams. Instead of filling the subway with cops/soldiers, why not spend this money on blanketing it with trained specialists & support personnel?