Jessica Pishko

Jessica Pishko graduated with a J.D. from Harvard Law School and received an M.F.A. from Columbia University. Her writing has appeared online for Pacific Standard, The Atlantic, and The New Republic, among other publications. She writes frequently about incarceration and social justice issues and lives in San Francisco with her family.

Female prisoners at Parchman sewing, c. 1930  By Mississippi Department of Archives and History [see page for license], via Wikimedia Commons

Politics & History

A History of Women’s Prisons

While women's prisons historically emphasized the virtues of traditional femininity, the conditions of these prisons were abominable.

Editors' Picks

Arts & Culture

James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni in Conversation

In 1971, two legends of Black letters discussed Black manhood, white racism, the role of the writer, and the responsibility to teach.

Science & Technology

Can We Build a Better Facebook?

Is it time to turn our back on Facebook? And if so, what social network could possibly replace it?

Science & Technology

The Anatomists of Ancient Alexandria

Cultural forces under the Ptolemaic dynasty briefly allowed scholars like Herophilus to practice dissection—and possibly vivisection—on human subjects.

Politics & History

The Genocide Before the Shoah

For a century, Jews in Turkey have maintained a strategic silence when it comes to recognizing the Armenian genocide. Could that be changing?

Politics & History

Wilhelm Reich: Twice Burned

A psychoanalyst and physician, Reich fled the Nazis only to be detained by the US as an “enemy alien” during World War II. And then came the sexual revolution.

Jessica Pishko

A History of Women’s Prisons

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