Exporting the Convict Clause: Slaves of the State in the Canal Zone
The criminalization of Blackness enabled by the Thirteenth Amendment brought chain gangs to the construction projects of the Panama Canal Zone.
Henry Cowell’s One True Desire
To “live in the whole world of music” was all the influential, experimental composer wanted—and did, even while imprisoned at San Quentin.
Prisoners’ Rights: An Introductory Reading List
A selection of readings and visual material on the subject of prisoners’ rights to foster dialogue and discovery in the classroom.
On Drugs and Harm Reduction with Maia Szalavitz
Author of Undoing Drugs and NYT columnist Szalavitz talks history, science, media shifts, politics, and how the US might mitigate its overdose crisis.
The Last Class, 28 Years Later
What happened to the last of the Pell Grant-funded prison higher ed graduates and their paralegal skills? Open Campus's Charlotte West and Angolite associate editor John Corley report.
Mass Incarceration: A Syllabus
This selection of stories focuses on prison and mass incarceration in the US, which has the highest rate of imprisonment in the world.
Writing Poetry in Prison as an Act of Resistance
A writer recounts her uncle's experiences writing poetry in prison and advocating for Indigenous rights. His death and his typewriter are intertwined.
How Mass Incarceration Has Shaped History
A historian argues that it’s time to look at the consequences of locking up millions of people over several decades.
What Should We Do about Our Aging Prison Population?
Can compassionate release laws solve the problem of the nearly 200,000 people aged 55 and older who are incarcerated in America?
Depressed People Aren’t Villains—Nor Are They Werewolves
Our tendency to view people with mental disorders as monsters instead of patients has a history that dates back to the 1400s.