During the Cold War, the “police apparatus” was held up as a prime example of Soviet repression. Yet the United States ended up with its own carceral state. 

Before the mass adoption of the car, most communities barely had a police force and citizens shared responsibility for enforcing laws. Then the car changed everything.

The Mass Bail Out at Rikers Island shows that freedom is a critical part of public safety.

In the era of digital neighborhoods, social networks embolden a new kind of racial surveillance.

His book about the Atlanta child murders speaks best to the era of Black Lives Matter.

Reform efforts can't succeed unless we understand the complex political forces that gave rise to the vast and unprecedented expansion in punishment and surveillance.

Abolition is not about transforming the police; it is about transforming the nation.

Policing as we know it must be abolished before it can be transformed.

Prosecuting stealthing may not be the best way to end the practice.

Public safety is precisely why sanctuary cities are a good idea.

A historian uncovered an archive of massacre at Attica—only to have the records disappear.

Throughout the twentieth century, bipartisan consensus was that black youth were latent criminals in need of abundant policing.

The DOJ says it will stop using private prisons. The truth is more complicated.

Debt still sends many people—especially black people—to jail.

After fourteen years, Mohamedou Ould Slahi may finally have a chance at freedom.

Prosecutors are corrupting the intent of lynching laws.