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Redemption Songs
B. Alexis Is the First Woman to Drop an Album From Prison. But We Can’t Say Her Real Name.
Closing Argument
Mercy or Money: How to Grapple With a Rapidly Aging Prison Population
Life Inside
My Long Hair Isn’t a Vanity Project. It’s My Last Connection to Life Outside

The Marshall Project

Yerson and Kelly Vargas and their 6-year-old daughter, Maria Paula, were deported to Colombia in 2025 after being held in the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas.
News March 18
ICE Has Abruptly Deported Thousands of Kids. Their Families Say It Traumatized Them.
Families left behind keepsakes, medicine, pets, cars and homes, sometimes leaving the U.S. with little more than the clothes on their backs.
By , and
A photo shows a large crowd of demonstrators. One person is holding a sign that reads, "Keep our country free of drugs."
Closing Argument March 14
How Hospitals Helped Erode Reproductive Rights
Criminal prosecutions sparked by hospital drug testing helped advance the legal concept that the fetus had interests the state could protect.
By
An older Black man with a gray beard and dressed in a khaki-colored jacket and pants sits in a wheelchair with his hands clasped together in front of him. His daughter, a Black woman with closely cropped salt-and-pepper hair and wearing a dark colored shirt, leans over his shoulders from behind to hug him around his neck. Behind them are a set of horizontal panel windows.
Life Inside March 13
Alabama Almost Executed Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton. His Daughter Tells Her Story.
Justice has long been as elusive as Bigfoot, Carolyn Amanda Shavers writes. But when Alabama’s governor spared her dad’s life, she caught a glimpse.
By Carolyn Amanda Shavers
An illustration shows, at the top left, a woman with medium-toned skin holding papers and sitting in front of a laptop. Five circles are situated in sequence from the bottom left of the illustration to the top right. Inside the circles, from left to right are: hands typing on a laptop with the word "FOIA" on the screen; a hand writing on a notepad as a laptop is partially visible; a woman talking on a cellphone while sitting in front of a laptop; a man receiving a phone call in front of a desktop screen; and a man redacting a document. At the bottom right of the illustration is a woman receiving documents and binders that are flying out of a laptop screen.
Analysis March 13
Public Records Shed Light on the Justice System — But it Can Be a Battle to Get Them
The government has stalled on FOIAs for years in some cases. In others, agencies have said public records will cost thousands of dollars.
By
A black and white photo shows a woman with medium length hair and medium-toned skin, wearing a black shirt.
News and Awards March 11
The Marshall Project Hires Reem Akkad as Managing Editor
Akkad, veteran of The Washington Post, becomes key leader of investigative newsroom.
By The Marshall Project
A black-and-white photo showing a White woman with a bouffant hairstyle singing into a microphone on the left side of the frame on the dirt grounds of a rodeo, while in the background are Black and White incarcerated men, wearing dark colored jackets, black ties and billowing white pants playing guitars and a drum. The drummer is wearing sunglasses, as a correctional officer stands guard behind him dressed in white and a cowboy hat with the brim upturned on both sides. In the distance, crowds sit in the stands.
Feature March 10
When Texas Was Fertile Ground for Prison Bands
Until the 1980s, an annual prison rodeo offered a chance for men inside to perform and sell albums. Now we’re making them available to you.
By
An illustration shows a prison cell in shades of dark teal blue, with an incarcerated person with a ponytail in a beige prison uniform reaching up to a strand of DNA coming down from the ceiling. Some of the horizontal lines that tie the two strands of the DNA together have come undone and fallen on the floor of the cell. In the cell, a bed and a sink and toilet are visible.
St. Louis March 10
Missouri Man Said DNA Test Could Prove Innocence. He Was Executed Before a Court Ruled.
Lance Shockley died by lethal injection last year. State courts have rejected prisoners’ requests for DNA testing in recent years.
By
A photo shows cars driving in a blur past a Flock camera, which is situated at the top of a pole. There is a square plate at the top of the pole. Behind the camera are some trees and a building.
Closing Argument March 7
The Troubling Personal Side of Public Surveillance
Law enforcement cameras are popping up everywhere, but many agencies have little safeguards to prevent abuse by individual officers.
By
An illustration shows a woman, in shades of purple and orange, facing the right side of the image, holding a phone to her ear that is connected to a coiled cord. Five beige rectangular boxes surround her. Clockwise from the lower left, the boxes show silhouettes of a gun, another gun, a sword, a rifle, and bullets.
Life Inside March 6
Mom’s Last Gun
My mother has severe mental illness. Our family has spent decades trying to keep her from using firearms to hurt herself and others.
By Kelli Caldwell
St. Louis March 5
Why Missouri Prisons Can Be Deadly for People With Opioid Addictions
In a prison system rife with drugs, a new civil rights lawsuit accuses the Missouri DOC of punishing people for addiction, rather than treating it.
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