Menu icon
The Marshall Project
Nonprofit journalism about criminal justice
Search
About
Newsletters
Donate
A nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system
Search
Magnifying glass
Local Network
Cleveland
Jackson
Projects
Inside Story
News Inside
Life Inside
Mauled
The Language Project
The Record
The System
Topics
Death Penalty
Immigration
Juvenile Justice
Mental Health
Policing
Politics and Reform
Race
About
About Us
Local Network
The Marshall Project Inside
News & Awards
Impact
People
Supporters
Jobs
Investigate This!
Newsletters
Events
Donate
Feedback?
Arrow
support@themarshallproject.org
News
April 8, 2021
Murders Rose Last Year. Black and Hispanic Neighborhoods Were Hit Hardest.
A COVID-strained social safety net. Entrenched distrust between cops and communities of color. "2020 was a tinderbox."
By
Weihua Li
and
Beth Schwartzapfel
Analysis
August 23, 2019
Why are the Feds Arresting More Non-Citizens?
Most of the increase comes from immigration charges, not violent crime or drugs, a new report finds.
By
Andrew Rodriguez Calderón
and
Weihua Li
News
August 14, 2015
Narcan: It Saves Lives. Does It Enable Addicts?
For frustrated police, it’s a quick fix but no solution.
By
Carl Stoffers
Life Inside
May 12, 2016
What I’ve Learned as a Jail Doctor
And the case I’ll never forget.
By
Alia Moore
Graphics
February 12, 2015
The Cost of Crime Fighting
Reading between the line items of Department of Justice budgets, past and present.
By
Tom Meagher
News
January 16, 2015
A Pirate’s Booty
The Feds acquire a confusing asset: bitcoins.
By
Gerald Rich
Commentary
September 14, 2017
The Taxpayers and Michelle Jones
How her prison education saved us a million bucks
By
Bill Keller
Life Inside
January 15, 2016
Getting a Hustle: How to Live Like a King Behind Bars
From moonshine to tattoos to balloons of drugs.
By
Patrick Larmour
Life Inside
June 30, 2023
Reproductive Healthcare Behind Bars Was Dismal Even Before Roe Ended
Abortion is just one part of a greater story about how indifferent — and even cruel — reproductive healthcare can be in prisons and jails.
By
Nicole Lewis
and
Carla Canning
Feature
February 15
5 Takeaways From Our Investigation Into Police Use of Spit Hoods
Reporting by The Marshall Project and WTSP in Tampa examined how police continue using the hoods, even as deaths raise troubling questions.
By
Daphne Duret
Feature
August 30, 2021
The Black Mortality Gap, and a Century-Old Document
1 in 5 African American deaths happens earlier than if they were White. Black doctors say the Flexner Report holds clues to the health system’s role in racial health disparities.
By
Anna Flagg
News
May 27, 2015
Out of Prison, Out of Luck
When the test of innocence is withheld.
By
Christie Thompson
News
June 19, 2015
When is a Crime a Hate Crime?
Dylann Roof and the challenges of proving bias.
By
Beth Schwartzapfel
Commentary
June 13, 2016
Poor on a Native American Reservation? Good Luck Getting a Lawyer.
A judge takes a hard look at tribal justice.
By
Dominique Alan Fenton
News
August 28, 2017
How ICE Uses Secret Police Databases to Arrest Immigrants
Recent lawsuits claim the agency is targeting people for deportation based on spurious allegations of gang connections.
By
Christie Thompson
News
July 20, 2016
Did the Cop-Killers Have PTSD?
We may never know, because “it is so easy to fall through the cracks.”
By
Beth Schwartzapfel
News
September 27, 2016
A Primer on the Nationwide Prisoners’ Strike
Prisoners can be forced to work without pay — the Constitution says so.
By
Beth Schwartzapfel
Closing Argument
April 27
They Killed Their Abusive Partners. Now Their Sentences Could Be Reconsidered.
Oklahoma could re-examine how it punishes people whose crimes came after years of domestic abuse. Other states may follow.
By
Christie Thompson
and
Cary Aspinwall
News
November 17, 2014
Obama’s Prison Crisis
Crowded cells, aging inmates, soaring costs.
By
Andrew Cohen
Q&A
June 11, 2015
Lessons for Bratton on How to Recruit Black Officers
A conversation with Atlanta’s Chief of Police, George Turner.
By
Beth Schwartzapfel
Justice Lab
March 4, 2015
How to Cut the Prison Population by 50 Percent
No, freeing potheads and shoplifters is not enough.
By
Dana Goldstein
Commentary
June 12, 2016
For 50 Years, You’ve Had “The Right to Remain Silent”
So why do so many suspects confess to crimes they didn’t commit?
By
Samuel Gross
and
Maurice Possley
Analysis
February 9, 2017
Everything You Think You Know About Mass Incarceration Is Wrong
Or at least misleading, says this contrarian scholar. Here’s why it matters.
By
Bill Keller
and
Eli Hager
Analysis
February 20, 2017
Trump’s First Roundup
What we learned from that surge of immigrant arrests
By
Julia Preston
Life Inside
November 18, 2022
Between Addiction and Prison, I Left My Boy to Grow Up Without a Dad
With his release date quickly approaching, Ryan M. Moser reflects on the pain he caused his son — and his hopes for healing their relationship.
By
Ryan M. Moser
Life Inside
November 22
A Prison Rape Survivor Demands Smart, Safe and Humane Transfers
“I know how a relocation can exacerbate violence,” writes Johanna Mills. “Even when the place you’re leaving is so toxic that you can’t stay there.”
By
Johanna Mills
Feature
June 3, 2015
Nigerians are Flocking to Work in Texas Prisons
An immigration trend changes the face of corrections.
By
Maurice Chammah
News
August 1, 2019
One Lawyer. Five Years. 3,802 Cases.
In Detroit, court-appointed lawyers for the poor are encouraged to take on large caseloads at the expense of their clients, a new report says.
By
Eli Hager
Feature
April 7, 2018
The Price of Innocence
Two brothers did 31 years for someone else’s crime. Then things went bad.
By
Joseph Neff
News
July 16, 2019
Trump Tried to Deport People Faster. Immigration Courts Slowed Down Instead.
A series of policy changes has failed to reduce the ever-growing backlog of cases waiting to be resolved.
By
Julia Preston
and
Andrew Rodriguez Calderón
News
July 16, 2019
In an Apparent First, Genetic Genealogy Aids a Wrongful Conviction Case
An Idaho man falsely confessed to a 1996 rape and murder.
By
Mia Armstrong
News Inside
May 5, 2020
COVID-19: A Survival Guide for Incarcerated People
Tips on how to protect yourself from the virus within the limits of prison or jail.
By
Lawrence Bartley
,
Brie Williams, M.D., M.S.
and
Leah Rorvig, M.D., M.S.
News
January 10
New Data Shows How Dire the Prison Staffing Shortage Really Is
The stubborn staffing crisis affects almost every aspect of life in prison, for employees and the incarcerated alike.
By
Shannon Heffernan
and
Weihua Li
News
March 26
Even Where Abortion Is Legal, People in Jail Face Huge Barriers
New reviews of jail policies in 13 states found vague, confusing or nonexistent guidelines and major hurdles to obtaining an abortion.
By
Shannon Heffernan
Life Inside
June 2, 2015
A Night with the NYPD
In which the rookie learns what police really think.
By
Bob Henderson
Feature
January 19, 2018
Lost in Court
A visit to Trump’s immigration bedlam.
By
Julia Preston
Feature
May 17, 2021
Foster Care Agencies Take Millions of Dollars Owed to Kids. Most Children Have No Idea.
The majority of states obtain money intended for foster children with disabilities or a deceased parent without telling them, The Marshall Project and NPR found.
By
Eli Hager
with
Joseph Shapiro
, NPR
Feature
March 21, 2022
Texas Says Its Multi-Billion Dollar Border Operation Is Working. The Evidence Tells a Different Story.
Arrests of U.S. citizens hundreds of miles from the border. Drug busts from across the state. Changing statistics. The data Texas Gov. Greg Abbott uses to boast about Operation Lone Star raises more questions than answers.
BY
Lomi Kriel
AND
Perla Trevizo
, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune,
Andrew Rodriguez Calderón
AND
Keri Blakinger
Feature
September 24, 2021
No Driving, No Working, No Dating: Inside A Government Program That Controls The Lives of People Leaving Psych Hospitals
For those found not guilty of a crime by reason of insanity and put into California’s CONREP program, strict supervision can last decades.
By
Christie Thompson
Feature
December 15, 2021
Essential but Excluded
Immigrants put seafood on America’s tables. But many have been shut out of pandemic aid — and so have their U.S. citizen children.
By
Julia Preston
and
Ariel Goodman
Feature
February 15
Spit Hoods Can Be Deadly. Police Keep Using Them Anyway.
Police cite studies saying the mesh bags are safe. But experts say the studies are flawed — and deaths in custody raise troubling questions.
By
Daphne Duret
Feature
July 10, 2015
Life Without Parole
Inside the secretive world of parole boards, where your freedom may depend on politics and whim.
By
Beth Schwartzapfel
Feature
March 30, 2017
When Warriors Put on the Badge
Many veterans make careers in policing. Some bring war home.
By
Simone Weichselbaum
and
Beth Schwartzapfel
News
September 25, 2020
Is Violent Crime Rising In Cities Like Trump Says? Well, It’s Complicated.
Trump speaks of "anarchy and mayhem" in cities. Here's what the data really shows.
By
Weihua Li
Feature
June 13
Serving Time for Their Abusers’ Crimes
The Marshall Project found nearly 100 people who were punished for the actions of their abusers under little-known laws like “accomplice liability.”
By
Shannon Heffernan
Feature
December 21, 2017
The Big Business of Prisoner Care Packages
Inside the booming market for food in pouches, clear electronics, pocket-less clothing and other corrections-approved goods.
By
Taylor Elizabeth Eldridge
Feature
March 23, 2023
The War on Gun Violence Has Failed. And Black Men Are Paying the Price.
In Chicago and elsewhere, gun possession arrests are rising as shootings go unsolved.
By
Lakeidra Chavis
and
Geoff Hing
Feature
September 26
The Future of Prisons?
Inspired by Germany, South Carolina let prisoners design their own units, write house rules and settle their own disputes. Then came politics.
By
Maurice Chammah
Election 2024
October 21
Fact-checking Over 12,000 of Donald Trump’s Statements About Immigration
‘I could get elected twice over the wall,’ said former President Trump. It could end up being one of the few true things he’s said about immigration.
By
The Marshall Project
The System
October 23, 2020
The Future of Policing
What do advocates mean when they call for “defunding,” “abolishing” or “reimagining” the police?
by
Jamiles Lartey
and
Annaliese Griffin
Feature
September 28, 2023
How Wealth and Privilege Helped One Man Hide His Serial Abuse
Life seemed golden for Leon Jacob. Then he hired a hit man to kill his ex-girlfriend. His classmate exposes how the system repeatedly failed to stop him.
By
Stephanie Clifford
Feature
September 17
The Hardest Case for Mercy
Inside the effort to spare the Parkland school shooter.
By
Joe Sexton