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Norris Henderson founded Voice of the Experienced (VOTE) to organize incarcerated people to engage in civic issues after he was released from Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Life Inside March 12, 2020
What I Learned About Voting Rights in the Fields of Angola
“We asked ourselves: Do we want to change our conditions, or do we want to change our circumstances?”
By Norris Henderson as told to
Life Inside July 29, 2021
A Filthy New Orleans Jail Made My Son Sick. The ‘Cruel and Unusual’ Medical Treatment at Angola Prison Killed Him.
This spring, a judge ruled that the healthcare at the Louisiana State Penitentiary violated prisoners’ Eighth Amendment rights. Lois Ratcliff tells the horrifying story of her son Farrell’s decline and death.
By Lois Ratcliff as told by
A Black man wearing a red T-shirt that reads “No kids in Angola” shouts during a protest at the Louisiana state Capitol against the state’s decision to house some youth at the adult prison Angola.
Inside Story February 2, 2023
When Kids Are Punished Like Adults
Louisianans protest temporary youth housing in notorious Angola, and Bryan Stevenson speaks on sentencing reform.
By and
Louisiana State Penitentiary warden Burl Cain delivers remarks prior to the screening of the documentary ‘Serving Life,’ by director Lisa R. Cohen, inside the prison chapel in Angola, La., Thursday, July 21, 2011. The film is about the volunteer hospice work done by inmates for inmates dying in the prison. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
News December 14, 2015
What Angola's Resigning Warden Is Leaving Behind
For 20 years, Burl Cain both punished and preached.
By
News March 10, 2015
The $14 Million Death Sentence
Louisiana tried to sentence five men to death for the murder of a prison guard. It wasn’t cheap.
By
Raymond Flanks, a Black man, and Cassandra Delpit, a Black woman, embrace each other by Lake Pontchartrain.
Life Inside July 26
Love Beyond Bars: Raymond and Cassandra
Raymond Flanks spent nearly 39 years in Louisiana lockups for a murder he didn’t commit. Luckily, he found love with an old friend, Cassandra Delpit.
Photographs by Camille Farrah Lenain
As-told-to by
A barbed wire fence surrounds a tan-colored building.
Closing Argument September 23
Juvenile Detention Centers Face One Scandal After Another
Despite repeated efforts at reform, allegations of mistreatment mount at youth facilities across the country.
By
An illustration shows a Black man in a white T-shirt with his arms around an older Black woman in a polka-dotted shirt and an older Black man in a newsboy cap and black T-shirt. The left side of the illustration shows a freeway, with trees at the edge of the road.
Life Inside May 12
My Brother Was Wrongfully Convicted for Murder. 20 Years Later, So Was My Son.
Although it was a coincidence, I knew it wasn’t a mistake. What Louisiana was doing to men like my brother Elvis and my son Cedric was intentional.
By Earline Brooks Colbert, as told to
Taurus Buchanan, then 19, at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
News October 2, 2018
Louisiana’s Taurus Buchanan Wins Parole After 25 Years
At 16, one deadly punch sent him away for life. The Supreme Court gave him a second chance at freedom.
By
Albert Woodfox at the Ashe Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans, La. on Feb. 19. He was released from Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La. earlier in the day.
Q&A February 21, 2016
‘I’ll Believe It When I See It.’
After 42 years in solitary, Albert Woodfox walks free.
By
Dawn breaks over Arizona State Prison Complex Eyman, where death row prisoners are housed, outside Florence, Ariz., in 2010.
News July 23, 2017
Condemned to Death — And Solitary Confinement
Arizona is set to become the latest state to move away from automatic isolation for death row inmates.
By
A group of people walk through a dark hallway with prison cells on either side.
Feature June 9, 2022
Rethinking Prison Tourism
Many former prison sites draw on the spooky and salacious to entertain visitors. But some are having second thoughts.
By Hope Corrigan
A photo shows the silhouette of a prison tower, trees and lamp posts against an orange sunset.
Closing Argument July 22
‘Concrete Coffins’: Surviving Extreme Heat Behind Bars
Record temperatures in much of the U.S. threatening more people in prisons.
By
Feature December 17, 2021
‘The Only Way We Get Out of There Is in a Pine Box’
Elderly, ailing and expensive, lifetime prisoners cost Louisiana taxpayers millions a year.
By John Simerman
A brick sign that reads "Louisiana State Penitentiary" and "Secretary James LeBlanc" located in front of the prison's entrance.
Closing Argument August 13, 2022
Confronting America’s ‘Cruel and Unusual’ Juvenile Detention Crisis
From Texas and Louisiana to communities in Iowa and Michigan, the way youth are being detained is prompting calls for change.
By
News January 25, 2016
The Supreme Court May Have Just Granted Thousands of Prisoners a Chance of Freedom
The Montgomery ruling says juveniles sentenced to life without parole must get a shot at a new sentence or parole.
By
Commentary February 19, 2015
What Are 30 Years Worth?
In the case of this wrongfully convicted man, Louisiana says $0.00.
By
Feature December 10, 2015
The Marshall Project’s Holiday Gift Guide
From prison pups to personal trainers with rap sheets.
By
An incarcerated man, wearing a gray sweater and blue pants, places a basket of harvested turnips onto a cart. Prison farm workers, wearing blue uniforms, are standing in a field in the background.
Closing Argument June 22
The New Battle Over an Old Institution: Forced Prison Labor
Inside the latest legal and legislative efforts to close state constitutional loopholes that allow slavery as punishment for a crime.
By
A photo shows the sun beaming above silhouettes of two people holding a board while another person constructs a wall of a makeshift prison cell.
Closing Argument August 10
‘Deliberate Indifference’: Court Rulings Challenge Extreme Heat Conditions in Prisons
“If it’s 103 outside, it may be 107 to -8 inside of your cell,” said a man who worked in the fields while imprisoned in Texas.
By
Looking Back July 14, 2015
United States Prison vs. South African Prison
The penal colony where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated was “a paradise by comparison.”
By
The cover of News Inside Issue 10. You can download the pdf <a href="https://d63kb4t2ifcex.cloudfront.net/upload/assets/news-inside-issue-10.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.
News Inside March 24, 2022
Freedom, Family and Faith
Issue 10 of News Inside explores the topics our incarcerated readers told us they care about most.
By
Louis Schexnayder, right, unsuccessfully asked the Supreme Court to rescue him from a life sentence in Louisiana.
Case in Point December 11, 2019
His Appeal in Louisiana Was a Sham Proceeding. But the High Court Won’t Review the Case.
Louisiana automatically rejected appeals from prisoners who represented themselves. One prisoner hoped the Supreme Court would consider his conviction in the light of that scandal.
By
Case in Point May 3, 2016
Exonerated, Dead and Still on Trial
In a notorious Louisiana case, a judge gets in a last kick.
By
Feature January 4, 2016
This Boy’s Life
At 16, Taurus Buchanan threw one deadly punch—and was sent away for life. Will the Supreme Court give him, and hundreds like him, a chance at freedom?
By and
A photo illustration shows a photo of Reginald Reddick in the center, with a black and white photo of a jury to the left, and a sign saying "Criminal Court" on the right. At the top right there is a jury slip that says "Is this your verdict?" with a checkmark next to "No."
News May 10, 2022
Their Sentences Are Unconstitutional — But They’re Still In Prison.
Louisiana’s high court considers the fate of more than 1,000 people serving sentences handed down by “Jim Crow juries.”
By
A gray building with a sign that reads: "Durham County Courthouse."
Closing Argument September 16, 2023
This Homicide Victim’s Family Chose Reconciliation Over a Life Sentence
How a violent killing in North Carolina was resolved with a pioneering use of “restorative justice.”
By
At the Orleans Justice Center, the city jail in New Orleans pictured here, eight employees and one contractor have tested positive for the virus.
Coronavirus March 28, 2020
How Is The Justice System Responding to the Coronavirus? It Depends On Where You Live.
While some cities free people from jail and stop arrests, others are much more business as usual.
By
Prisoners from the Ferguson Unit picking cotton outside of Huntsville, Texas, in 1968. The unit was named after James E. Ferguson, a governor in the 1910s with a troubled record of condoning anti-Mexican violence.
News July 29, 2020
Will The Reckoning Over Racist Names Include These Prisons?
Many prisons, especially in the South, are named after racist officials and former plantations.
By
Feature September 9, 2016
When There’s Only One Public Defender in Town
Meet Rhonda Covington, the one-woman office.
By
Feature December 16, 2021
Her Baby Died After Hurricane Katrina. Was It a Crime?
An expansive definition of murder in Louisiana leaves many behind bars forever.
By , Lea Skene and
News July 6, 2022
New Orleans Battled Mass Incarceration. Then Came the Backlash Over Violent Crime.
After decades of a “lock them up” approach, voters put progressives in key criminal justice posts. Now a rise in violent crime is their toughest challenge yet.
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