In California’s prisons, lifers — both human and canine — are setting each other free.

Arizona is sending fewer kids to jail — and reinventing the places where they were once locked up.

When filling out forms with the wrong color ink can lead to jail time, you need a navigator.

For Americans serving time but still allowed to cast a ballot, the democratic process struggles on.

Amid rows of snap peas and summer squash, incarcerated gardeners cultivate job skills, inner peace and fresh produce for the cafeteria.

A movement to empower formerly incarcerated people to become lawyers is changing the criminal justice system from the inside out.

At the Clink, incarcerated chefs and waiters serve world-class cuisine to the public — and prepare for life on the outside.

Youth involved in gun violence would rather be working than shooting. One group decided to give them what they want.

Nimble, culturally nuanced and collaborative, this Māori-led response gets to the roots of family violence.

Skeptical at first, participants on both sides now see a solution that benefits everyone.

Legal magic mushrooms? Tolerance for heroin and meth? It’s not as crazy as it sounds.

What happens when incarcerated people see a correctional officer not as an overlord, but as someone who can help?

In North Carolina, teens who were once at risk of being locked up have created a place where good things grow.

In an effort to make its prisons more than punitive, Washington D.C. has begun offering cognitive behavioral therapy to incarcerated individuals.

The data proves that regulating police behavior results in fewer killings of civilians.

Covid-19 is showing us what ending mass incarceration could look like. Some judges and prosecutors like what they see.

What happens when you hire the first qualified job applicant who walks through the door?

As it bans holding defendants on bail for nonviolent crimes, New York is the latest state to challenge America’s bizarre system of money for freedom.

A theatrical re-imagining of American independence, right where it’s needed most.

Prisons with art programs release people back into the world who are more stable, and far less likely to return. Why don’t the programs exist everywhere?

New moms in difficult situations sometimes find it tough to connect with their babies. Carnegie Hall is helping change that with one of the simplest, most innate tools in the mothering toolbox: lullabies.

College degree programs like the Bard Prison Initiative give jailed students a chance to thrive once they’re released—and drive down the costs of incarceration for us all.

I hated school—until I got slapped with a 15-year prison sentence and discovered calculus, Mandarin and the college degree I never knew I wanted.