Posts by: Bridget Conley
Democratic societies need prisons – so the argument goes — as the harsh side of rule of law. No one is equal before the law, a key premise of democracy, if rules are broken without consequences. In this way, equality tempers freedom, allowing a justification for incarceration.
But prisons do not protect rule of […]
Continue Reading →As cited in a New York Times article this week, the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project recently announced that is releasing a “comprehensive public resource documenting prison deaths nationwide.” Already, their research demonstrates a devastating impact of COVID on incarcerated people:
In 2020, at least 6,182 people died in U.S. prisons. This […]
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In this 32 minute interview, WPF’s Bridget Conley interviews Armand Coleman, Executive Director of the Transformational Prison Project (TPP). TPP’s mandate is “to provide spaces where those who have been harmed and those who have done the harming can come together and engage in dialogue—to build understanding and empathy toward those who have been […]
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Prison reform efforts in Massachusetts have revealed a tale of two prisons. There is the rhetorical prison that exists in Department of Correction’s (DOC) pronouncements and in the language of the 2018 Criminal Justice Reform Act (CJRA). CJRA was once heralded as the “blueprint” for criminal justice reform in the United States for the […]
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It is difficult to imagine how the lives of Viktor Bout and Brittany Griner could become entwined under any circumstances other than what actually happened. On December 8, 2022, the U.S. and Russia traded Bout and Griner in a prisoner swap at an airport in Abu Dhabi.
Against the backdrop of the Russian invasion […]
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A new case filed against Massachusetts’ Department of Correction presents stunning allegations of brutality against incarcerated men at Souza Baranowski Correctional Center. Why hasn’t it received more attention?
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