Millions of incarcerated people remain trapped by the 13th Amendment’s exception clause. But recent wins in California and Colorado show how states can lead the way to ending prison slavery.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday, and the 161st anniversary of the event it commemorates: General Order No. 3, which Union General Gordon Granger delivered to Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, bearing the belated news that “all slaves are free” following the January 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. By ...

As the Vera Institute of Justice celebrates its 65th anniversary, we recall the dinner party conversation about money bail that shocked philanthropist Louis Schweitzer and set him on the path to founding this organization. Dismayed to learn how many people languished in New York City’s notorious Tombs jail simply because they were too poor to buy t ...

Twenty-one people have died in county jails so far this year.

How are people dying?It typically takes months for Los Angeles County to publicly issue causes of death for people who have died in LA County jails. And even once autopsy reports are finalized, they don’t tell the whole story. When the coroner rules that a death is the result of “natural causes,” jail conditions can still be to blame. Researchers h ...