Every issue has one section dedicated to a particular question. Collecting responses from a range of perspectives, these symposia prompt us to think about the values and ideas that shape our most urgent cultural and personal decisions.
“We can talk about theories of punishment—people talk about incapacitation, people talk about deterrence. But fundamentally those would only explain, in my mind, a part of why we use prisons to the extent that we do…”
Socializing Punishment
“Socialism or barbarism?” The question animates and enshrouds today’s reinvigorated American left.
Rehabilitative Faith
In 1971, the political-action arm of the American Quaker movement, the American Friends Service Committee, published its report on the state of crime and punishment…
Only Once I Thought About Suicide
Every prison and jail in Virginia has a series of cells used for solitary confinement.
Go Directly to Jail
This is the story of two court cases that have captured the American imagination, and of the dangerously misunderstood American institution at the heart of…
Performing to Survive
On Hazen Street and 19th Avenue in Queens, there is a traffic light that sits to the left of the Rikers Island entrance post.
Another Justice
James Forman, Jr. is a professor of law at Yale Law School and author of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Locking Up Our Own: Crime…
