Truthout
Prisons & Policing
![People in bleachers raise a banner reading "PROTECT TRANS RIGHTS" during a sporting event](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/07/2024_0715-trans-rights-800x600.jpg)
Even When Trans Women Win Transfers to Women’s Prisons, They Still Aren’t Safe
Many states are rolling back policies allowing trans people to be placed in prisons aligned with their gender identity.
![The Ash Street Jail in New Bedford, Massachusetts, believed to be the oldest continuously operating jail in the country, pictured on February 2, 2024.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/07/GettyImages-2035575150-400x300.jpg)
Massachusetts’ Proposed Prison Moratorium Is a First Step Toward Abolition
A bill to halt the construction of new prisons and jails provides a way forward for decarceration.
![Michael Broadway, who died on June 19 at Stateville Correctional Center, excelled at educating himself in prison, graduating with a degree from Northwestern University. In this photo, taken at Stateville’s study hall in summer 2022, Broadway (left) stands with fellow student Michael Simmons.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/07/DSC08858-2-400x300.jpg)
I Watched My Neighbor Die a Preventable Death Due to Scorching Heat in Prison
Breathing was hard for all of us in the heat. I screamed for help when he collapsed but it didn’t come soon enough.
![Passengers stand at the windows of an airport gate to look at the Delta airplane parked outside](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/07/2024_0710-delta-airlines-400x300.jpg)
Delta Airlines Forces Passenger to Remove T-Shirt in Anti-Palestine Move
Louie Siegel describes how Delta Airlines threatened to kick him off a plane over his “Jews Say Ceasefire Now” T-shirt.
![Newly-elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visits to the shrine of the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran, Iran, on July 6, 2024.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/07/GettyImages-2160351076-400x300.jpg)
Reformist Pezeshkian Wins Iran’s Presidential Election — What Comes Next?
Pezeshkian's presidency could be an opening for progressive forces within Iran — and for the US to back away from war.
![Inmates sing as Helen Sinclair, a 98-year-old volunteer prison chaplain known as Queen Mother, helps lead in a church service on February 10, 2019, at the Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/07/GettyImages-1129218201-400x300.jpg)
Volunteers Play a Key Role in Breaking Down the Patterns That Enable Prisons
During my decades behind bars, I’ve watched community volunteers help fight the invisibilization that props prisons up.
![Shanita Jefferson talks about her mother at a Families for Justice as Healing rally led by formerly incarcerated and directly impacted women and girls in support of Angela Jefferson's motion for a new trial outside Suffolk County District Attorneys Office in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 18, 2021.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/07/GettyImages-1235968675-400x300.jpg)
Several States Are Building New Women’s Prisons — Can They Be Stopped?
Organizers across the country are working to halt the expansion of the carceral system.
![Green fireworks explode past dark black prison bars](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/07/2024_0704-fireworks-400x300.jpg)
This Fourth of July, I’m in My 26th Year Behind Bars for Cannabis
A victim of the “war on drugs” reflects upon watching the fireworks from prison.
![U.S. President Joe Biden participates in the CNN Presidential Debate against Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump at the CNN Studios on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/06/2024_0629-Joe-Biden-400x300.jpg)
Biden Offered No Alternative to Trump’s Pro-Policing Authoritarianism in Debate
Biden did not put forth a progressive or convincing counterweight to Trump’s xenophobic and authoritarian tirades.
![Then-newly appointed New York City Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban raises his new shield during a press conference at the NYPD 40th Precinct on July 17, 2023, in New York City.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/06/2024_0627-nypd-400x300.jpg)
NYC Police Commissioner Prevented 54 Cops’ Misconduct Cases From Going to Trial
The NYPD is “shutting down cases under the cloak of darkness,” said a former head of the police oversight agency.
![A lone protester holds a Palestinian flag on a University campus](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/06/2024_0626-nc-protester-400x300.jpg)
North Carolina GOP Is Trying to Corner Prosecutors Into Charging Protesters
The new proposal is yet another disturbing development in the criminalization of dissent that has swept across the US.
![Police march through a shantytown](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/06/2024_0624-police-drugs-400x300.jpg)
UN Expert Calls for an End to the Failed US-Led Global “War on Drugs”
Human rights advocates applauded Tlaleng Mofokeng's recommendations to adopt an approach focused on harm reduction.
![Sekou Odinga and dequi kioni-sadiki stand in front of a favorite ice cream parlor while on a trip to Memphis, Tennessee, on August 21, 2017.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/06/2024_0620-sekou-400x300.jpg)
Black Liberation Activist Sekou Odinga’s Legacy Lives On
Activist dequi kioni-sadiki, who was married to the Black Panther for almost 13 years, reflects on his life and death.