Mapping the Legacy of Prison Hunger Strikes in Texas
"I'm willing to die for the cause, because I can't live."
Prisons
Notorious Houston Serial Killer Requests Compassionate Release
Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr is currently serving six life sentences for participating in a murder, rape, and torture ring when he was a teenager.
The Pain Belongs To Us
Archives of survival hold the power to transform beliefs about revenge, retribution, and the carceral state.
Locked Up and Left to Die
In Texas, dying in jail is “par for the course.”
I Left My Friends in Prison in a Pandemic. Here’s What It’s Like For Them.
I receive phone calls from distraught friends inside complaining of unbearable heat, uncontrollable outbreaks, and paltry diets.
Will The Reckoning Over Racist Names Include These Prisons?
Many prisons, especially in the South, are named after racist officials and former plantations.
COVID-19 Has Delayed Programs That Texas Prisoners Need to Get Out
People approved for parole in the Texas prison system already waited months to start programs required for their release. Coronavirus is making some wait even longer.
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Texas Health Officials Undercount COVID-19 Cases by Excluding Some Prisoners Who Tested Positive
The Observer identified at least nine Texas counties where current prison cases make up more than 10 percent of the total COVID-19 cases in the county.
Texas Prisons Ban Greeting Cards, Expand Drug-Sniffing Dog Searches to Visitors
Families of prisoners and civil rights groups call the new policies arbitrary, punitive, and isolating for people behind bars.
Death in Solitary
Russell Johnson’s sister warned officials that nearly three years in solitary confinement had broken him. His suicide in isolation two months later points to compounded crises inside Texas prisons.