From artists rapping over prison phones to those starting labels and nonprofits to release their work, prison music speaks to the resilience of people behind bars.
Our limited-run newsletter Redemption Songs will send a new song by incarcerated artists to your inbox each Sunday — sign up now:
Infographic with text: Only 4% of the world’s women and girls live in the United states, but the U.S. confines 25% of the world’s incarcerated women and girls. Source: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/women/2025.html
The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate for women in the world.
This #WomensHistoryMonth, we're thinking of all the women locked behind bars, away from their families. They can't get lost in the fight to end mass incarceration.
Gun violence intervention programs save lives. Thank you @governor.ca.gov for recognizing that the best way to stop crime is by preventing it from happening in the first place 👏
NEW: Two women incarcerated in a CA prison have come forward to report sexual assaults by a staff cook while they were working in the kitchen, paid 12¢/hr. They told me he threatened discipline if they spoke up.
The prison concluded abuse occurred, a very rare outcome, but he hasn't faced charges.
For too many people, parole does not offer a real chance for release.
Watch Carol and her son, Bill, speak about their experience navigating Mississippi’s parole system. Their story represents so many families waiting to be reunited.
74% of women incarcerated for homicide in California are survivors of intimate partner violence, and two-thirds were in “extreme danger” of being killed by their partners in the year before their offense. law.stanford.edu/wp-content/u...
For CA women who are arrested, convicted, and sentenced for offenses like homicide that arose out of their own victimization, the law generally fails to account for domestic and intimate partner violence even when this abuse is supposed to be considered as a mitigating factor.
I am deeply saddened by the passing of Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose life and leadership shaped our nation’s ongoing journey toward equality. He was a voice for the voiceless, an advocate for those too often left out, and a servant to the oppressed worldwide.
During his first year in office, L.A. D.A. Nathan Hochman has dismissed or severely reduced charges against several police officers accused of excessive force.
Hochman says he's just following the law. Victims families are growing frustrated. My latest: www.latimes.com/california/s...
Join us for a powerful Black History Month conversation honoring Black prosecutors shaping justice—past, present, and future.
📅 Feb 19, 2026 | 🕒 3 PM ET / 12 PM PT
💻 Virtual | ✅ Free | 🎓 1-hr CA CLE
🔗 Registration link: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
In 1996, a 17-bed, state-licensed hospice began caring for dying incarcerated men at California Medical Facility in Vacaville. At that time, the hospice unit mainly took care of patients dying of AIDS. Today, many of the patients housed there are dying of cancer.
Homicide has dropped sharply for three straight years—potentially to the lowest level in a century. What’s driving the decline? We asked leading experts what may be behind this historic shift. Here’s what they said ⬇️
Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman -- who received significant campaign $$ from real estate interests in 2024 -- hasn’t prosecuted a single price-gouging case.
Graph showing that incarceration increases the risk of death more than most other individual risk factors
Incarceration is deadly.
People incarcerated on a single day in 2008 had a 39% higher risk of death compared to similar people who were not incarcerated:
In the words of Vera’s Claudia Gonzalez, “Punishment is not prevention, and prison is not a path forward.” Diversion programs provide a non-punitive alternative to incarceration and addresses trauma, promotes healing, and helps break the cycle of incarceration.
www.marinij.com/2026/01/28/o...
“It’s a mess,” told @missionlocal.org, describing vomit on the floor of cells, maggots in trash bins and human feces beneath bunks missionlocal.org/2026/02/sf-j...
Really beautiful work from @themarshallproject.org documenting the Californians who took part in a massive hunger strike 13 years ago to challenge the use of solitary confinement in state prisons
Great thread on what could be causing the historic decline in homicide rates nationwide 👇
“Newsom’s past actions have made it clear he deplores capital punishment as deeply as many civil rights advocates,” writes columnist Robin Epley.
Many California prisoners get a second chance. A declining parole rate shows that's no guarantee
When Donald Trump broke the law, @agrobbonta.oag.ca.gov held him accountable — again and again.
That’s the kind of Attorney General California needs. We are proud to support his reelection.
Join us at robbonta.com.
🧵It’s a new year, but at least one thing’s still the same: The death penalty does not make our communities safer. Decades of research show that the death penalty does not deter crime or protect the most vulnerable from harm.
Even with seemingly much more opportunity and incentives, the success rate for Californians to be found suitable for parole has gradually declined — from 39% in 2018 to roughly 35% for 2019 through 2021 to below 25% in 2025. @calmatters.org's Joe Garcia explores why calmatters.org/justice/2026...
“When people think of incarcerated people, they often see us as a danger, with our past mistakes magnified. Amid the smoke, ash, and destruction of the LA fires, people saw us as heroes, recognizing the good we could achieve when given a second chance.”
calmatters.org/commentary/2...
During a time meant for celebration, the nearly 2 million people incarcerated in the U.S. endure loneliness and separation from loved ones.
Incarcerated writer Demetrius Buckley reflects on 16 holiday seasons behind bars and how moments of joy are still cultivated, even in the darkest of places.
A CalMatters investigation looks at the limitations of this model and its impact on people accused of crimes in rural parts of the state. calmatters.org/investigatio...
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Quote: “For it to be worthwhile for this firm to do this, its partners and shareholders have to be taking in enough money to make it profitable for them. And the only way to do that is to cut back on expenses that are required for effective representation. I just don’t know how the math works out otherwise.” Source: Eve Primus, a University of Michigan law professor, on the Ciummo firm’s flat-fee contracts with rural California counties.
But flat-fee contracts for public defense has created a second-tier justice system in rural stretches of the state: Seven of the eight counties with the state’s highest jail and prison incarceration rates have flat-fee contracts.
4/7
The death penalty doesn't deter crime. FL carried out more executions than any state in 2025, but has a higher homicide rate than CA – which hasn’t executed anyone in 20 yrs.
Ending the death penalty isn't just morally right, it's also safe. Time to #CommuteTheRow in CA www.npr.org/2025/12/15/n...
Our latest report outlines five public policy issues L.A. County advocates and community members tracked during L.A. D.A. Nathan Hochman’s first year in office that reveals a pattern of extreme and debunked approaches to crime, many that will increase mass incarceration.
Read: aclusocal.co/48hWw5u
"There is a huge disconnect between what the public wants and what elected officials are doing." -- Robin Maher, @deathpenaltyinfo.org Executive Director.
The surge was driven by Florida, which is poised to conduct 19 executions, accounting for 40% of the nation’s death sentences in 2025.
