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The New Republic
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Rikers Island
June 18, 2024
Edith Olmsted
Lara Trump’s RNC Tries New Plan: Pretend Trump Isn’t Convicted Felon
RNC co-chair Michael Whatley refused to admit that the convention might need to work around Donald Trump’s hush-money sentence.
September 16, 2021
Esther Wang
There’s No Fixing Rikers. Close It, and Let People Go.
Bill de Blasio and the correctional officers’ union say the crisis at Rikers Island is about understaffing. But no number of guards will solve the underlying problems with the jail.
June 19, 2020
Kate Aronoff
Turn Rikers Island Into a Solar Farm
A prison built on trash heaps and racism could become a job-providing source of clean energy for some of the most polluted boroughs of New York City.
April 15, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
Pleading for Clemency in a Pandemic
Petitions for early release reveal the contours of people’s lives before incarceration, conditions on the inside, and what might come after.
April 7, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Shock Doctrine Came for Bail Reform
Conservative opponents of cash bail reform in New York saw an opportunity in the pandemic—and took it.
January 13, 2020
Magazine
Melissa Gira Grant
Culture War in the Workplace
Inside the court battle over trans employment discrimination
August 12, 2019
Melissa Gira Grant
Jeffrey Epstein and the Myth of “Justice” in America
The U.S. criminal legal system protected him for years—and then it failed him, just as it has failed countless people of color who are put behind bars.
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