justice

Ferguson and the Criminalization of American Life

David Graeber · 03/19/15 12:09PM

The Department of Justice's investigation of the Ferguson Police Department has scandalized the nation, and justly so. But the department's institutional racism, while shocking, isn't the report's most striking revelation.

The Enemy Has Been Living With Us the Whole Time and It's Gerbils 

Caity Weaver · 02/24/15 11:23AM

For centuries, mankind has lived in harmony with the gerbil, welcoming it into our homes, allowing it run inside our smallest wheels, and encouraging it to raise our human children as it saw fit with little to no outside interference. Now, a new study has found that gerbils have been trying to kill us for 700 years.

Local Jails Are Insatiable Monsters

Hamilton Nolan · 02/11/15 12:12PM

It has become increasingly clear to mainstream America that our nation's decades-long experiment with mass incarceration is fundamentally a bad idea. And though state prisons loom large in the public mind, it's actually local jails where most of the (bad) action happens.

The Solitary Confinement Epidemic Continues

Hamilton Nolan · 02/05/15 03:15PM

Texas has one of the harshest and most punitive criminal justice systems in America. A new report shows just how inhuman the state of Texas is when it comes to doling out the punishment of solitary confinement.

Cheap-Ass Car Dealership Films Itself Bilking Pizza Guy Out of Tip 

Aleksander Chan · 01/15/15 08:28AM

F&R Auto Sales in Freeport, Ma. has revealed themselves as cheapskates: In security footage of their office from this past Saturday, a group of employees can be seen berating the pizza delivery driver they forced to return the $7 in change he mistook for a tip.

The Death Penalty Is Slowly Dying

Hamilton Nolan · 12/18/14 11:40AM

The persistence of capital punishment in some American states is cause for disgust. There is some good news, though: the death penalty is on the decline. These year end numbers prove it.