justice

Does Gun Possession Merit Life Behind Bars?

Hamilton Nolan · 11/25/13 11:34AM

Hundreds of Californians have been jailed for life for felony firearm possession under the state's "Three Strikes" law. Now, the state has reformed the harsh law, and these convicts are asking for reconsideration. Is mere gun possession bad enough to lock someone up forever?

Texas Treats Pigs Better Than Prisoners

Hamilton Nolan · 10/18/13 11:52AM

The state of Texas has been the subject of multiple lawsuits over its insistence on killing state prisoners with heat stroke as they sit in jails without air conditioning. It turns out that Texas would not even subject actual swine to the same conditions.

What's an Acceptable Ratio of CEO Pay to Worker Pay?

Hamilton Nolan · 09/18/13 01:48PM

As of 2011, the average CEO was paid 230 times the salary of an average worker at his company. Today, the SEC proposed a rule to require companies to report that ratio every year. What should it be? A modest proposal: 100-1.

Mall Store Staff Quits, Leaves Abusive Boss Very Public Note

Neetzan Zimmerman · 09/03/13 02:14PM

Fed up with their district manager's abusive mistreatment, employees at a Journeys footwear and apparel store inside Rochester's Marketplace Mall decided to storm out together in the middle of the day, during the busy Back to School season, locking up the store behind them.

Hamilton Nolan · 08/28/13 11:24AM

In order to comply with a court order to reduce unconstitutional overcrowding in state prisons, California's governor wants to spend $315 million next year transferring thousands of prisoners to "privately owned prisons and other facilities."

Hamilton Nolan · 08/06/13 10:08AM

In one of the finest demonstrations of Orwellian language in recent memory, a hunger strike by cell-bound California prisoners is denounced as a "gang power play" by the government official who controls all of California's prisons.

A Former Death Row Inmate Describes Solitary Confinement

Hamilton Nolan · 08/01/13 11:03AM

In 2008, Montez Spradley was convicted in Alabama of killing a 58-year-old woman during a robbery. He was sentenced to death. In 2011, his conviction was reversed due to serious errors in the case. In this letter, he describes life on death row.

The Worst of White Folks

Kiese Laymon · 07/24/13 09:05AM

Way back in the day when Twitter was a bootleg reindeer name, David Rozier invented farting during Mass. A few minutes before we marveled at the six Catholics at Holy Family Catholic School sipping out of one gold goblet, and right after Father Joe suggested we offer each other “a sign of peace,” David tapped me on my shoulder, swung his right arm around his back and farted in his hand. Father Joe rolled his eyes from the pulpit as David proceeded to shake the hands of Ms. Bockman, Ms. Raphael, and all the other sixth-and seventh-graders in our row.