Society
Crime and justice
With awareness of both historical and contemporary oppression, we consider the meaning of ‘justice’ and question how it can be won.
Our journalism highlights cases of criminal violence to reveal the countries where human rights are best protected and to expose corruption and discrimination in the justice system. Here, we also explore the role of new technologies and examine its implications for democracy, press freedom and human rights. We also ask questions about the future of our justice systems, including whether prison abolition should be the way forward.
What if… We answered Isis with restorative justice?
Matt Broomfield spells out some better ways of dealing with captive extremists.
10 steps towards prison abolition
A world without incarceration and police may seem a long way off, but there are plenty of things we can change on the way. Amy Hall examines some of them.
So, what’s the alternative?
Community-based initiatives are helping keep people safe where the police fail. Lucilla Harrell and Amy Hall speak to organizers in Puerto Rico, Brazil and the US.
Healed people heal people
Writing from a Californian prison, Jessie Milo sets out his vision for a more caring society.
Colonize and punish
Mass imprisonment and merciless policing were the preferred tools of control for European colonizers. Patrick Gathara explores the legacy left in Kenya.
Beyond punishment
Amy Hall explores the movement calling time on prisons and the police while offering an alternative vision of the future.
On the pink corridor
How trans women in Honduras are helping their imprisoned sisters. Frauke Decoodt reports from Tegucigalpa.
Police brutality is not just a US problem
Amy Hall on why the Black Lives Matter movement is once again resonating around the world.
Should prisons be abolished?
Prisons damage people and have always been used by the powerful to control the most marginalized. But can society really do away with incarceration altogether? Kelsey Mohamed and Andrew Neilson go head to head.
Labour’s pledges on prisons don’t go far enough
The UK has the highest amount of prisoners in Western Europe. Any progressive agenda must end mass incarceration. Community Action on Prison Expansion pen an open letter.
Starving for the rights of Bahrain's prisoners
Bahraini activist Ali Mushaima is on his 37th day of a hunger strike, outside the Bahraini embassy in London. Andrew Smith reports
Colombia’s political prisoners’ futures hang on electoral outcome
Guerrillas talk about the peace process. Alicia Prager reports.
Inside the jails of Duterte’s drug war
A glimpse of the lives of those sleeping in shifts in Manila's overcrowded jails.
Young women caught in deadly crossfire of El Salvador’s gang warfare
There is a whole generation behind bars, writes Amy Smith.
We are prisoners, but we are human
A letter from death-row inmate Brandon Astor Jones complaining about demeaning treatment is still waiting for a response.
The death penalty: killing them nicely?
Debating what constitutes as ‘humane executions’ allows politicians to avoid discussing abolition, argues Robert Walsh.
Inmates ‘treated like animals’ in Chilean prisons
Mischa Wilmers sees the horror for himself – and meets those trying to change it.
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The genetics of blame
A gene for homelessness?
Is this a joke?
Not entirely, for those who subscribe to the
burgeoning new mix of science and politics called 'neurogenetic determinism',
