Inquest
@inquest.bsky.social
National Magazine Award finalist. Cited in Best American Essays. Stillwater Award winner. Focused on ending mass incarceration. All our links: https://linktr.ee/inquest.org Can you spare $5?: https://inquest.org/donate/
"Police almost never express solidarity with other workers and expect their own labor to be treated preferentially." Sandeep on the democratic stakes of cop's anti-union unions
A Union Apart - Sandeep Dhaliwal - Inquest
Stuart Schrader’s ‘Blue Power’ illuminates the history of how police unions coalesced as tools for guaranteeing preferential treatment and protection from accountability.
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"A critical history of the police union movement, tracing how it emerged as a profoundly anti-democratic institution." Sandeep reviews Stuart Schrader 's new book 'Blue Power' on the emergence of police unions as firewalls against accountability.
A Union Apart - Sandeep Dhaliwal - Inquest
Stuart Schrader’s ‘Blue Power’ illuminates the history of how police unions coalesced as tools for guaranteeing preferential treatment and protection from accountability.
inquest.org
This week, Inquest shared a call to decarcerate social work, and published a personal essay on the bureaucratic hell of parole. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...
"Community supervision would be more aptly named community surveillance, and it plays an integral role in maintaining the punishment bureaucracy. It is incentivized to keep people on their watch for as long as possible." —Wesley Vaughan
Freed from the Community Supervision Trap - Wesley Vaughan - Inquest
Parole is a nonsensical bureaucracy, with demands that run counter to public safety and successful reentry. In recent years, Oregon has passed legislation to reduce the number of people caught in it.
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"In the 17 months I was on [my parole officer's] caseload, I never had a permanent address approved by her. She only ever approved one W-2 job & it was temporary." Wesley Vaughan on the decarceral urgency of freeing people from parole so they can put their lives back together
Freed from the Community Supervision Trap - Wesley Vaughan - Inquest
Parole is a nonsensical bureaucracy, with demands that run counter to public safety and successful reentry. In recent years, Oregon has passed legislation to reduce the number of people caught in it.
inquest.org
"When the government finally recognizes the damage of its own failed policies, it frequently turns to social workers—and the language of compassion—to mitigate harm and make its systems look more humane." —Caroline Strudwick on freeing social work from the carceral state
Reclaiming Social Work from the State - Caroline Strudwick - Inquest
From crime bills to family policing, reforms have bound social work to punishment. Holistic defense offers a path to realign the profession.
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This week, Inquest shared stories from elderly people in California who are sentenced to indefinite incarceration, and offered an argument for making Post-Incarceration Syndrome a formal diagnosis. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...
After his sixteenth parole denial, Steven Drown told incarcerated journalist Kevin D. Sawyer that "the board adds new requirements for release each time lifers attend a new parole hearing. 'What else do I need to do?' he asked." A collab with Solitary Watch
The Elderly “7-Ups” Enduring Indefinite Incarceration - Kevin D. Sawyer - Inquest
Nearly 200 people are serving indefinite sentences in California. These are some of their stories.
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Blocking reading materials and censoring writing are both ways that prisons erase expression before it can reach an audience. Story via @inquest.bsky.social.
Destroying the Conditions that Make Speech Possible - Stevie Wilson - Inquest
Blocking reading materials and censoring writing are both ways that prisons erase expression before it can reach an audience.
inquest.org
"The damage is cumulative, built day by day in an environment defined by threat and survival." Incarcerated author James Sheffield argues there is a need for a formal, distinct medical diagnosis for post-incarceration PTSD.
Diagnosing the Trauma of Incarceration - James A. Sheffield - Inquest
It’s long overdue for Post-Incarceration Syndrome to be classified as a distinct psychiatric disorder, deserving of compassion and treatment.
inquest.org
This week, Inquest offered a data-backed argument for ending "pretextual" traffic stops by police, and argued for abolishing the family policing system. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...
"The most effective way to reduce the harms of policing is not to perfect police encounters, but to prevent them in the first place." Parambir Dhillon on ending pretextual traffic stops and the violence against people of color that they routinely lead to.
You Can’t Reform a Traffic Stop - Parambir Dhillon - Inquest
Despite requirements that they undergo bias training and use body‑worn cameras, local police are still leaving Black men bloodied after pulling them over for minor violations.
inquest.org
"Perhaps it is always a safe political move for policymakers to enact legislation and create new structures that profess to save the children. . . ." [THREAD 1/2]
Ending Family Policing - Erin Miles Cloud, Erica R. Meiners, Shannon Perez-Darby & C. Hope Tolliver - Inquest
The so-called child welfare system is a core plank of the U.S. carceral state. How can we actually make our communities stronger and safer?
inquest.org
The Art of Mothering Through Bars. For incarcerated mothers, sending handmade art to their children can help nurture vital connections—but often even this is hindered by prison officials. Story via @inquest.bsky.social.
The Art of Mothering Through Bars - Holly Foster-Talbot - Inquest
For incarcerated mothers, sending handmade art to their children can help nurture vital connections—but often even this is hindered by prison officials.
inquest.org
This week, Inquest continued our Defending Prison Journalism series with an article from Stevie Wilson about prison censorship, and explored how the War on Drugs packed jails by changing how money bail was used. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...
This week, Inquest continued our Defending Prison Journalism series with an article from Stevie Wilson about prison censorship, and explored how the War on Drugs packed jails by changing how money bail was used. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...
"Censorship does not only affect knowledge acquisition; it also impedes knowledge production. Without connection to the world and access to its reading materials, imprisoned people remain ignorant of what has happened and is happening." Stevie Wilson
Destroying the Conditions that Make Speech Possible - Stevie Wilson - Inquest
Blocking reading materials and censoring writing are both ways that prisons erase expression before it can reach an audience.
inquest.org
"Prison employees destroyed every scrap of paper I owned…. Roughly ten large cardboard boxes—each holding a cubic foot archive of my life—disappeared overnight. I received no compensation. As a writer, the loss was incalculable." Stevie Wilson
Destroying the Conditions that Make Speech Possible - Stevie Wilson - Inquest
Blocking reading materials and censoring writing are both ways that prisons erase expression before it can reach an audience.
inquest.org
"The system says people are presumed innocent while holding them in cages because they are poor." —Nicole Zayas Manzano / The Bail Project
How the War on Drugs Packed Jails - Nicole Zayas Manzano - Inquest
The impact of the War on Drugs continues to be felt in how it dramatically expanded the use of pretrial detention and bail.
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The War on Drugs, which is 55 years old this summer, "reshaped the front end of the criminal justice system and laid the groundwork for a dramatic expansion of pretrial detention." Nicole Zayas Manzano from The Bail Project lays out the harm it continues to do.
How the War on Drugs Packed Jails - Nicole Zayas Manzano - Inquest
The impact of the War on Drugs continues to be felt in how it dramatically expanded the use of pretrial detention and bail.
inquest.org
This week, Inquest shared Black political prisoner Martin Sostre's take on the Fourth of July, and look at how incarcerated mothers maintain long-distance contact with their children. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...
“The very fact that I am here now, after being given forty-one years, is proof positive that even the most repressive state can be forced to disgorge its political prisoners and victims of its oppression.” —Martin Sostre
The Balance of Power Is on Our Side - Martin Sostre & Garrett Felber - Inquest
A new anthology of writing from influential Black political prisoner Martin Sostre offers lessons from a previous era of mass political imprisonment that can inform resistance in our own.
inquest.org
"Collective action can succeed . . . in freeing political prisoners and building a new egalitarian society.” Garrett Felber introduces a timely essay from political prisoner Martin Sostre.
The Balance of Power Is on Our Side - Martin Sostre & Garrett Felber - Inquest
A new anthology of writing from influential Black political prisoner Martin Sostre offers lessons from a previous era of mass political imprisonment that can inform resistance in our own.
inquest.org
New from Inquest! A moving excerpt from Holly Foster-Talbot's work "We All Do the Time: Who Cares for Incarcerated Women and Why It Matters," on the incarcerated mothers who handcraft backpacks, blankets, and crocheted gifts to stay present in their children's lives.
Inquest@inquest.bsky.social · last mo."Supporting the families, friends, and volunteers who sustain relationships with incarcerated women is essential. This responsibility should not fall disproportionately on already marginalized communities." Holly Foster-Talbot w/ thanks to NYU Press
"Supporting the families, friends, and volunteers who sustain relationships with incarcerated women is essential. This responsibility should not fall disproportionately on already marginalized communities." Holly Foster-Talbot w/ thanks to NYU Press
The Art of Mothering Through Bars - Holly Foster-Talbot - Inquest
For incarcerated mothers, sending handmade art to their children can help nurture vital connections—but often even this is hindered by prison officials.
inquest.org
Inquest's editors had an amazing day at The Warehouse NYC's abolitionist fair! Thanks to the organizers —especially Prisonculture — and our gracious hosts at the Bedford Library. And to all the community who kept the library packed with amazing vibes for the entire day.
This week, Inquest shared a study from @chadtopaz.bsky.social on how judges with a law enforcement background are more punitive, and insights from incarcerated author Devin Giordano into the devastating psychological impact of long sentences. Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...
"Movements working toward decarceration should treat judicial selection as a frontline issue." — Chad Topaz Queer DEI Race Traitor
When the Judge Used to Wear Blue - Chad Topaz - Inquest
Data reveals that judges with law enforcement backgrounds are more likely to order pretrial detention and set high bail. In other words, judicial appointments are jail policy.
inquest.org
~84% of people in Rikers are there just awaiting trial, and judges with law enforcement backgrounds are more likely to decide they should stay there. In the words of data scientist @chadtopaz.bsky.social "Judicial appointments are jail policy."
When the Judge Used to Wear Blue - Chad Topaz - Inquest
Data reveals that judges with law enforcement backgrounds are more likely to order pretrial detention and set high bail. In other words, judicial appointments are jail policy.
inquest.org