Justice Notes: Retroacitve Punishment

A White-Collar Journal forum for criminal justice, lived experience, and the personal search for redemption

Attorney and reform advocate Jeff Grant returns to Justice Notes with a timely and provocative analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court’s consideration of Ellingburg v. United States.

WHEELER COUNTY, Ga. (WGXA) — Investigators are looking into a 'use of force' incident that left an inmate at the Wheeler Correctional Facility dead.

When you make pennies on the dollar, every price increase makes a dent. But these hikes were exceptional.

by Chastyn HicksSeptember 2, 2025

Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers. Photos from Adobe Stock

Instead of being a place to “dry out,” my prison now often perpetuates addiction.

The aging prison population has tripled in the past two decades. These facilities, which offer poor medical care and a stressful environment, are ill-equipped to handle their graying population.

Women at my Virginia prison filed a class-action lawsuit in 2012 for unconstitutional health care. A decade later, there are still problems

States of Women’s Incarceration: The Global Context 2025

The first myth: Crime is up, and immigration and criminal legal system reforms are to blame

This report is old. See our new version.

States of Incarceration: The Global Context

Louisiana is the world’s prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. First among Americans means first in the world.

—Cindy Chang, The Times-Picayune, May 13, 2012

We’ve all heard the same line from people caught in wrongdoing—public figures, celebrities, even people like us: “That’s not who I am.” It’s a comforting defense, a way of separating the self from the harm we caused. But for those of us who have lived through indictment, conviction, or incarceration, that phrase becomes far more complicated.