Quality Journalism About Inequality

 
 

Featured Stories

When a “Routine” Exam Feels Like an Assault
When a “Routine” Exam Feels Like an Assault

Barbara Ehrenreich

CULTURE

Co-published with Lenny Letter. Are annual pelvic examinations necessary?

Life After ‘17 to Life’
Life After ‘17 to Life’

Joseph Rodriguez & Nell Bernstein

FEATURES

Co-published with The New York Times. What it looks like to re-enter life in Stockton, Calif., after a long stint in prison.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Last Fears Are Still Alive in Trump's America
Martin Luther King Jr.'s Last Fears Are Still Alive in Trump's America

Rich Benjamin

FEATURES

Co-published with Esquire. The final cause for which King fought—income inequality—has devolved to crisis levels in the 50 years since his death.

What Americans Can Learn from British Class Guilt
What Americans Can Learn from British Class Guilt

Alissa Quart

FEATURES

Co-published with The Guardian. America is supposed to have greater social mobility. In the UK, everyone ostensibly has a rung but they are also trapped in that position. But these once-clear binaries are muddled

Episode 9: 'You Just Sit There and Wait for the Next Day to Come'
Episode 9: 'You Just Sit There and Wait for the Next Day to Come'

WNYC Studios

MULTIMEDIA

Co-published with WNYC Studios. In many counties, pre-trial juvenile offenders are still put in solitary. In this episode, WNYC teams up with The Marshall Project to investigate how widespread the practice remains.

Episode 8: 'I Want Someone to Love Me Even for a Second'
Episode 8: 'I Want Someone to Love Me Even for a Second'

WNYC Studios

MULTIMEDIA

Co-published with WNYC Studios. Policy experts even use the term "sexual abuse to prison pipeline," and they say it’s why incarcerating a young girl perpetuates more negative behavior and makes it harder to exit the system. 

Episode 7: 'It’s the Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done'
Episode 7: 'It’s the Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done'

WNYC Studios

MULTIMEDIA

Co-published with WNYC Studios. Desperate parents with means can turn to a whole network of private programs before their kids even get caught. For a young person named James, this type of intervention in his teenage years was life-changing.

Episode 6: 'Please Lock Up My Kid'
Episode 6: 'Please Lock Up My Kid'

WNYC Studios

MULTIMEDIA

Co-published with WNYC Studios. Status offenses are designed to keep at risk youth safe, but in practice, they can also become a pipeline into the juvenile justice system for kids who might otherwise not end up there.

 

Episode 5: 'The Teenage Brain Is Like a Sports Car'
Episode 5: 'The Teenage Brain Is Like a Sports Car'

WNYC Studios

MULTIMEDIA

Co-published with WNYC Studios. Stephen is one of thousands of so-called "juvenile lifers" who have an unexpected shot at freedom today. Up until 2005, most juveniles could be sentenced just as harshly as adults: that meant life without parole, even the death penalty.

Episode 4: 'Oh My God, What Have I Done?'
Episode 4: 'Oh My God, What Have I Done?'

WNYC Studios

MULTIMEDIA

Co-published with WNYC Studios. Honor has struggled for years with leukemia, homelessness and suicide attempts. Like many young people who struggle with mental illness, "the incident" pushed Honor into the criminal justice system.

Episode 3: 'He Really Wants to Shoot Someone'
Episode 3: 'He Really Wants to Shoot Someone'

WNYC Studios

MULTIMEDIA

Co-published with WNYC Studios. At age 15, Z received his sentence in adult court. The reason why dates back 40 years, to a child named Willie Bosket. His crimes changed everything for kids and criminal justice.

Episode 2: 'They Look at Me Like a Menace'
Episode 2: 'They Look at Me Like a Menace'

WNYC Studios

MULTIMEDIA

Co-published with WNYC Studios. In our first episode, we met Z. Z is a kid who's had mental health challenges since he was small, and when he's gotten the support he needs, he has thrived. Inside lock up, that support is complicated.

On The Ground

Archive
Passive, Poor and White? What People Keep Getting Wrong About Appalachia
Passive, Poor and White? What People Keep Getting Wrong About Appalachia

Elizabeth Catte

FEATURES

Co-published with The Guardian. To satisfy an elitist, narrative fetish about ‘Trump Country’, photographers from outside have long ignored my region’s diversity

I Wrote About Farmers' Suicides – And the Reaction Has Been Overwhelming
I Wrote About Farmers' Suicides – And the Reaction Has Been Overwhelming

Debbie Weingarten

NEWS

Co-published with The Guardian. After the Guardian and EHRP published a piece about the record number of farmers who are killing themselves, there were hundreds of responses.

My Small Town is Being Poisoned by Fracking Waste
My Small Town is Being Poisoned by Fracking Waste

Alison Stine

FEATURES

Co-published with The Guardian. In a tiny south-eastern Ohio town in the Appalachian foothills, the Hazel Ginsburg Well is holding waste from out-of-state fracking operations – a sludge of toxic chemicals and undrinkable water.

America's Local Newspapers Might be Broke - But They're More Vital than Ever
America's Local Newspapers Might be Broke - But They're More Vital than Ever

Kathleen McLaughlin

FEATURES

Co-published with The Guardian. Local journalism is doing great work across the country while fighting cutbacks and tight budgets. But we need people to stop expecting news to be free.

The Socialist Experiment
The Socialist Experiment

Katie GIlbert

FEATURES

Co-published with Oxford American, republished in The Clarion-Ledger. A new-society vision in Jackson, Mississippi

Oklahoma Isn't working. Can Anyone Fix this Failing American State?
Oklahoma Isn't working. Can Anyone Fix this Failing American State?

Russell Cobb

FEATURES

Co-published with The Guardian. Poverty, police abuse, record prison rates and education cuts that mean a four-day school week. Why are public services failing Oklahomans?