Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project Blog

What accounts for the falling rates of Youth incarceration?  Find out here.

Check out PLAPper Jacob Alderdice’s recap of the Panel on Solitary Confinement in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review!

Also, check out one of the co-sponsors, Between the Bars, and the work they do here.

Many experts agree prison traps individuals, families, and entire communities in a cycle of poverty.  Read more here.

Could a new Massachusetts law actually give jail time for saggy pants?  Watch more here.

Budget shortfalls are prompting California and other states to close prisons and shift inmates, pushing some facilities’ populations dramatically over capacity.  Read more here.

The Corrections Corporation of America profits off of a prison population that disproportionately consists of men and women of color.  Read more about their ironic statement here.

What effect will immigration reform have on the prison system?  Find out here.

Republicans have joined the Left in calls for American prison reform, but are they ignoring the relevance of racism and social justice?  Read Wende Marshall’s argument here.

Country music star Johnny Cash was well-known for his activism on prisoners’ rights – but what impact did he actually have on the prison system?  Find out more here.

Two years after the US Supreme Court declared that the conditions in California’s prisons amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment”, have officials done enough to address the problem of overcrowding?  Read more here.