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Category
Criminal Justice

Asking why and how, and what needs to be done.

Vote to reject the state’s costly push to fill Louisiana jails and prisons

Voters have a chance on March 29 to turn the tide against Gov. Jeff Landry and his legislature’s extensive, expensive plans to expand the criminal-justice system in Louisiana, which already incarcerates more people per capita than any other state
by Bruce Reilly February 18, 2025 Updated February 18, 2025

Ensuring we all feel safe and are stably employed

“We have much work to do,” Hunter writes, “to ensure that an anti-terrorist component is part of the planning process for every special event that attracts thousands – Mardi Gras, festivals and holiday celebrations, even our Sunday second-line parades.”
by Judge Arthur L. Hunter Jr.* January 15, 2025 Updated January 16, 2025

‘A make-believe person in a make-believe world’

"I keep paper and pen with me at all times because, like the most dynamic dreams, creativity is as wispy as Louisiana mist and dissipates quickly if not seized,” writes John Corley, associate editor of the Angolite, who says that, in his mind, he still lives in 1989, ‘the year I fell.’
by John Corley, as interviewed by Nick Chrastil, The Lens January 2, 2025 Updated December 30, 2024

Kaleidoscope Reprise

This poem received second prize for poetry in the 2024 PEN Prison Writing Awards.
by John Corley January 2, 2025 Updated December 30, 2024

‘Servitude’

The author, who is also associate editor for the Angolite magazine, won an honorable mention for this essay in the 2024 PEN Prison Writing Awards.
by John Corley January 2, 2025 Updated December 30, 2024

‘Resentment is not inevitable’

"I am not a person who came to prison and became a writer, I am a writer who happened to come to prison."
by Lawson Strickland, winner of the PEN Prison Writing Award for Fiction, as interviewed by Nick Chrastil, The Lens December 26, 2024 Updated December 26, 2024

Waiting.

This story was awarded the top PEN Prison Writing Award for fiction.
by Lawson Strickland December 26, 2024 Updated December 27, 2024

Towns across Louisiana clamor to build new juvenile detention centers

Local governments request more than $500 million to build regional and local juvenile-detention facilities — and to repair and construct some adult jails.
by Nick Chrastil December 16, 2024 Updated March 27, 2026

Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice to end contract with troubled Jackson Parish jail

Invoices show that Jackson charged OJJ nearly $2 million dollars over the past year to house juveniles in the jail, despite grave allegations of abuse and mistreatment.
by Nick Chrastil November 25, 2024 Updated March 27, 2026

To prevent suicide, New Orleans daughter urges states to let people ban themselves from buying guns

Donna’s Law, which allows people to ban themselves from gun ownership, has proven one of the few areas of gun policy where Republicans and Democrats can agree. But it has made little headway in Louisiana, home of the bill’s namesake.
by Agya K. Aning, The Trace November 19, 2024 Updated November 18, 2024

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About The Lens

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The Lens fights to reveal and report on issues that impact the community and the region. Staunchly defending the public's right to know and deeply committed to sharing our knowledge with the community at large. We center human impact in all our work.
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Our reporting has more urgency than ever.


For more than a decade, we have reported on issues as well as public policy meant to address the needs of residents. The Lens seeks to focus on the inherent inequality that has created a multi-tiered system. We, at The Lens seek to uncover, illuminate, inform and take part in a forward-looking community. Join us.

 
 

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