Wrongfully sentenced to death at 16, Shareef Cousin survived a decade behind bars before being exonerated and released. Three decades later, he is determined to find his own sense of freedom, through a cross-country journey with his son.
Louisiana’s Parole Board conducts hearings in public, offering a rare window into how life-changing decisions are made inside the criminal justice system.
An on-campus hearing showed decisions about freedom decided in real time, for men who have prepared for decades for a chance at parole.
Louisiana lawmakers are considering a proposal to expand medical parole, allowing terminally ill inmates to be released up to 120 days before their expected deaths.
“Throw me my Motha Mista, alive well before age fifty and dancing whole,” writes poet MonaLisa Saloy. This poem kicks off this year’s Lens Carnival Edition, a collection of stories, photography, and poetry.
Recent declines had come because of human-rights activists like Kiana Calloway, who was kept in solitary on and off for nine years, to the point where his hearing and sight changed.
Louisiana spends too much of its budget on criminal justice while ranking low in healthcare, education, infrastructure, and economic wellbeing. We could redirect those resources.
The 2005 abandonment of incarcerated people within the flooded Orleans Parish jail complex became one of the catalysts to reform the city’s dysfunctional justice system
