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Happy birthday to us! On Sunday, The Marshall Project marked six years of publishing criminal justice journalism. We’re taking some time to celebrate, but also to reflect on what has been a truly unprecedented year for The Marshall Project and for our country.
In 2014 our founder, @nbarsky, wrote: “The Marshall Project represents our attempt to elevate the criminal justice issue to one of national urgency, and to help spark a national conversation about reform.” https://www.themarshallproject.org/about
This year, millions more Americans woke up to the issues of racial inequality and police brutality that infect our criminal justice system, in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
As people across the country took to the streets in protest, and many sought to educate themselves, we were ready. We’ve covered these issues since our founding.
Here’s our 2014 review of what we learned about racial disparities in policing in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s fatal shooting by police in Ferguson, Missouri. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2014/11/19/what-we-ve-learned-about-racial-disparity-in-policing-since-ferguson
And a 2014 story from @kenarmstrong on Dollree Map, a Black woman who stood up to White police and changed American policing in the process. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2014/12/08/dollree-mapp-1923-2014-the-rosa-parks-of-the-fourth-amendment
This year has also been defined by the pandemic. By November 10, at least 182,776 people in prison had tested positive for COVID-19. At least 1,411 have died. Our work is needed now more than ever before—but it has also become much more difficult. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/05/01/a-state-by-state-look-at-coronavirus-in-prisons
Frequent lockdowns mean that our sources inside struggle to contact us, the pandemic gives officials a new excuse for ignoring our records requests and our inability to travel freely makes it even harder to chase down a story.
But with you behind us, we’ve met these challenges head-on. We were among the first to warn of the looming danger COVID-19 posed to people living and working in America’s prisons and jails: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/03/06/when-purell-is-contraband-how-do-you-contain-coronavirus
We exposed how the federal Bureau of Prisons took steps that helped spread the virus, in partnership with @VICENews: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/06/18/i-begged-them-to-let-me-die-how-federal-prisons-became-coronavirus-death-traps
And revealed the disgusting food served to people under COVID-19 lockdown in Texas prisons, who got hot food and fresh vegetables after we published our story in partnership with @HoustonChron and @ExpressNews. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/05/11/ewwwww-what-is-that
After our story with @theobserver showed North Carolina was still sending incarcerated people out to work for local industries like chicken-processing plants during the pandemic, potentially exposing them to the virus, the state shut the program down. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/03/19/north-carolina-prisoners-still-working-in-chicken-plants-despite-coronavirus-fears
And since March, we’ve been producing one of the most comprehensive datasets that exists showing the spread of coronavirus in our nation’s prisons, in partnership with @AP. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/05/01/a-state-by-state-look-at-coronavirus-in-prisons
Six years on, we have no plans of slowing down—but we cannot do this work alone. Please join us in celebrating six years of award-winning, high-impact journalism by becoming a member of The Marshall Project today. https://www.themarshallproject.org/donate
