The Marshall Project

08/31/2026

During Lance Shockley’s final moments in Missouri’s ex*****on chamber in October 2025, he wanted his daughter, an ordained minister, by his side as his spiritual adviser.

A few years earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had expanded religious rights for the condemned, saying spiritual advisers could accompany them into the ex*****on chamber and could touch them while praying aloud.

But the Missouri Department of Corrections refused Shockley his chosen spiritual adviser, and he died alone.

“We’re talking about constitutional rights in someone’s dying moments,” one advocate said.

“We’re talking about constitutional rights in someone’s dying moments,” one advocate said.

08/31/2026

Politicians are jockeying for credit for falling crime rates ahead of the midterm elections, but experts point to a mix of pandemic recovery, community programs and targeted policing.

Politicians are jockeying for credit ahead of midterm elections, but experts point to a mix of pandemic recovery, community programs and targeted policing.

08/31/2026

Kwaneta Harris takes us inside surprising rituals where couples get hitched, and guests shed tears for the weddings on the outside that they’ve missed.

Kwaneta Harris reveals surprising rituals where couples get hitched, and guests shed tears for the weddings on the outside that they’ve missed.

08/30/2026

"The crazy thing about grief is it’s like rain: Sometimes you can smell when the rain is coming, and sometimes it just comes outta nowhere," mortician Shamari Jackson told us.

St. Louis native Shamari Jackson began studying mortuary science after her boyfriend was fatally shot. Now she uses her work as a form of therapy.

08/30/2026

Donald Prutting called the prison for weeks, trying to collect his brother’s ashes.

The officials who run prisons and jails don't always return belongings to loved ones after a person dies behind bars.

In some places, corrections officials hold on to property until they finish investigating the death. Other places keep the property until a court officially names someone to manage it or the family submits the right paperwork, a process that can drag on for weeks, or even months.

And if some beloved memento goes missing, families have little recourse.

We'll post carousels sharing the stories of four other families in the coming days.

🔗 Read the full article: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/10/30/their-loved-ones-died-behind-bars-these-keepsakes-are-all-they-have-left?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tmp-facebook
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✍️: Aala Abdullahi and Shannon Heffernan / The Marshall Project⁠
🎨: Juan Bernabeu / The Marshall Project
📱: Mariam Abaza and Ashley Dye / The Marshall Project

08/28/2026

"My job is what I would term a “last responder”: When you think of a first responder, they work holidays, birthdays — when their job calls, they have to go, and that’s how it is on our side, too. We are technically first responders, we’re just the final call."

St. Louis native Shamari Jackson began studying mortuary science after her boyfriend was fatally shot. Now she uses her work as a form of therapy.

St. Louis native Shamari Jackson began studying mortuary science after her boyfriend was fatally shot. Now she uses her work as a form of therapy.

08/28/2026

Just 30 minutes down the road from the Mississippi prison where they are serving time, Lee Andrew Smith and six other incarcerated people felt free — for a few hours.

The concert this summer was the third stop on the Parchman Band’s tour through the state with country singer-songwriter Charlie Worsham. It’s part of a musical tradition that dates back to the early 1930s at the prison. The Mississippi State Penitentiary, a prison farm, has a long history of brutality and sits on about 18,000 acres of flat, fertile land in the Mississippi Delta, where the blues were born.

The latest incarnation of the band composed of incarcerated people at Parchman prison toured the state and will release an album next year.

08/28/2026

ICE is aggressively arresting people far from the border and locking them in immigrant camps for longer than prior presidencies, including Trump’s first term, according to our analysis of data released by the Deportation Data Project.⁠
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Even as Trump’s enforcement upends lives and livelihoods, the number of people detained and deported falls far short of his goal of deporting 1 million people per year.⁠
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✍️: Beth Schwartzapfel and Anna Flagg / The Marshall Project⁠
📷: Adam Gray/Getty Images⁠
📱: Ashley Dye / The Marshall Project

08/27/2026

Roughly 13 minutes into “The Alabama Solution,” a revelatory documentary about the long-simmering humanitarian crisis in Alabama’s state prisons, filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman got a tip about an incarcerated man who had been beaten so badly he was taken to the ICU at an outside hospital. By the time they arrive, Steven Davis was dead.

The Oscar-nominated documentary features cellphone footage exposing abuse and neglect that is all too common in U.S. prisons. Here are five takeaways.

Here are five takeaways from the documentary exposing abuse and neglect that is all too common in U.S. prisons.

08/27/2026

Advocates working in sexual violence prevention said that Colorado's new law is the result of survivors coming together to demand legislative change. They also hope it will be a model for other states — an effort to reconsider the pervasive use of strip searches in the criminal legal system.

Women who organized to push for a new Colorado law hope it will become a model for other states.