A Great Injustice — The Message — Medium
▻https://medium.com/message/a-great-injustice-689d24d12c10
(A Great Injustice is a synthesis of art and long form data journalism. Accompanying this article is an installation that lets the readers experience the story in a new way. At the installation, the audience is encouraged to pick up, explore, examine, and document what they are learning about our prison system. The installation and article debuted at Autodesk’s Artist in Residence show at Pier 9, San Francisco, on May 20th and 21st. All pictures here are from that exhibit.)
There are many ways to get caught up in the gears of American justice, but the easiest is to be poor, black, mentally ill, or any combination thereof. We live in a society of vast and accelerating inequality and little to no social services. For many people born on the wrong end of the American dream, the brush with the law, the arrest, and the inevitable charges start a process they may never escape. 
How 4 Inmates Launched A Statewide Hunger Strike From Solitary
▻http://www.npr.org/2014/03/06/286794055/how-four-inmates-launched-a-statewide-hunger-strike-from-solitary
“Last summer, four alleged leaders of rival prison gangs worked together to coordinate a hunger strike at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison. They were protesting long-term, indefinite incarceration in solitary confinement.”
In Prison, Teenagers Become Prey
▻http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/06/05/when-to-punish-a-young-offender-and-when-to-rehabilitate/in-prison-teenagers-become-prey
“In early 2003, I testified on Capitol Hill with Linda Bruntmyer, a mother from Texas whose 17-year-old son was incarcerated after setting a trash bin on fire. In prison, he was raped repeatedly. He later hanged himself inside his cell. I felt a special bond with Linda, because I too had been raped in prison at 17. It could have easily been my mother standing there, urging Congress to end the travesty of sending juveniles to adult jails and prisons.”
The Criminalization of People with Mental Illness
▻http://www2.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Issue_Spotlights&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=3983
“NAMI believes that persons who have committed offenses due to states of mind or behavior caused by a brain disorder require treatment, not punishment. NAMI believes that a prison or jail is never an optimal therapeutic setting. NAMI believes that mental health systems have an obligation to develop and implement systems of appropriate care for individuals whose untreated brain disorders may cause them to engage in inappropriate or criminal behaviors.”
