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The Naked Truth
Four months after a Fusion investigation into the horrors of juvenile jails highlighted the practice, President Obama announced Monday night that he would ban solitary confinement for minors in federal prisons, part of a broader plan that could improve conditions for 10,000 inmates nationwide. Obama announced the move, along with several other executive actions on …
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Five Mualimm-ak knows first hand the damage that solitary confinement can do to someone’s psyche. He spent over a decade in prison, five of those years in solitary. “You’re in this cell, just losing your mind,” he says. Now an activist, Mualimm-ak has made it his mission to bring awareness to the effects that punitive …
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The Naked Truth
The U.S. locks kids at a higher rate than any other developed country, but it doesn’t appear to be making our country any safer. Many children are locked up for offenses that wouldn’t be considered crimes if they were adults. The vast majority have mental health issues. Here’s a brief explanation of how our juvenile …
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The U.S. jails more children than any industrialized nation in the world. This is the first of three poems, written by minors who have done time, recorded by WYNC’s Radio Rookies and the Inside Out Writers, for “Prison Kids,” Fusion’s gripping hourlong documentary investigation into how America treats its youngest inmates. “Prison Kids” makes its …
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In “Prison Kids: A Crime Against America’s Children,” we follow the stories of young people who have been locked up and have suffered as a result of America’s broken juvenile justice system. Brian was incarcerated as a minor in Ohio. He says he was treated with psychotropic drugs for post-traumatic stress disorder and that he …
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“You got your little window to look outside and that’s really it. I feel claustrophobic.” “It was cold, too. I was freezing.” “And I’d be getting overwhelmed and heated about it.” “I was scared out, like I was tired of being in this cell.” “Horrible, worst time in my life.” We incarcerate children at a …
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Faith Garrett, an 18-year-old from East New York, attended her first college course in upstate New York last month — something she says wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for Brownsville Youth Court. The Brownsville Youth Court hears low-level cases for first-time offenders between 10 and 18, like Garrett, who was arrested for stealing …
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The United States incarcerates more children than any developed country on earth. In this 360-degree tour of the Youth Study Center in New Orleans, you can explore how juveniles live on the inside. Listen to children who have been incarcerated across America describing their experiences, and see exclusive footage inside one of the cells where …
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The Naked Truth
Every day in America, about 60,000 children go to sleep behind bars. Many are locked up for offenses that wouldn’t be considered crimes if they were adults. Fusion traveled across the country, gathering the stories of kids who grew up in jail or prison. We found a system that’s supposed to help kids, but often …
