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Joe Raedle / Getty / The Atlantic Does Bad Health Care Constitute Cruel and Unusual Punishment?
A class-action lawsuit in Illinois argues that medical treatment inside the state’s corrections system puts inmates “at risk of pain, injury, and death.”
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Brendan McDermid / Reuters Why U.S. Criminal Courts Are So Dependent on Plea Bargaining
Side effects include inordinately powerful prosecutors and infrequent access to jury trials.
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Max Temescu On the Defensive
The right to legal counsel has long been the gold standard of American justice under the Constitution. But what happens when a state refuses to budget for public defenders? Louisiana is finding out.
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KariDesign/Shutterstock; Aleksej Zhagunov/Shutterstock / The Atlantic The Crimes of Children
The juvenile justice system was designed to “hide youthful errors from the full gaze of the public.” But the extra penalties attached to these sentences have ruined many lives.
