Jessica Pishko
Jessica Pishko is a writer based in San Francisco, California.
The End of Solitary Confinement
What is California going to do with "the worst of the worst"?
To Have and to Hold: Consent and Intimacy for People With Alzheimer’s
There’s a strong cultural distaste for thinking about the elderly engaged in sexual activity, but we must if we’re going to protect an aging population.
Can PTSD Be Linked to Violence?
How morally responsible can we hold Eddie Ray Routh for the death of Chris Kyle?
The End to Race-Based Lockdowns in California Prisons
The legacy of “tough on crime” legislation has historically allowed correctional authorities to conceal and pursue politics that would be illegal anywhere else. Could that finally be changing?
Can Prop 47 Solve California’s Mass Incarceration Problem?
Reducing penalties for low-level felonies could be the next step in rolling back draconian sentencing laws and addressing the criminal justice system’s long legacy of racism.
Can an Architect Change the Way People Think About Prison?
Raphael Sperry is leading a movement to keep architects and designers from working on spaces designed for solitary confinement and execution.
Punished for Being Poor: Big Data in the Justice System
Correctional departments use data-driven analyses because they're easier and cheaper than individual assessments. But at what cost?
Caring for the Condemned: Treating Those on Death Row
How the new mental health facility for California’s death row inmates reflects our nation’s ongoing ambivalence about the death penalty.
Are We Approaching the End of Solitary Confinement?
As a new class-action lawsuit out of California’s infamous Pelican Bay State Prison that may definitively determine the future of solitary in that state moves forward, more people are taking the position that the practice amounts to inhumane punishment.