Private prisons are shrouded in secrecy. I took a job as a guard to get inside—then things got crazy

We’re under constant surveillance, pitted against one another, tested well beyond our limits. Sleazy instructors grope the female students in the name of preparing them for harassment in the field. Aging instructors shout at any student who uses the Internet or, God forbid, a cell phone. Division chiefs from Langley go undercover as instructors to

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To the east of Jackson, in the center of the state, in 2019, ICE raided chicken factories. They were populated by Mexican and Central American immigrants, doing jobs once done by Black folks. If you’ve ever read Anne Moody’s memoir about growing up in the Black Belt and joining the freedom movement, Coming of Age in Mississippi, you will remember h

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I didn’t intend to focus so intently on marijuana outlaws in this story, and I certainly didn’t plan to become one myself. But it has had the effect of viscerally proving—to me, at least—the absurdity of this prohibition. As long as any aspect of the weed business—cultivation, sales, transportation, or consumption—remains illegal, American marijuan

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Among the newer hillbilly hustles is ginseng. Ginseng thieves go onto private or state land and forage for it, under threat of surveillance and chase. The kind of ginseng grown in Appalachia is of a particularly good quality for Asian markets. In traditional Chinese medicine, Asian ginseng cools, but North American ginseng warms the body. A fresh p

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For years, he’s worked as a firearms instructor for the National Rifle Association and the U.S. Concealed Carry Association.

But the 61-year-old building contractor was incensed to learn from ProPublica that his name, age, New Hampshire address, phone number and registered voting status were in a database compiled by the gun industry’s chief lobbyin... See more