Mass Incarceration During the Pandemic for The New Yorker

“In late March, Governor John Bel Edwards announced that Louisiana had the fastest-growing coronavirus infection rate in the world. According to state reports at the end of last year, Louisiana also had the highest incarceration rate in the country. The pandemic posed an immediate threat in the state’s jails, where cells are crowded and poorly sanitized, and people frequently cycle in and out of custody. Since 2013, the main jail in Orleans Parish has been under a consent decree for what the Department of Justice called “dangerous and unacceptable” conditions, including “inadequate medical care.” Prisons, too, present a contagion risk; they have less rapid turnover than jails, but staff come and go, and large populations and underfunded health services make outbreaks hard to contain.”

Community groups have pointed out the social costs of the prison system for decades. Now the pandemic has exposed its public-health risks.

The New Yorker: Will the Coronavirus Make Us Rethink Mass Incarceration?

Why Fatal Police Shootings Rarely Lead to Convictions for BUZZFEED News

"The fatal police shooting of Ricky Ball in October 2015 convulsed the city of Columbus, Mississippi. Residents marched. Some businesses, fearing a race riot because a white cop had killed a black man, closed on protest day. A city council member accused the department of planting a gun beside Ball’s body. The police chief resigned. The district attorney called in state authorities to handle the case.

Finally, in September 2016, a grand jury indicted the officer, Canyon Boykin, on manslaughter charges. Boykin’s case still hasn’t gone to trial, but if the recent past is anything to go by, he’s likely to make it through without punishment — and even walk away from the case ahead, handed money for his troubles. That’s because shortly after he shot 25-year-old Ball as Ball ran away following a traffic stop, Boykin sued the city for racial discrimination, claiming he’d been unfairly fired for being a white cop who’d killed a black person. Just before his discrimination lawsuit was to go to trial last year, the city settled with Boykin for an undisclosed amount.

“That’s what really made me realize how much is stacked against us,” said Ricky’s cousin, Ernesto Ball, who is 46. “That’s the moment I began to think that maybe these cops can really get away with whatever.”

I photographed a surviving family member, a community organizer, the path that Ricky took while running from the police, and an eyewitness to his subsequent death for Buzzfeed.

Buzzfeed News: "Maybe These Cops Can Really Get Away With Whatever."

Community Organizing in Jackson, MS in YES! Magazine

I'm happy to have a few pictures that I originally made on assignment for VICE Magazine now illustrate the cover story of YES! Magazine's summer issue. My day with the Umoja family in Jackson, Mississippi was super inspiring and it's great to learn how their work has progressed since we met a couple years ago. For more pictures from the original VICE story on black community organizing in Jackson, see FREE THE LAND

You can find the YES! Magazine story here: After Centuries of Housing Racism, a Southern City Gets Innovative

Louisiana Coastal Flooding for NPR

I made some pictures down the bayou for an NPR story that illuminates a hard question that the state of Louisiana has encountered when it comes to its eroding coastline -- if state and local governments can no longer protect coastal communities from flooding, then how to actually help them relocate?

NPR: Louisiana Says Thousands Should Move From Vulnerable Coast, But Can't Pay Them