Search About Newsletters Donate
Akiba Solomon is a senior editor at The Marshall Project. She is an NABJ-Award winning journalist from West Philadelphia. The Howard University graduate has served as senior editorial director at Colorlines and has written about culture and the intersection between gender and race for Dissent, Essence, Glamour and POZ. Solomon has also been a health editor for Essence, a researcher for Glamour and a senior editor for the print versions of Vibe Vixen and The Source. Solomon is the recipient of the 2021 Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism for The Language Project, a series about the terms journalists use to write about incarceration. She co-authored “How We Fight White Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance” (Bold Type Books, March 2019).
Email asolomon@themarshallproject.org
Twitter @akibasolomon
An illustration of a parole board table with two women seated and looking through paperwork while a man in a tie stands as he reads papers in his hands. Images of parole board hearings hang on the walls.
Life Inside November 8
Life Inside, Remixed: A Criminal Justice Reformer Takes on ‘Conveyor Belt Justice’
Carol Shapiro joined the New York parole board to make change. Marathon days, copious paperwork and dysfunctional hearings brought her to tears.
By The Marshall Project
An illustration of a dark-skinned man in an orange jumpsuit carrying a painter’s palette while using a small paintbrush to create a purple comet above him.
Life Inside November 1
Life Inside, Remixed: An Incarcerated Artist Learns to Paint Through the Chaos of Prison
Rafael Rodriguez’s artistic mentor and cellmate, Memo, taught him how to pour his anger and pain into oil painting.
By The Marshall Project
A black-and-white illustration of a man alone in a prison cell with his left leg up on his bed, as light streams in from the windows.
Life Inside October 25
Life Inside, Remixed: Inside the Underground Economy of Solitary Confinement
Here’s how people in “the box” use their ingenuity, collaboration skills and a form of “fishing” to get the goods they need.
By The Marshall Project
An illustration of a pink-colored woman sitting on a chair with her back to the viewer, holding a phone, while her young, bushy-haired son sits across from her, one hand holding a phone to his ear and his other on his face in a distraught pose.
Life Inside October 18
Life Inside, Remixed: The Emotional Toll of Visiting a Son in Jail
Ymilul Bates’ first visit to her son exposed her to cold, distant corrections officers and left her with a question: Did they know her son was loved?
By The Marshall Project
An illustration of a Black man with a goatee and glasses seen from the waist up holding a pile of dirt in his hands from which a plant rises. He is surrounded by flowers and other plants.
Life Inside October 11
Life Inside, Remixed: How I Found Peace in the Prison Garden
Bobby Bostic was only 18 when he was sentenced to 241 years behind bars. To his surprise, weeds, water and soil put the St. Louis native on the path to healing.
By The Marshall Project
An illustration of a brown-skinned man wearing a yellow jail jumpsuit sitting at the edge of a bunk bed, as two bunk beds sit empty in the background.
Life Inside October 4
Life Inside, Remixed: What 90 Days in Jail Taught a Poet About America
Ravi Shankar was born in D.C. to South Indian parents. But it took going to jail for him to fully understand what many other Americans of color face.
By The Marshall Project
Raymond Flanks, a Black man, and Cassandra Delpit, a Black woman, embrace each other by Lake Pontchartrain.
Life Inside July 26
Love Beyond Bars: Raymond and Cassandra
Raymond Flanks spent nearly 39 years in Louisiana lockups for a murder he didn’t commit. Luckily, he found love with an old friend, Cassandra Delpit.
Photographs by Camille Farrah Lenain
As-told-to by
Jules Werkheiser, a White person wearing a leather jacket, with her wife, Samantha, a White woman wearing a blue floral dress, and their son, Julius.
Life Inside July 19
Love Beyond Bars: Jules and Samantha
Jules and Samantha Werkheiser fought their wrongful convictions for over a decade. Here’s their journey of survival — and motherhood — in pictures.
Photographs by Camille Farrah Lenain
As-told-to by
Miguel, a man with medium-toned skin, short hair and a mustache, hugs his wife, Silvia, a woman with medium-toned skin and long brown hair, on the beach.
Life Inside July 5
Love Beyond Bars: Miguel and Silvia
While Miguel Solorio did 25 years for a crime he didn’t commit, his wife, Silvia, was right by his side. Here’s their California love story in pictures.
Photographs by Camille Farrah Lenain
As-told-to by
The Language Project April 12, 2021
The Language Project
Rethinking the words journalists use to talk about people who are currently or previously incarcerated.
By The Marshall Project
About
People
Jobs
Sitemap
Funders