Piper French
@psfrench.bsky.social
reporting on prisons, jails, DAs for Bolts. freelance magazine work: NYRB, NYmag, Aperture, Lux, Drift, Nation
[email protected]
-> psfrench.com
en/es/fr
[email protected]
-> psfrench.com
en/es/fr
After 30 years in prison and 25 years on Louisiana's death row, Chris Duncan walked out of Angola today a free man.
"I'm cruising down a highway," he texted me. "Most glaring emotion is shock."
"I'm cruising down a highway," he texted me. "Most glaring emotion is shock."
November 27, 2025 at 1:02 AM
After 30 years in prison and 25 years on Louisiana's death row, Chris Duncan walked out of Angola today a free man.
"I'm cruising down a highway," he texted me. "Most glaring emotion is shock."
"I'm cruising down a highway," he texted me. "Most glaring emotion is shock."
This is so cool. I interviewed Calvin Duncan - exoneree, and now Orleans Parish Clerk of Court - back in 2023 about his work as a jailhouse lawyer for the folks on death row in Louisiana. I remember being really struck by his words:
November 16, 2025 at 4:28 PM
This is so cool. I interviewed Calvin Duncan - exoneree, and now Orleans Parish Clerk of Court - back in 2023 about his work as a jailhouse lawyer for the folks on death row in Louisiana. I remember being really struck by his words:
By now, Orgullosa and her children - including her younger son, a US citizen - have been back in Honduras for 4 months. Trump's DOJ is arguing they left the country voluntarily and refusing to bring them back. www.thecut.com/article/fami...
November 14, 2025 at 7:52 PM
By now, Orgullosa and her children - including her younger son, a US citizen - have been back in Honduras for 4 months. Trump's DOJ is arguing they left the country voluntarily and refusing to bring them back. www.thecut.com/article/fami...
Meanwhile, new family separations are occurring both at the border - illegal under the terms of the settlement in the family separation case - and in the interior. www.thecut.com/article/fami...
November 14, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Meanwhile, new family separations are occurring both at the border - illegal under the terms of the settlement in the family separation case - and in the interior. www.thecut.com/article/fami...
Over the next two months, ICE subjected this mother and her kids - who have valid humanitarian parole in the US - to a relentless pressure campaign. Their entire world fell apart.
www.thecut.com/article/fami...
www.thecut.com/article/fami...
November 14, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Over the next two months, ICE subjected this mother and her kids - who have valid humanitarian parole in the US - to a relentless pressure campaign. Their entire world fell apart.
www.thecut.com/article/fami...
www.thecut.com/article/fami...
Orgullosa & her 5 year old daughter Gloria were separated in 2018. They’ve spent the past 7 years trying to put that trauma behind them. When ICE put an ankle monitor on Orgullosa in front of her kids in May & told her to leave the US, all of that progress was gone in an instant.
November 14, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Orgullosa & her 5 year old daughter Gloria were separated in 2018. They’ve spent the past 7 years trying to put that trauma behind them. When ICE put an ankle monitor on Orgullosa in front of her kids in May & told her to leave the US, all of that progress was gone in an instant.
Any article - editorial or otherwise - that repeats vibes-based platitudes about left-of-center politicians' attitudes toward policing like this and completely fails to mention numbers - ie, that the police did NOT get defunded, on the contrary they got raises - is simply journalistic malpractice
June 16, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Any article - editorial or otherwise - that repeats vibes-based platitudes about left-of-center politicians' attitudes toward policing like this and completely fails to mention numbers - ie, that the police did NOT get defunded, on the contrary they got raises - is simply journalistic malpractice
www.deseret.com/politics/202... "gaming the system" aka...voting strategically?
June 12, 2025 at 3:38 PM
www.deseret.com/politics/202... "gaming the system" aka...voting strategically?
In Southeast Virginia, a Republican sheriff who calls himself “Detain ’Em Dave” is facing a primary challenge - from the right, by a GOP challenger who wants *more*immigration enforcement.
New from @burness.bsky.social:
boltsmag.org/sheriff-elec...
New from @burness.bsky.social:
boltsmag.org/sheriff-elec...
June 6, 2025 at 4:44 PM
In Southeast Virginia, a Republican sheriff who calls himself “Detain ’Em Dave” is facing a primary challenge - from the right, by a GOP challenger who wants *more*immigration enforcement.
New from @burness.bsky.social:
boltsmag.org/sheriff-elec...
New from @burness.bsky.social:
boltsmag.org/sheriff-elec...
June 4, 2025 at 2:09 PM
"Qué más necesita para actuar?" New York Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes asks the state legislature & Gov Hochul. "What more do you need to act?" Presser supporting 2 anti-ICE/law enforcement collaboration bills downtown today, near where NYPD recently abetted ICE detentions by arresting protesters:
June 2, 2025 at 8:40 PM
"Qué más necesita para actuar?" New York Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes asks the state legislature & Gov Hochul. "What more do you need to act?" Presser supporting 2 anti-ICE/law enforcement collaboration bills downtown today, near where NYPD recently abetted ICE detentions by arresting protesters:
"We don't want people in the federal government who feel like it's their pet project to go persecute police departments," the division's new head told Glenn Beck recently:
May 22, 2025 at 7:40 PM
"We don't want people in the federal government who feel like it's their pet project to go persecute police departments," the division's new head told Glenn Beck recently:
For the new issue of @thedrift-mag.bsky.social I wrote about whatever the hell is going on with the DOJ - especially the civil rights division, which is being repurposed to torpedo our civil liberties:
May 22, 2025 at 7:40 PM
For the new issue of @thedrift-mag.bsky.social I wrote about whatever the hell is going on with the DOJ - especially the civil rights division, which is being repurposed to torpedo our civil liberties:
sorry to be morbid but it's really giving september 1, 1939 right about now
poets.org/poem/septemb...
poets.org/poem/septemb...
March 17, 2025 at 7:21 PM
sorry to be morbid but it's really giving september 1, 1939 right about now
poets.org/poem/septemb...
poets.org/poem/septemb...
This is Jessie Hoffman. Louisiana plans to execute him tomorrow using nitrogen hypoxia, a profoundly experimental method that has only been used 4x in the US (or anywhere). In plainer language, this means the state will gas him to death.
March 17, 2025 at 7:14 PM
This is Jessie Hoffman. Louisiana plans to execute him tomorrow using nitrogen hypoxia, a profoundly experimental method that has only been used 4x in the US (or anywhere). In plainer language, this means the state will gas him to death.
A Lebanese doctor, professor at Brown, and h1b visa holder was just detained at Logan for 36 hours and then deported. This is the work she does:
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/u...
March 17, 2025 at 6:33 PM
A Lebanese doctor, professor at Brown, and h1b visa holder was just detained at Logan for 36 hours and then deported. This is the work she does:
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/u...
NYT referencing the "Columbia Jewish Alumni Association" to both-sides Khalil's detention like it's some long-standing org that represents all Jewish alums - not a group created post-10/7 that has called for expulsion of all student protestors &cheered Trump admin's threats to revoke Khalil's status
March 11, 2025 at 11:35 AM
NYT referencing the "Columbia Jewish Alumni Association" to both-sides Khalil's detention like it's some long-standing org that represents all Jewish alums - not a group created post-10/7 that has called for expulsion of all student protestors &cheered Trump admin's threats to revoke Khalil's status
February 11, 2025 at 3:01 PM
quite the quote www.politico.com/newsletters/...
February 7, 2025 at 4:19 PM
quite the quote www.politico.com/newsletters/...
Scenes from the Vermont statehouse protest today. All of 10 degrees out. Spotted: "No Trump Tower in Gaza" & "Defund the Oligarchy" signs, and at least 1 Canadian flag
February 6, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Scenes from the Vermont statehouse protest today. All of 10 degrees out. Spotted: "No Trump Tower in Gaza" & "Defund the Oligarchy" signs, and at least 1 Canadian flag
February 5, 2025 at 10:47 PM
For advocates who have been working on this from the beginning, the predicament these families have been left in is extraordinarily frustrating:
December 13, 2024 at 6:36 PM
For advocates who have been working on this from the beginning, the predicament these families have been left in is extraordinarily frustrating: