Many states make it extremely difficult for journalists to visit their prisons, interview prisoners and report with any regularity or authority on what goes on inside America’s prison system.

Take the case of Illinois.

In March 2012, after hearing reports of black mold, insect and vermin infestations, and busted-out windows ...

“When I left Angola,” says Robert King Wilkerson, who spent 29 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana’s notorious Angola State Penitentiary for a crime he was later found innocent of, “I said, ‘I may be free of Angola, but Angola will never be free of me.’” Since his release seven ...