Inside Story brings news, interviews and profiles into U.S. prisons and jails.
The Marshall Project and VICE World News today announced the launch of Inside Story, a weekly video series designed to inform people both inside and outside of prison walls.
The partnership delivers the best of both worlds to reach incarcerated people: The Marshall Project’s award-winning investigative criminal justice journalism and VICE News’ Emmy-winning newsroom and approach to storytelling.
Inside Story — premiering Feb. 2 — is co-created by The Marshall Project’s Lawrence Bartley and Donald Washington Jr., both of whom served time behind bars. The series features prominent changemakers in policy, entertainment and social justice, including formerly incarcerated people. The first season includes lawyer and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson, actors La La Anthony and Gbenga Akinnagbe, comedians Luenell and Ali Siddiq, writer Piper Kerman, TV chef Fernando Ruiz and many others.
“Prison and jail walls aren’t meant just to keep people in, they’re also meant to keep information out,” said Bartley, publisher of The Marshall Project Inside and co-creator of Inside Story. After joining The Marshall Project in 2018, he developed a print publication to get news behind bars, but soon discovered incarcerated people needed more ways to access criminal justice information.
“There’s a large population of people who have literacy issues and can’t read our content. So Donald and I came up with the idea to create a video series. That idea became Inside Story,” Bartley said.
Episodes of Inside Story will be posted on The Marshall Project’s website and VICE News’ YouTube every Thursday at noon EST. The series will also air on the VICE News FAST channel. People who are incarcerated can also access the series on prison tablets, and it will also be broadcast on correctional facilities’ closed-circuit TVs in certain states. It will be available to nearly 1,200 prisons and jails across 48 states and counting.
“The biggest news desert in America is the one behind bars,” said Susan Chira, editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project. “With Inside Story, we’ll be able to bring The Marshall Project’s prize-winning journalism to a large and very neglected audience.”
“The partnership with The Marshall Project resonates with all of us at VICE World News who are committed to a core mission focused on the democratization of news and information,” said Subrata De, EVP of News & Global Head of Programming and Documentary for VICE. “It’s been incredibly gratifying to help bring Lawrence and Donald’s vision to life through Inside Story.”
About The Marshall Project
The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system. The Marshall Project engages the millions of people whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system. We partner with local and national media outlets to reach diverse audiences, from people who want to learn more about criminal justice to experts who turn to us for fresh, accurate information.