A nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice systemSearchProjectsTopicsAboutFeedback?ByNot long after an Alabama lawyer named John Darrington began buying up land in Southeast Texas, he sent enslaved people to work the soil. They harvested , reaping profits for their absentee owner until he sold the .This article was published in partnership with .More than a century and a half later, men—mostly Black and brown—are still . They still . They still And they still face punishment if they refuse to work.They are prisoners at the Darrington Unit, one of Texas’s 104 prisons....…A nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice systemSearchProjectsTopicsAboutFeedback?ByNot long after an Alabama lawyer named John Darrington began buying up land in Southeast Texas, he sent enslaved people to work the soil. They harvested , reaping profits for their absentee owner until he sold the .This article was published in partnership with .More than a century and a half later, men—mostly Black and brown—are still . They still . They still And they still face punishment if they refuse to work.They are prisoners at the Darrington Unit, one of Texas’s 104 prisons....WW…

MenuThis article was originally published by , a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their , or follow The Marshall Project on or .For more than fifty years, Palestine has been known as a prison town. Most of the time, that hasn’t been a problem.True, it was a bit controversial in the sixties when the Texas corrections department bought up 21,000 acres in this part of East Texas and built the biggest men’s prison in the state. According to Ben Campbell, a local historian and self-described “old geezer,” locals fretted at the time about the...…MenuThis article was originally published by , a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their , or follow The Marshall Project on or .For more than fifty years, Palestine has been known as a prison town. Most of the time, that hasn’t been a problem.True, it was a bit controversial in the sixties when the Texas corrections department bought up 21,000 acres in this part of East Texas and built the biggest men’s prison in the state. According to Ben Campbell, a local historian and self-described “old geezer,” locals fretted at the time about the...WW…

This article was published in partnership with , a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their , or follow The Marshall Project on  or . Keri Blakinger is a staff writer at The Marshall Project focusing on prisons and prosecutors. Reach her at or on Twiter at @keribla.Support high-integrity, independent journalism that serves democracy. Make a gift to Poynter today. The Poynter Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, and your gift helps us make good journalism better.A sense of national unity seems like an...…This article was published in partnership with , a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their , or follow The Marshall Project on  or . Keri Blakinger is a staff writer at The Marshall Project focusing on prisons and prosecutors. Reach her at or on Twiter at @keribla.Support high-integrity, independent journalism that serves democracy. Make a gift to Poynter today. The Poynter Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, and your gift helps us make good journalism better.A sense of national unity seems like an...WW…