Criminal Injustice: Cannabis and the Rise of the Carceral State is a four-part study that dives into the history of American marijuana prohibition and charts its impact on the evolution of America’s carceral state. Published and promoted in partnership with The Last Prisoner Project, each piece in the series focuses on a different element of America’s criminal justice system.

The Policing of Marijuana Prohibition, the first installation of the report, analyzes the ways US cannabis policy has worked to transform the philosophy, aims, and policing practices of American law enforcement agencies. Subsequent pieces will focus on cannabis prohibition and its impact on the evolution of other parts of the country’s criminal justice system (courts, jails, prisons and noncarceral penal operations, and the collateral consequences of a cannabis conviction).