About

The Garrison Project addresses the crisis of mass incarceration, policing, and criminalization through investigative reporting and analysis. It is proudly and explicitly independent and nonpartisan, as its work is rooted in an understanding that mass incarceration is a bipartisan project built and maintained by Democrats and Republicans alike. The project is inspired in part by William Lloyd Garrison, a 19th century abolitionist and journalist who founded the newspaper The Liberator.

The Garrison Project publishes its work in partnership with national and local publications including The New Republic, New York Magazine, Slate, The Pittsburgh City Paper, The Raleigh News and Observer, Black Pittsburgh, The Border Belt Independent, WFAE, The Texas Observer, Baltimore Magazine, The Lens (New Orleans), Rolling Stone, Politico, The Huffington Post, The Baltimore Beat, The Baltimore Brew, The Daily Beast, The American Prospect, CalMatters and The Intercept.

A central part of its mission is to support and strengthen local newsrooms and close gaps in local news coverage, particularly around under-covered subject areas that deeply affect minority communities like family policing.

“The Garrison Project wants to bridge the gap between national and local criminal justice reporting,” wrote Nieman Lab’s Joshua Benton in a January 2024 profile of the project. “It produces local news, but not in a single location; it swings from Texas to Florida to New York, Baltimore to San Francisco to Baton Rouge. It doesn’t sell ads, or subscriptions, or anything, really. But its oddness is one of the few things that’s made me optimistic about where American journalism is headed in 2024.”

In August 2024, The Garrison Project and The Baltimore Brew collaboration “Baltimore police unit under fire for deadly shootings, questionable stops” was named a finalist in The Institute for Nonprofit News’ Best Investigative Journalism Award.

The Garrison Project is a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News and subscribes to its standards of editorial independence:

It retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best reporting and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between coverage decisions and all sources of revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.

The Garrison Project accepts gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.

It may consider donations to support the coverage of specific topics, but it always maintains editorial control of its  coverage. It will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content.

The Garrison Project will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. It will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.

The Garrison Project is a partner in The 19th News Network, a collective of national, regional and local publishers seeking to advance racial and gender equity in politics and policy journalism.

The Garrison Project is fiscally sponsored by Investigative Reporters and Editors; donors include the Vital Projects Fund, Just Impact Advisors, The Barton Family Fund, The Just Trust, The Meadow Fund, and Pritzker/The Scorpio Rising Fund.

Ethan Brown is The Garrison Project’s Editor-in-Chief. He has worked as an editor and an investigative reporter for nearly 25 years and is the author of four books about crime and the criminal legal system: “Murder in the Bayou” (Scribner), “Queens Reigns Supreme” (Random House), “Snitch” (Public Affairs), and “Shake the Devil Off” (Henry Holt). He also worked for nearly a decade as a mitigation specialist and fact investigator for attorneys representing indigent defendants facing the death penalty in the Deep South. In 2019, Ethan served as Executive Producer on an acclaimed Showtime docuseries based on “Murder In The Bayou.” From May 2018 to June 2021, Ethan was the Enterprise Editor of The Appeal, which produced original reporting about state and local criminal legal systems, the most significant drivers of mass incarceration.

Philip V. McHarris is a contributing editor with The Garrison Project. Philip is a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University in the Department of African American Studies and the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. He completed his PhD in Sociology and African American Studies at Yale University. In addition to his scholarly work, Philip has written for outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, and The Guardian. His commentary has been featured on HBO, CNN, Time, and PBS. In 2020, Philip was selected as one of The Root 100: The Most Influential African Americans.

Sean Campbell is a contributing reporter with The Garrison Project. Sean is an investigative journalist based in New York City whose recent stories focused on the criminal legal system and social justice. His investigation into the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation was one of the most widely read stories in 2022. Sean has won the Les Payne Award for Coverage on Communities of Color from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Deadline Club and a Sidney Award from the Hillman Foundation, among other recognitions. His feature work has been published by outlets including New York Magazine, ProPublica, and FiveThirtyEight. Sean holds a BS in aerospace engineering from the University of Florida, an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College, and a master of science degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism with a specialization in data journalism.