About

The Garrison Project addresses the crisis of mass incarceration, policing, and criminalization through articles, reports, polling, and other media products. 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 publications including The New Republic, New York Magazine, Slate and The Intercept.

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 fiscally sponsored by Investigative Reporters and Editors; donors include the Vital Projects Fund, Just Impact Advisors, The Barton Family 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 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, he 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.

In addition to his role as The Garrison Project’s EIC, Ethan serves as a contract investigator for the Orleans Parish DA’s Civil Rights Division, a role funded by Schusterman.