Health & Healthcare Archives – Scalawag

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

The criminalization of HIV is a form of state punishment

by Kytara Epps, MPH December 3, 2025December 3, 2025

When wellness and resources are held hostage to punish marginalized communities, it only proliferates criminalization and vulnerability.

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

Cool the Cell, Feed the Spirit: Abolition as Reproductive and Climate Justice

by Julian Wilson, Omisade Burney-Scott and Kwaneta Harris October 24, 2025

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

The Furnace: Climate, Confinement, and the Cost of Reproductive Aging Behind Bars

by Julian Wilson and Omisade Burney-Scott October 24, 2025October 24, 2025

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

Burning Inside: What Prison Heat Does to a Menopausal Body

by Kwaneta Harris October 24, 2025October 24, 2025

Scalawag-illustration-for-Sol-Elias-Freak-Generations-The-Moral-Panic-Playbook-from-Crack-Babies-to-Trans-Kids

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

Freak Generations: The Moral Panic Playbook from Crack Babies to Trans Kids

by Sol Elias August 7, 2025

Black Physicians

The Impact of Black Physicians in Mississippi's Civil Rights Movement

by Denise Powell July 24, 2025

Behind the Plants: Living in the Shadow of Industry on Cancer Alley

Behind the Plants: Living in the Shadow of Industry on Cancer Alley

by Wayan Barre April 17, 2025April 17, 2025

Having spent the first wave of COVID-19 in Rikers Island, David Campbell found the pandemic lockdowns he was met with after his release strangely familiar. The parallels of self-quarantine and incarceration can be tools for abolitionist solidarity.

What living through COVID in jail taught me about abolition

by David Campbell September 21, 2023

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

Young Southerners speak out: Reflections on the youth mental health crisis

by Scalawag Community September 14, 2023November 13, 2023

The author, Mira Ugwuadu, posing for a portrait in the months after graduating from high school in Marietta, Georgia. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson) Funding, education, and safety are at the top of the list of demands to dismantle the youth mental health stigma in Georgia schools.

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

In Georgia, we need proactive—not reactive—mental health support in schools

by Mira Ugwuadu September 14, 2023November 13, 2023

A wheelchair standing between other chairs in a school classroom. Disabled students are overlooked in the youth mental health crisis. How navigating an impossible system drove one disabled student to activism in their quest for solutions to the youth mental health crisis.

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

Young people struggle within a capitalist, ableist system. We can change it.

by Marrow Woods September 14, 2023November 13, 2023

Inside the post-Roe crisis of abortion and surveillance facing pregnant incarcerated people seeking and reproductive justice.

Abortion bans and pregnancy surveillance: The body itself as a prison

by Gabrielle A. Perry June 28, 2023February 20, 2025

Periods in prison: The monthly struggle for sanitary products

'That's not how it works around here': When free-bleeding ain't free

by Heather Jarvis June 28, 2023September 27, 2023

Untreated injuries and denied surgeries in prison.

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

Cruel and unusual punishment: Denied surgeries behind bars

by Jacob Goethe June 26, 2023September 27, 2023

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

(Super) Maxed Out

by Kriston Dowdell June 26, 2023September 27, 2023

The devastating impact of environmental racism in prisons.

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

Poisoned Inside

by C. Dreams June 23, 2023September 27, 2023

Sentenced to Trauma: Inside the volatility and disorder of prison

by Carla J. Simmons November 21, 2022December 1, 2023

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

The Dropout dramatizes Elizabeth Holmes' fraudulent rise. Endless military funding is also a scam.

by Bria Massey September 13, 2022December 4, 2023

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

Contrary to popular belief, healthcare in prison is far from free. Sometimes, it can cost your life.

by Luci Harrell June 24, 2022December 5, 2023

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

Q&A: Southern abortion providers on what the media's getting wrong

by Ko Bragg May 27, 2022December 5, 2023

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

I'm an abortion doula in the Deep South. This is what I want you to know.

by Nzingha H. May 18, 2022December 5, 2023

Mississippi's childhood lead exposure interventions don't do enough for kids

by Erica Hensley October 5, 2021November 13, 2023

The Reverend Kenneth B. Thomas Sr., pastor of Bethesda Worship and Healing Center in Jonesboro, Arkansas, hugs Cory Brigham after ordaining him into the ministry during Sunday service on August 15, 2021. All photos by Terrance Armstard for The Guardian.

'We've come this far by faith:' Vaccines, religion, and community in Arkansas

by Sandra L. Combs and Terrance Armstard September 21, 2021September 21, 2021

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

Overdose deaths are reaching record highs in the South as COVID vaccines take priority

by Lovey Cooper September 10, 2021September 21, 2021

Breaking Through COVID: What data can't tell about the South's vaccine rates

by Scalawag Editors and Scalawag Team September 9, 2021September 21, 2021

'We have to evaluate the motives of health care institutions'

by Alysia Nicole Harris September 9, 2021September 21, 2021

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

Bad medicine in Louisiana prisons

by Xander Adams May 5, 2021April 13, 2022

HBCUs are keeping the rest of the South safe

by Alexis Wray April 27, 2021November 13, 2023

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

Alabama taxpayers have paid $4 billion toward a policy that Governor Ivey refuses to bring home

by Katherine Webb-Hehn March 16, 2021March 29, 2021

POLITICS & THE PEOPLE

The majority of Alabamians want Medicaid expansion

by Katherine Webb-Hehn March 15, 2021March 29, 2021