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Prison

A collection of TED Talks (and more) on the topic of prison.

Video playlists about Prison

Life in—and after—prison

9 talks • 1h 33m

More than 2.3 million people in the United States are in prison or jail. Here, talks that speak to the experience of life behind bars—and different perspectives on what can make it a rehabilitating experience.

Radical rethinking

10 talks • 2h 35m

Explore these talks that flip old conventions, reimagining them for a brighter, better tomorrow.

Talks about Prison

Teresa Njoroge

What I learned serving time for a crime I didn't commit

Posted Nov 2017

Curtis "Wall Street" Carroll

How I learned to read — and trade stocks — in prison

Posted Apr 2017

Salil Dudani

How jails extort the poor

Posted Feb 2017

John Legend

"Redemption Song"

Posted Jul 2016

Will Potter

The secret US prisons you've never heard of before

Posted Oct 2015

The Lady Lifers

A moving song from women in prison for life

Posted May 2015

Alice Goffman

How we're priming some kids for college — and others for prison

Posted May 2015

Ismael Nazario

What I learned as a kid in jail

Posted Mar 2015

Cristina Domenech

Poetry that frees the soul

Posted Jan 2015

Dan Pacholke

How prisons can help inmates live meaningful lives

Posted Aug 2014

Shaka Senghor

Why your worst deeds don’t define you

Posted Jun 2014

Daniel Reisel

The neuroscience of restorative justice

Posted Mar 2014

5:00 Under 6 minutes

Jeff Smith

Lessons in business ... from prison

Posted Dec 2012

Scott Fraser

Why eyewitnesses get it wrong

Posted Sep 2012

Jon Ronson

Strange answers to the psychopath test

Posted Aug 2012

David R. Dow

Lessons from death row inmates

Posted Jun 2012

See all 20 talks on Prison

Exclusive articles about Prison

How poetry can free a prisoner’s mind

In the “hell” of incarceration, Cristina Domenech finds the raw material for poetry. “It’s said that to be a poet, you have to go to hell and back,” says Cristina Domenech, who ...

How America’s justice system failed our children

In 1989, children younger than 16 could be sentenced to die in the United States. Lawyer Bryan Stevenson (TED Talk: We need to talk about an injustice) represented some of these...

8 books to lift you out of darkness

When Shaka Senghor (Watch: Shaka Senghor: Why your worst deeds don’t define you) was nineteen, he shot and killed a man — and was sentenced to spend the second nineteen years of...

Read more articles on Prison