The Marshall Project is a left-of-center media outlet focused on criminal justice policy. Founded in 2013 by Neil Barsky, Marshall Project is often compared to ProPublica for its structure and mission. ^{1 2} The outlet fashions itself as a watchdog on the American criminal justice system and produces mostly long-form stories that are critical of solitary confinement, police procedures, racial disparities, and the criminal justice system in general.

The Marshall Project is named after liberal former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. ³

History

The Marshall Project was founded by Neil Barsky. Barsky worked at the Wall Street Journal. In the late 1980s, he left journalism to go into finance and eventually opened his own hedge fund, Alson Capital, which had $3.5 billion at its height. In 2009, Barsky closed his fund and decided to refocus his efforts on activism. ⁵ Barsky would later write:

“What struck me was not only how expensive, ineffective, and racially biased it is, but also how difficult it was to find anyone, whether they’re liberal or conservative, who defends the status quo. But our condition has become taken for granted. Other American crises—soaring healthcare costs, the failure of public education—typically lead to public debate and legislative action. But mass incarceration appears to have had the opposite effect: The public has become inured to the overuse of solitary confinement, the widespread incidence of prison rape, and the mixing of teens and adults in maximum security prisons.” ⁶

The creation of the Marshall Project was based on the idea that American society was too complacent about criminal justice reform; Barsky hoped that high-profile news stories about the nature of the criminal justice system would spark reform efforts and maintain reform momentum over the long run. ^{7 8}

In November 2013, Barsky wrote an op-ed in the New York Times defending incoming New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio (D) from criticism levied at him by wealthy New Yorkers. Barsky took the opportunity to insert a link into his bio for the Marshall Project, which brought national attention to the organization. ^{9 10}

In February 2014, New York Times columnist and former executive editor Bill Keller announced he was leaving the paper to work at the Marshall Project as editor-in-chief. Keller compared the Marshall Project’s approach and work to that of ProPublica. ¹¹

In its first year of operations, The Marshall Project had a budget of just under $5 million. ¹²

In 2016, Carroll Bogart was named president of the Marshall Project. Bogart previously served as deputy executive director for external relations at Human Rights Watch, and was a correspondent for Newsweek. ¹³

In November 2021, Barsky resigned as chair of the Marshall Project. ¹⁴

Journalistic Perspective

Shortly after the Marshall Project was established, Neil Barsky noticed an online discussion between Bill Keller and Glenn Greenwald on the value of non-partisanship in journalism. Greenwald argued that an excessive emphasis on objectivity is ultimately bad for journalism, claiming, “This suffocating constraint on how reporters are permitted to express themselves produces a self-neutering form of journalism that becomes as ineffectual as it is boring.” Keller countered that impartiality “imposes a discipline of testing all assumptions” and “in most cases it gets you closer to the truth.” Barsky sided with Keller and reached out to discuss the matter with him, ultimately leading to Keller being hired as editor-in-chief for the Marshall Project. ¹⁵

However, Barsky still intended for the Marshall Project to strike a balance between objectivity and activism. At the founding of the Marshall Project, Barsky wrote: “Being nonpartisan is not the same as being neutral. We approach the issue with the view—shared by a growing number of conservatives and liberals—that our system needs serious rethinking.” ¹⁶

At his resignation from the organization in 2021, Barsky reiterated: “I don’t believe ‘objectivity’ is achievable or desirable, and I don’t think reporters need to check their humanity at the door while doing their jobs. But I do believe in fairness. I believe in letting the facts we uncover determine our conclusion, rather than the other way around.” ¹⁷

Notable Stories

In 2016, the Marshall Project and ProPublica published “An Unbelievable Story of Rape” on a series of rape allegations that were ignored by police in Washington and Colorado. In 2019, Netflix released a limited series based on the story. ¹⁸

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Marshall Project partnered with the Associated Press to report on the spread of the disease in prisons. In the summer of 2021, they reported that about 30 percent of prisoners and prison staff across the United States had contracted COVID-19. ¹⁹

In 2021, the Marshall Project shared a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for contributing to a 12-part series on bites by police dogs. ²⁰

In 2022, the Marshall Project, ProPublica, and NBC News reported on abuses in solitary confinement in a juvenile detention facility in Louisiana. After the story was picked up by local papers, a law regulating the use of solitary confinement passed the Louisiana legislature. ²¹

In May 2022, the Marshall Project and National Public Radio published a story on misconduct in United States Penitentiary Thomson, one of the newest federal prisons. The story prompted U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), as well as U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) to call for a federal investigation into the prison. In February 2023, a new leader of the prison was appointed and Thomson’s Special Management Unit, which was responsible for most of the alleged abuses, was closed. ²²

Criticism

In May 2018, the Association of Deputy District Attorneys published an op-ed criticizing the Marshall Project for failing to properly disclose donors despite claims to do so in its “Code of Ethics.” For instance, when the Los Angeles Times worked with the Marshall Project to publish an article on George Soros’s funding of left-wing district attorney candidates, the Marshall Project disclosed that it had received funding from the Open Society Foundations (OSF); however, it did not mention that the OSF was founded by Soros and has received tens of billions of dollars from him. ²³

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

The Marshall Project has published an annual diversity report since 2017. The 2022 report notes that over the previous year, 70 percent of new hires (16 individuals) were racial minorities and two new hires were formerly incarcerated. The Marshall Project’s hiring process uses the “Rooney Rule” with all finalist pools by including at least one racial minority. Since 2017, the Marshall Project has decreased its percentage of white employees from 59 percent to 42 percent, while the board’s composition of racial minorities has risen from 23 percent to 47 percent. ²⁴

Funding

The Marshall Project has received funding from several nonprofit foundations including the Acton Family Giving, Arnold Ventures, the Ballmer Group, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, the Battery Foundation, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the Craig Newmark Foundation, the Emerson Collective, the Gruber Family Foundation, the Heising Simons Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Mighty Arrow Family Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Just Trust. ²⁵

Since 2010, the Marshall Project has received five grants totaling $2.1 million from the Ford Foundation. ²⁶

1. Funt, Danny. “Marshall Project stakes out high ground on journalism’s slippery slope.” Columbia Journalism Review. July 27, 2015. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.cjr.org/analysis/marshall_project_bill_keller.php.
2. Somaiya, Ravi. “Bill Keller, Former Editor of the Times, Is Leaving for News Nonprofit.” The New York Times. February 9, 2014. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/business/media/bill-keller-former-editor-of-the-times-is-leaving-for-news-nonprofit.html?_r=0.
3. “About.” The Marshall Project. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.themarshallproject.org/about

5. Barsky has written that he became interested in criminal justice reform after reading The New Jim Crow about how Black Americans are impacted by the carceral state, and Devil in the Grove about four Black men falsely accused of rape in Lake County, Florida. ⁴ “About.” The Marshall Project. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.themarshallproject.org/about.

6. “About.” The Marshall Project. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.themarshallproject.org/about
7. “Neil Barsky.” Ted X In Prisons. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://tedxinprisons.fandom.com/wiki/Neil_Barsky.
8. “About.” The Marshall Project. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.themarshallproject.org/about.
9. Pompeo, Joe. “The Marshall Project’s charmed launch.” Politico. July 1, 2014. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2016/05/the-marshall-projects-charmed-launch-047671.
10. Barsky, Neil. “Chill Out, 1 Percenters.” The New York Times. November 15, 2013. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/opinion/sunday/chill-out-1-percenters.html.
11. Somaiya, Ravi. “Bill Keller, Former Editor of the Times, Is Leaving for News Nonprofit.” The New York Times. February 9, 2014. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/business/media/bill-keller-former-editor-of-the-times-is-leaving-for-news-nonprofit.html?_r=0.
12. Funt, Danny. “Marshall Project stakes out high ground on journalism’s slippery slope.” Columbia Journalism Review. July 27, 2015. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.cjr.org/analysis/marshall_project_bill_keller.php.
13. “Carroll Bogart Named President of The Marshall Project.” The Marshall Project. February 23, 2016. Accessed August 8, 2023. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/02/23/carroll-bogert-named-president-of-the-marshall-project.
14. “Neil Barsky’s Farewell to The Marshall Project.” The Marshall Project. November 20, 2021. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/10/20/neil-barsky-s-farewell-to-the-marshall-project.
15. Funt, Danny. “Marshall Project stakes out high ground on journalism’s slippery slope.” Columbia Journalism Review. July 27, 2015. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.cjr.org/analysis/marshall_project_bill_keller.php.
16. “About.” The Marshall Project. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.themarshallproject.org/about.
17. “Neil Barsky’s Farewell to The Marshall Project.” The Marshall Project. November 20, 2021. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/10/20/neil-barsky-s-farewell-to-the-marshall-project.
18.  Colburn, Randall. “Netflix unveils trailer for Unbelievable, a limited series based on Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting.” AV Club. July 18, 2019. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.avclub.com/netflix-unveils-trailer-for-unbelievable-a-limited-ser-1836491788.
19. “COVID-19 Recedes in Prisons, But Conditions Could Spell Future Outbreaks.” NPR. July 3, 2021. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2021/07/03/1012907942/covid-19-recedes-in-prisons-but-conditions-could-spell-future-outbreaks.
20. “Our 12 -part series on the life-altering injuries caused by police dog bites spurred policy change in several municipalities.” The Marshall Project. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.themarshallproject.org/impact/mauled-by-police-dogs.
21. “Louisiana enacted the state’s first law restricting the use of solitary confinement in juvenile facilities after our investigation uncovered abuses.” The Marshall Project. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.themarshallproject.org/impact/limiting-solitary-for-kids.
22. “Our investigation into rampant violence prompted the shutdown of the Special Management Unit at Thomson prison in Illinois in February 2023.” The Marshall Project. Accessed August 8, 2023. https://www.themarshallproject.org/impact/violence-thomson-prison.
23. Siddall, Eric. “The Marshall Project Bias – It’s What They Don’t Disclose.” Association of Deputy District Attorneys. May 29, 2018. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.laadda.com/2018/05/29/the-marshall-project-bias-its-what-they-dont-disclose/.
24. “The Marshall Project: Diversity and Inclusion, 2022.” The Marshall Project. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.themarshallproject.org/diversity.
25. “Supporters.” The Marshall Project. Accessed August 6, 2023. https://www.themarshallproject.org/funders.
26. “Grants Database.” Ford Foundation. Accessed August 7, 2023. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/?search=marshall+project.