The Marshall Project was a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization founded in 2014 with a clear mission: “to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system.” The organization emphasized that it was “a journalism outlet, not an advocacy organization” and the second half of its mission statement explained how it worked: “We have an impact on the system through journalism, rendering it more fair, effective, transparent and humane.” Its website further explained: “We don’t approach any issue with an outcome in mind. Our reporters examine all sides of an issue and follow the facts where they lead. We focus on criminal justice as an arena where power is often abused; our goal is to expose injustice.” The Marshall Project existed because the criminal justice system in the United States was deeply flawed, a viewpoint shared by Americans across the political spectrum. As a 2024 Wall Street Journal op-ed by Michael Romano, the director of Stanford University Law School’s Three Strikes Project, put it, “criminal-law reform is a genuinely bipartisan issue… there is growing consensus that the justice system is broken and in need of repair. Our current system doesn’t keep people safe, and it metes out punishment with bias and arbitrary cruelty.” The Marshall Project’s journalism was needed to fill a void in the American news media landscape, which had been buffeted by the rise of social media, increasing economic challenges, and political polarization.
