Seth Freed wessler

Seth Freed Wessler is an independent investigative reporter and a fellow at Type Investigations. He has reported for The New York Times Magazine, Reveal, This American Life, The Nation, ProPublica and the Smithsonian magazine, among others. Seth has been a staff reporter for NBC News and Colorlines, as well as a Visiting Scholar at NYU’s Arthur Carter Journalism Institute, a Soros Media Fellow, a Logan Nonfiction Fellow at the Carey Institute for Global Good, and a Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. He is an adjunct lecturer at Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Seth’s work on immigration enforcement, federal prisons, racial inequity, and social services has spurred legislative reforms, inspired advocacy campaigns, and led to shifts in federal and state policy. He is the winner of a Peabody Award, a Hillman Prize, a Salute to Excellence Award from the NABJ, the John Bartlow Martin Award, the Izzy Award, the Investigative Prize business reporting from SABEW, the Al Neuharth Award for Investigative Journalism from NAHJ, the Immigration Journalism Prize from the French-American Foundation and the John Jay / Guggenheim Award for Criminal Justice Reporting.

Recent Work

The Coronavirus Has Spread to the US Marshals’ Detention Empire

Apr 1, 2020

Exclusive reporting reveals five people in federal detention have tested positive for COVID-19.
By Seth Freed Wessler in Mother Jones.

Last Chance at Justice

Mar 19, 2020

History tells us that, in a time of crisis, we have to be careful about how we respond.
By Seth Freed Wessler in WNYC’s United States of Anxiety.

Fragility in Liberty

Feb 20, 2020

We travel from Liberty Island to the U.S.-Mexico border to discover how the end of Reconstruction and America’s present-day immigration crisis are inextricably bound.
By Seth Freed Wessler in Type Investigations and WNYC.

Inside the US Marshals’ Secretive, Deadly Detention Empire

Oct 23, 2019

They’re supposed to safeguard pretrial detainees. But America’s oldest law enforcement agency is suffering from a massive dereliction of duty.
By Seth Freed Wessler in Mother Jones.

The Costs of the Confederacy

Nov 27, 2018

Taxpayers have spent at least $40 million on Confederate monuments and groups that perpetuate racist ideology — in the last decade alone.

By Brian Palmer and Seth Freed Wessler in Smithsonian Magazine

The Coast Guard’s ‘Floating Guantánamos’

Nov 20, 2017

U.S. Coast Guard is shackling low-level smugglers on ships for weeks in international waters.

Donald Trump’s Looming Mass Criminalization

Nov 28, 2016

The only way to quickly deport 3 million immigrants is to first make them into criminals — and he’ll have the tools to do so on day one.

The Feds Will Shut Down the Troubled Private Prison in a ‘Nation’ Investigation

Aug 15, 2016

Following a Nation investigation into lax medical care, the Justice Department is finally moving to end its reliance on for-profit prison operators. By Seth Freed Wessler in The Nation.

Federal Officials Ignored Years of Internal Warnings About Deaths at Private Prisons

Jun 15, 2016

The facility is among several in which our reporting has uncovered dozens of deaths that involved substandard medical care. By Seth Freed Wessler in The Nation.

‘This Man Will Almost Certainly Die’

Jan 28, 2016

Dozens of men have died in disturbing circumstances in privatized, immigrant-only prisons. The Bureau of Prisons itself says there’s a problem. And yet the privatization scheme continues.By Seth Freed Wessler in The Nation.