An hour north of downtown Houston, on I-45, is Huntsville. The home base of Texas' enormous prison system. Keri Blakinger, a corrections reporter for the Marshall Project, recently published a story called "The Rise and Fall of a Prison Town Queen." In it, she tells the story of Melinda Brewer. Along the way, she captures Huntsville and the lives of the people who work in the prison system in a way that is pretty uncommon.

You can grab a bowl of popcorn and read Keri's story here.

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