TFW your favorite netflix show is like, real?

If you’re an Orange Is The New Black fan or just, ya know, have just a pedestrian interest in things like ~justice,~ you have to read Mother Jones’ absolutely incredible undercover private prison investigation, conducted by their criminal justice reporter after poising as a correctional officer for four months. It’s hella long, but definitely worth forgoing the two hours of YouTube you were planning to do tonight anyways.

This piece is also significant for the larger media industry: read this note from Mother Jones editor Clara Jeffery, which talks about how this kind of hardcore reporting is getting rarer and harder to do, especially with billionaires like Peter Thiel feeling like they can just sue the pants off whomever they want, whenever they feel like it.

At this point, there are kind of just two major models left for truly investigative journalism: 1) make money through other kinds of content and use it to fund these serious projects (like BuzzFeed, or really any major mainstream publication today), or 2) rely on grants from nonprofit foundations, rich peeps, and major corporations (think Pro Publica, etc.), and like, hope for the best??? Anyone else got better ideas??

Like Deez Links? Forward to a friend who binged on OITNB this weekend and is in withdrawal.