Samantha Michaels

Samantha Michaels is an investigative reporter at Mother Jones magazine in San Francisco. She writes primarily about prisons, policing, and crime, with an emphasis on exposing racism, sexism and other injustices in the legal system. Her recent investigation, The Mother Trap, about moms who are incarcerated for longer than their abusers, won a National Magazine Award for best video and was a finalist in the category of best reporting. Michaels’ work has also appeared in The Atlantic, Outside Online and The Best American Magazine Writing 2021. She is originally from the Chicago area and worked for several years reporting in Myanmar and Indonesia before moving to California.