Anne-Marie Cusac

Anne-Marie Cusac is the author of Cruel and Unusual: Punishment in America. An Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Anne-Marie is also an award-winning journalist. She won the George Polk Award for her article “Stunning Technology,” an investigation of the use of the stun belt in U.S. prisons. She has won the Project Censored Award three times. She has also been recognized with a second-place John Bartlow Martin Award, and a 2002 Milwaukee Press Club Award for magazine reporting.

For ten years, she was an editor and investigative reporter for The Progressive magazine. Information from Anne-Marie’s investigations of the stun belt and the restraint chair helped to prompt the United Nations Committee Against Torture to call for a ban on the devices.