United States: seen in the press / 2023

23/05/2023
Wayne State University receives grant to address health care and costs in state prisons
Sneed’s focus is the health of incarcerated older adults, especially racial and ethnic minorities. Half of all people in prison have at least one chronic health condition, such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease or arthritis. Without intervention, these conditions will worsen as the population ages. Sneed will study the effectiveness of an existing six-week program called the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program. Its use in community settings has been linked to improvements in health care communications, reduced emergency room visits and hospitalizations, and decreases in health care spending. — Wayne State University

23/05/2023
Calls are free but California Prisoners still face communication obstacles
Last year, California passed Senate Bill 1008, making phone calls free for the roughly 90,000 people incarcerated in the state’s prisons to remediate decades of harm that overpriced prison phone fees have caused incarcerated people and their families. But over a year since CDCR signed the contract, some California prisoners say that CDCR and ViaPath have failed to deliver on their promises. — The Appeal

17/05/2023
Failing Prison Leaves Inmates Dead, Families Grieving
Since its opening, Trousdale has been plagued by allegations of mismanagement and understaffing. Family members of inmates allege rampant violence, arbitrary lockdowns, retaliation by staff against inmates and difficulty communicating with loved ones. Through a Facebook group, “Loved Ones in Trousdale Turner”, Pam and others communicate about how to support people on the inside. — Nashville Scene

16/05/2023
Profiteers of Holmesburg Prison’s Medical Experiments Have Yet to Redress Harm
A crowd of students, professors, and community members gathered in a packed room at St. Joseph’s University on April 26 to hear about “Philadelphia’s lasting shame” from the people who are still living under the pain of it. The horrific medical experiments conducted by dermatologist Dr. Albert Kligman in Pennsylvania’s Holmesburg Prison for more than 20 years beginning in the 1950s, has received renewed attention in recent years. Yet, much remains to be done to fully redress the experiments’ harm and reckon with their legacy. — Truthout

08/05/2023
California’s legislature made prison phone calls free
Prisoners and their families often pay exorbitant prices to connect with each other. California’s legislature recently passed a law making all prison phone calls free. (It’s the second state to do so; Connecticut was the first.) Yet there are other pricey forms of communications that weren’t included in the law—video calls, electronic messaging, and phone calls made not from state prisons but from county jails. — The American Prospect

04/05/2023
Post-traumatic prison disorder could impact millions
Members of Congress are calling on the leading federal mental health research agency to study post-traumatic prison disorder, a condition potentially impacting millions of people who have been incarcerated. “Carceral environments are inherently damaging to people’s mental health and can lead to long-term harms that persists even after release,” the lawmakers wrote. A study of North Carolina prisoners found that people who had been placed in solitary confinement were almost 80 percent more likely to die by suicide within a year after their release than people who had not. — The Appeal

21/04/2023
Illinois prison healthcare still abysmal, getting worse in some areas, monitor’s report finds
Healthcare in Illinois prisons continues to be abysmal, especially for those who are elderly or living with mental illness or dementia, according to a monitor’s report filed in federal court on Monday. The report, submitted as part of an ongoing class action lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), says the prison healthcare system suffers from “major deficiencies,” including some that have “worsened” nearly four years after a settlement agreement that was supposed to compel improvements. — The Appeal

18/04/2023
Lashawn Thompson’s family demands justice: he was “eaten alive” by bugs in jail
In Atlanta, Georgia, the family of a prisoner says he was “eaten alive” by insects and bedbugs in his cell there last year. The family of 35-year-old Lashawn Thompson, who was being held in the jail’s psychiatric wing, is demanding a criminal investigation and that the jail be shut down. A report by the Southern Center for Human Rights found at least 10 people died at the Fulton County Jail last year. — Truthout

03/04/2023
How long without outdoor exercise is too long for a prisoner in solitary?
Michael Johnson, a prisoner in Illinois, suffered from what the corrections system acknowledged was profound mental illness. That made him hard to handle, and prison officials responded by putting him in solitary confinement. Total isolation, in a windowless cell, made things worse. The Supreme Court will soon decide whether to hear a case from Texas on a large question: whether prolonged solitary confinement is cruel and unusual punishment, which is banned under the Eighth Amendment. — The New York Times

03/04/2023
John Oliver: “putting people in solitary is torture, so let’s stop”
John Oliver condemned the continued use of solitary confinement in American prisons on the latest episode of Last Week Tonight. The incarceration method, used any given day on 50,000 inmates in the US (almost definitely an undercount, given poor data collection), keeps people in a solitary cell that’s roughly 6ft by 9ft. “Which is way too small for a person to be stuck in for days, weeks, months or even years on end,” the HBO host said on Sunday evening. — The Guardian

31/03/2023
How paper and glue rekindled a sense of hope in a supermax prison
JR is a French artist who works anonymously to create massive works of street art. In 2011, JR received the TED Prize, which prompted the launch of “Inside Out,” a global project giving people worldwide the chance to make statements of public art in the form of black-and-white portraits that are blown up and pasted on spaces. One of his more recent projects is a large-scale pasting in a maximum security prison in Tehachapi, California. The mural, as well as recordings made by the inmates who participated in the project, can be seen in the app JR: Murals. — KMUW

31/03/2023
“I’m a trans woman of color in an all-male prison. I had to fight for my right to gender-affirming care behind bars.”
“Prison is flat-out terrifying, especially for a young trans woman incarcerated in a Deep South men’s facility. The years I’ve spent in prison have been challenging, to say the least. As a trans woman, I’ve faced numerous dangers: harassment, violence, discrimination, and lack of access to medical care. All my attempts at feminization, expression of gender, and even social transition were met with brutality by prison officials.” — Insider

29/03/2023
Report documents flagrant violations of New York solitary reform law
The Correctional Association of New York released a 41-page report documenting “numerous departures” from the letter and spirit of the HALT Solitary Confinement Law. While the overall number of people in solitary confinement in New York has decreased by more than two-thirds following the implementation of HALT, the report finds that facilities have continued to hold people in solitary well beyond the legal limit of 15 consecutive days. The report examines the alleged relationship between HALT and prison violence, citing interviews with incarcerated people who said they received false tickets for assaults after being “set up” by staff. A coalition of advocacy groups issued an open letter urging the US Department of Education to investigate children’s rights abuses at Louisiana’s Angola prison. — Solitary Watch

15/03/2023
‘Sitting in the fire’ of life without parole
A prison cell sometimes becomes a living tomb to bide time and wait for the inevitable while the spirit dies and thoughts perish. When it’s your last resting place, equipped with a mattress, sink and flushing toilet, it’s easy to surrender to the eternal silence of regret and the faces of loved ones fade into the cracks of the walls. But the need to make things right — to make amends for destruction inflicted on others and ourselves — can turn a prison cell from the end of the road to the beginning of a journey. — Prison Journalism Project

16/02/2023
California and Nevada may ban slavery, forced prison labor
Lawmakers in Nevada and California are advancing legislation to remove involuntary servitude from their state constitutions, a move that follows four states bans on forced labor in ballot measures that passed last fall. The goal of these proposals is to remove exceptions from the state constitutions that allow forced labor as criminal punishment. The efforts come amid a growing push among some states to scrub outdated, century-old language from their state constitutions. Last fall, voters approved similar ballot measures in Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont. — The Independent

06/02/2023
“Revolutionary” housing: How colleges aim to support formerly incarcerated students
The vast majority of incarcerated people are currently ineligible to receive Pell Grants, federal financial aid for low-income students. But that decades-long ban will end this summer, thanks to legislation passed in 2020. Nicholas Turner, the president of the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit focused on criminal justice reform, estimates that more than 767,000 people will be able to apply for funds to pursue a credential or a degree through an in-prison education program. — The Nation

02/02/2023
Only 38 percent of prison staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct results in legal action
Only 38 percent of incidents of a prison staff member engaging in sexual misconduct against an inmate resulted in legal action over a three-year study period, according to a new Department of Justice (DOJ) report. The report from the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics covered the number of reported incidents of sexual victimization from 2016 to 2018. Authorities reported 2,229 such incidents conducted by staff members and 2,666 conducted by inmates during that period. Sexual misconduct from staff members resulted in their discharge, firing or contract not being renewed only 44 percent of the time. — The Hill

01/02/2023
A proposed Massachusetts bill would give inmates up to a year off their sentence — if they donate their organs
Forget sentence reductions for good behavior: With a proposed bill making its way through the Massachusetts legislature, inmates could receive up to a year off their jail sentence by donating their organs. Bill HD.3822, called the “Act to establish the Massachusetts incarcerated individual bone marrow and organ donation program,” would allow eligible incarcerated people to receive no fewer than 60 but no more than 365 days off their sentences for donating their marrow or organs. It has not passed through the Massachusetts House of Representatives. — Insider

01/02/2023
New prison report recommends not just one new prison, but another 1,500 beds in a decade
Before 2030, Nebraska will need another 1,500 prison beds, even after building a $350-million, 1,500-bed replacement for the aging State Penitentiary in Lincoln, a new report says. The long-awaited Facility Master Plan for the Nebraska Department of Corrections states that after the new prison is open, the state will be short about 1,300 prison beds, given the expected growth in state inmates. It recommends decommissioning the 1,023-bed State Pen, the state’s oldest prison, but leaves open the possibility of reusing at least some of its buildings to handle the housing needs. — Nebraska Examiner

20/01/2023
Texas prisons detail plan to improve food
The Texas prison system has a new goal: Serving slightly more edible food. As part of a long-term strategic plan, the corrections agency aims to do away with the worst of prison fare. The agency is making plans for more permanent improvements by starting a new culinary training program, in hopes of doing away with cold meals altogether. — The Marshall Project

16/01/2023
Texas prisoners go on hunger strike to protest solitary confinement
Dozens of prisoners across Texas are nearly a week into a hunger strike in protest of what they say is inhumane treatment. The inmates, all men, want an end to solitary confinement. “The men are in restrictive housing, or what’s better known as solitary confinement, where they spend up to 22 hours a day in their cells. In a letter to state legislators, they said staffing shortages have made the situation even worse, where one prison unit - Collier unit - men had only had outside recreation a handful of time in three years, and staff struggled to give them access to showers more than once a week.”, explain the journalist. — NPR

12/01/2023
Kery Blakinger speaks out on the challenges of prison reporting
In June 2022, the formerly incarcerated reporter Kery Blakinger published Corrections in Ink, a memoir about her experience in the prison system. A few months after its publication, she learned the Florida Department of Corrections was considering permanently banning her “dangerously inflammatory” book at prisons across the state after an inmate at Okaloosa Correctional Facility requested the book through the Prison Book Program. — In These Times

02/01/23
Arizona inducing the labor of pregnant prisoners against their will The Arizona Department of Corrections is inducing the labor of pregnant prisoners against their will, according to three women incarcerated at the Perryville prison in Buckeye.The women say they were forced to have their labor induced, despite wanting to have a spontaneous birth. — The Arizona Republic