December 2025
United States: mystery meat and maggot-infested produce, the disturbing reality of US prison food
News
America
Health
Material conditions
Violence
United States
In Eating Behind Bars, author Leslie Soble details how food is used to further punish incarcerated people in the US. At best you get “mystery meat”. Or “sour-smelling heaps” of macaroni. In the worst cases, it’s undercooked chicken, spoiled milk and maggot-infested produce.
America
Material conditions
Overcrowding
United States
Budget analysts say staff shortages, parole bottlenecks and limited capacity will stress DOC beyond limits by 2026.
America
Elderly prisoners
Health
Facilities
Rehabilitation
United States
There are currently 2,149 incarcerated people aged 65 or older in the state, accounting for 6.7% of the state’s total prison population of 32,265, according to data from Jenni Riehle, the public information officer for the Department of Corrections.
Women
Europe
Health
Material conditions
United Kingdom
Across the world, incarcerated pregnant women are often held in deplorable conditions, leading some to miscarry or give birth alone inside a cell, say campaigners.
Asia
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Activities
Nepal
Udayapur District Prison, built to accommodate just 50 incarcerated people, is currently housing more than four times its capacity, creating serious management and safety challenges.
Europe
Overcrowding
Rehabilitation
United Kingdom
The number of people leaving prison in the Yorkshire and Humber region with no home to go to has gone up by 69% in the past year, data has revealed.
America
Mental health
Drugs
Activities
Social ties
United States
Young men housed in Connecticut’s adult prisons have spent long periods in isolation, receiving almost no programming or mental health services, few visits, little recreation and frequent strip searches.
America
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
United States
The escape of three incarcerated persons from the St. Landry Parish Jail was the result of long-neglected structural failures. The sheriff described the facility as “severely overcrowded” and suffering from years of neglect, moisture damage and unresolved maintenance issues.
Europe
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Overcrowding
Social ties
Rehabilitation
Work
United Kingdom
Shared cells in an overcrowded South Yorkshire prison are “often too small to maintain decency and privacy”, inspectors have reported.
North America
Pre-trial detention
Women
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Canada
Ontario jails are heading toward a record year for overcrowding, remand populations and lockdowns just as politicians debate bail reforms that could lead to a further influx of accused behind bars, data analyzed by CBC News reveals.
Crises
Middle East
Access to legal rights
Health
Social ties
Iran
Taher Naghavi, an imprisoned lawyer who once represented political prisoners and families seeking justice, began his hunger strike on October 27 after prison authorities rejected his request for medical furlough.
Crises
Middle East
Health
Material conditions
Torture
Syria
Syria’s missing persons body is reviewing the Damascus Dossier as families say they have blindsided with details of relatives’ fates leaked without permission.
Crises
Middle East
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Israel
Aspects of daily life behind bars include cells so crowded that incarcerated people cannot move without climbing over one another, and others sleeping on thin mattresses on the floor for weeks or months.
Women
Europe
Mental health
Violence
United Kingdom
Women’s prisons are so dangerous they are actually “incapable” of adequate reform according to new research which examines recent deaths in the women’s estate.