Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

February 1, 2017

USA : Donald Trump nomme Neil Gorsuch comme juge à la Cour suprême, un conservateur qui va plaire aux pro-peine de mort

News

Violence United States

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

January 31, 2017

United States: number of U.S. prisoners serving life sentences has quadrupled

News

America North America Long-term prisoners United States

The number of U.S. prisoners serving life sentences has more than quadrupled over the past three decades, and those eligible for parole are waiting longer to be released, according to a report released Tuesday.

January 30, 2017

USA: time for Pa. to end its prison-industrial complex

News

United States

One of the challenges of the Trump era in America is that we can’t forget about the important issues that aren’t swept up in the daily maelstrom of Trumpworld. On the national stage – and to a certain extent, on the local level as well – a number of important topics seem to have been pushed to the…

January 27, 2017

USA: why we exclude prisoners from the unemployment rate

News

United States

It gives an incomplete picture of the economy, but it’s tradition. rlier this week, in response to the presidential press secretary’s fumbling of what seemed like a straightforward question, we investigated how various unemployment rates are defined and calculated. Economists wring their hands over…

January 25, 2017

United States: following the money of mass incarceration

News

America North America United States

The cost of imprisonment — including who benefits and who pays — is a major part of the national discussion around criminal justice policy. But prisons and jails are just one piece of the criminal justice system and the amount of media and policy attention that the various players get is not necess…

January 24, 2017

United States: white women are going to prison at a higher rate than ever before

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America North America Women United States

Mass incarceration of women was one of the important issues highlighted by the Women’s March on Washington.

January 19, 2017

USA : Florida's deadliest prison

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United States

Three years after Dade Correctional Institution was thrust into the national spotlight for the death of an inmate locked in a boiling shower in its mental health unit, deaths at the prison have soared to unprecedented heights.

January 19, 2017

USA: le cas Chelsea Manning rappelle le calvaire des personnes trans en prison

News

LGBTQI United States

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

January 13, 2017

USA: private prisons are poised for a comeback under Trump

News

United States

Just a few months ago, things were looking very bleak for the private prison industry. In mid-August, the Justice Department’s inspector general issued a report finding that privately operated federal prisons are more dangerous than those managed by the federal Bureau of Prisons and need more overs…

January 12, 2017

USA : solitary confinement is even worse for disabled people

News

Discipline United States

An always-brutal experience can be even worse for people with disabilities. When Dean Westwood was sentenced to prison in 2014, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Convicted of theft and tax evasion related to Medicaid fraud in Oregon, Westwood tells VICE he had no prior contact with the criminal justic…

January 11, 2017

USA : Attica Prison on lockdown after bloody inmate brawls break out

News

United States

Notorious Attica Prison was been on lockdown since Sunday – after several bloody brawls erupted between inmates with weapons on the yards, correction sources told The Post.

January 10, 2017

USA : president Obama’s parting reminders on criminal justice reform

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Asia United States

Last week, President Obama surprised criminal justice reformers with an article in the Harvard Law Review on The President’s Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform. While the President spends more of the article summarizing his efforts to reform the criminal justice system than sharing an analys…

January 10, 2017

USA : prisons run by C.E.O.s? Privatization under Trump could carry a heavy price

News

United States

Last summer, the Justice Department decided to start winding down its use of private prisons. Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates noted in a memo that while private prisons were useful when public prisons were overflowing, they made little sense now that the prison population was falling. They d…

January 10, 2017

USA : America's private prisons are back in business

News

United States

In the hardscrabble desert hamlet of Milan, New Mexico, incarceration is the biggest game in town.

January 10, 2017

¿Qué pasará con la prisión de Guantánamo cuando Barack Obama deje el poder y Donald Trump asuma la presidencia de EE.UU.?

News

United States

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the Spanish version.

January 7, 2017

Etats-Unis : Mumia Abu-Jamal sera enfin soigné

News

United States

Sorry, this article is not available in English. You can consult the French version.

January 4, 2017

Trump’s Guantanamo tweet was uninformed and ill-advised

News

United States

US president-elect Donald Trump’s tweet yesterday that everyone held at Guantanamo Bay is “extremely dangerous” is ill-informed. What’s worse, his proposed course of action – stopping all releases – shows a lack of understanding about the danger keeping Guantanamo open poses to US National Security…

January 3, 2017

USA: Trump says no more detainees should be released from Guantanamo Bay prison

News

United States

President-elect Donald Trump called Tuesday for the end of all detainee releases from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying in a tweet that those who remain are “extremely dangerous people” who “should not be allowed back onto the battlefield.”

December 31, 2016

USA: Massachussets unlawfully isolates mentally ill inmates

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Mental health United States

One inmate, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, became so distraught after months in the prison’s isolation unit that he began talking to himself and counting compulsively. Another, who suffers from schizoaffective disorder, declined so much in isolation that he smeared himself with feces.

December 29, 2016

USA : prison population shrinks to smallest in a decade

News

United States

Efforts to cut number of nonviolent offenders contributed to roughly 2% drop in 2015. The U.S. prison population in 2015 fell to the lowest level since 2005, fueled in part by the federal push to reduce the number of nonviolent drug offenders behind bars and state policies aimed at shorter sentence…

December 28, 2016

USA : prisons basically ignore the Americans with Disabilities Act

News

United States

Prisons across the U.S. routinely flout the Americans With Disabilities Act, subjecting thousands of inmates with physical and mental health problems to painful and sometimes humiliating conditions, according to watchdog groups, inmates, corrections officials, and a former Justice Department offici…

December 28, 2016

USA : 6 inmates in a Tennessee prison escaped through a broken toilet

News

United States

Six inmates escaped from a Tennessee jail through a broken toilet early Christmas morning, the Cocke County Sheriff’s Office told KOMO News. The police are still searching for one of the inmates. The other five were captured shortly after they escaped.

December 23, 2016

USA : Wilson County man who spent 31 years in prison not recommended for exoneration

News

United States

A Wilson County man who served 31 years in prison on a rape and burglary conviction before DNA evidence cleared him of the crime was not recommended for exoneration by the Tennessee Board of Parole on Tuesday.

December 16, 2016

USA : a prison class in African religion attracts students beyond its walls

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Religion United States

In many ways, the class that met here Tuesday night could be in any university in the United States. There were desks arranged in a circle to facilitate discussion. There were student presentations based on dense readings. And there was the faint buzzing from the fluorescent lights overhead.