United States
North America
Women
LGBTQI
Long-term prisoners
Justice
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Torture
United States
Violence, acts of protest, prison conditions, justice reforms: find out what is new about prisons and justice in this country. Prison Insider monitors the press on a regular basis.
USA: inside the kids’ cells
Interview
North America
Minors
Material conditions
United States
They are 60,000. Who? The minors incarcerated in America’s prisons. Richard Ross is a photographer. His ‘Juvenile in Justice’ work has been giving them a voice for the past two decades.
USA: "This is the real Miami"
Insights
Focus
LGBTQI
Violence
Social ties
United States
Xandan is incarcerated at Lane Murray Unit, a state prison located in Texas. He tells us how a typical day goes by.
United States: meeting my hero
Testimonial
Sunny Jacobs: Life Outside
Testimonial
North America
Death penalty
Social ties
Rehabilitation
Work
United States
How is life after release? Sunny Jacobs was sentenced to death and spent seventeen years in detention for a crime she did not commit. She tells Prison Insider about the many challenges one faces upon release. She now works actively towards the abolition of the death penalty.
Sunny Jacobs: Life Beyond
Testimonial
North America
Mental health
Death penalty
Religion
United States
How can you escape prison with your mind? Sunny Jacobs was sentenced to death and spent seventeen years in detention for a crime she did not commit. She tells Prison Insider how yoga, meditation and prayer helped her find freedom behind prison walls.
Sunny Jacobs: Life Inside
Testimonial
North America
Mental health
Material conditions
Death penalty
Activities
United States
What is daily life on death row like? Sunny Jacobs was sentenced to death and spent seventeen years in detention for a crime she did not commit. She tells Prison Insider about her detention conditions and the burden of complete isolation.
United States: inadequate mental health treatment
Analysis
Opinion
North America
Mental health
Material conditions
Suicide
United States
How the prison system respond to the needs of mentally ill prisoners?
Estados Unidos: Nueva York trasladará mujeres y transexuales de la peligrosa cárcel de Rikers
News
North America
Women
LGBTQI
United States
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
United States: addressing the structural inequalities underlying a failing prison health system
Analysis
Opinion
North America
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Suicide
United States
ICPR and Prison Insider asked several experts worldwide to share their insights in the framework of the project ‘Understanding and reducing the use of imprisonment in 10 countries’. Homer Venters is a physician and epidemiologist working at the intersection of incarceration, health and human rights…
United States: there’s an aging crisis in New York’s prisons and we need to solve it
Analysis
Opinion
North America
Elderly prisoners
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Health
United States
ICPR and Prison Insider asked several experts worldwide to share their insights in the framework of the project ‘Understanding and reducing the use of imprisonment in 10 countries’. Rodney Holcombe, New York State Director for Criminal Justice Reform, addresses the New York prison system and the it…
United States: surge in life sentences
Analysis
Opinion
North America
Long-term prisoners
Justice
Death penalty
United States
Ashley Nellis, Ph.D. is a Senior Research Analyst at the Washington DC-based NGO, The Sentencing Project, which has been active in the struggle to reform American law and practice on life sentences. Here, Ashley discusses America’s now commonplace use of life sentences and calls for bolder approach…
North America
Access to legal rights
Justice
United States
The former journalist was convicted of killing a police officer in 1981, in a trial many say was suffused with racial bias.
Coronavirus
North America
Access to legal rights
Health
United States
Our December survey of medical co-pay policies shows that some states are reinstating medical co-pays as COVID-19 continues to spread in prisons.
North America
Women
Access to legal rights
Justice
Health
Torture
Violence
United States
At least 30 states began officially and formally sanctioning this practice under the “1907 Indiana Eugenics Law.”
North America
Women
LGBTQI
Access to legal rights
Justice
United States
A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that a prison would violate an inmate’s constitutional rights by denying her from having gender-affirming surgery, and has ordered correction officials to allow for the inmate to make such arrangements.
Coronavirus
North America
Health
Overcrowding
United States
Federal officials have suggested that corrections staff receive high priority for a coronavirus vaccine, but not the millions of vulnerable inmates held in U.S. facilities.
North America
Women
Access to legal rights
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Violence
Social ties
United States
The United States imprisons the most women in the world. Across the United States, approximately 200,000 women are incarcerated—nearly an 800 percent increase since 1980. Women of color are disproportionately affected by the criminal justice system. In 2017, twice as many Black women and 1.3 times…
North America
Mental health
Violence
Rehabilitation
United States
A recent study of recently incarcerated people finds that witnessing violence is a frequent and traumatizing experience in prison.
Coronavirus
North America
Mental health
Suicide
United States
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has been challenged regarding care for its mentally ill prisoners for decades.