United States

June 4, 2020

USA: solitary confinement is fueling New York's prison suicide crisis

News

North America Mental health Suicide United States

On average, someone attempts suicide in one of New York State’s prisons every other day. And 43 percent of those suicide attempts occur in the state’s notorious solitary confinement units — the Special Housing Unit, or SHUs. Solitary confinement is also linked to higher rates of death by suicide, and…

Source — Solitary Watch

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June 4, 2020

USA: what women dying in prison from COVID-19 tell us about female incarceration

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Coronavirus North America Women United States

This article was originally published by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Melissa Ann Horn’s name appeared over and over in court records and jail blotters in the rural Virginia county where she was born, and where she was arrested for crimes…

Source — Argus Leader

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May 28, 2020

USA: how to hide a covid-19 hotspot? Pretend prisoners don’t exist

News

Coronavirus North America Health United States

Officials in Santa Barbara County, California, wanted to start reopening the local economy as the state’s coronavirus epidemic began to ease. But they had a problem. This coastal county, known for its vineyards and stunning ocean views, is also home to the Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex, which has…

Source — The Marshall Project

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May 28, 2020

USA: will the Coronavirus make us rethink mass incarceration?

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Coronavirus North America Overcrowding United States

On March 14th, Roslyn Crouch, a mother of twelve, left her house in New Orleans to stock up on toilet paper and canned goods, and didn’t return. Crouch, who is forty-two, with slender braids down to her knees, had been feeling anxious about the spread of the coronavirus. At home, she cared for her elderly…

Source — New Yorker

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May 28, 2020

USA: when parole doesn’t mean release, the senseless “program requirements” keeping people behind bars during a pandemic

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Coronavirus North America Justice Health United States

With public health officials and criminal justice reform advocates urging prisons to reduce their populations, people who have already been approved for release should be the first to return to their communities and families. Instead, thousands of them are waiting behind bars — where social distancing…

Source — Prison Policy

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May 28, 2020

USA: en Floride, des milliers d’anciens détenus pourraient retrouver leur droit de vote

News

North America Access to legal rights Justice United States

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

May 27, 2020

USA: cleaning supplies are so scarce at this arizona prison, detainees are using shampoo and menstrual pads, lawsuit says

News

Coronavirus North America Health Material conditions United States

No one seems to be cleaning the phones at CoreCivic’s correctional complex in Florence, Arizona, Maria Guadalupe Lucero-Gonzalez said—so she wipes them down with wet menstrual pads before she calls her loved ones. It’s been almost a year since the 50-year-old mother of three was convicted of illegal…

Source — The Appeal

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May 27, 2020

USA: COVID-19 takes a hidden toll behind bars

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Coronavirus North America Health United States

COVID-19 is spreading rapidly in U.S. jails and prisons, but testing of inmates and staff remains spotty and many confirmed cases are going unreported. The resulting lack of data has deep implications for the fight against the virus, because prison outbreaks can move easily to surrounding communities. When…

Source — Reuters

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May 27, 2020

USA: 'people are sick all around me', inside the coronavirus catastrophe in California prisons

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Coronavirus North America Health United States

Prisoners and advocates told the Guardian that some infected inmates are in isolation without medical care or adequate food, cut off from family and attorneys

Source — The Guardian

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May 20, 2020

USA: a nation of prisons and pandemics

Testimonial

Coronavirus North America Health Overcrowding United States

The United States Penitentiary Canaan holds about 1,300 people. Qwantay A. is one of them. He has been incarcerated for 16 years and will be released in 2034. He drew some parallels between the coronavirus pandemic and mass incarceration, and shared his thoughts with Prison Insider. Read more

May 19, 2020

USA: filling the maternal-care gap

News

North America Women Health United States

Triona Carter’s birth of her first son, in a county jail in Alabama, was “one of the most hurtful things to ever go through.” The pain was both physical and emotional. She was “handcuffed to the bed,” aware that she would soon be separated from her child. “[I was] holding him, knowing that I don’t know…

Source — The American Prospect

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May 19, 2020

USA: Kim Kardashian est devenue une actrice-clé de la réforme carcérale

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North America United States

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

May 14, 2020

USA: le Missouri va mener une exécution avec distanciation sociale

News

Coronavirus North America Death penalty United States

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

May 14, 2020

USA: crime doesn’t pay but prison does, even amidst a pandemic

News

Coronavirus North America United States

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As factories and other businesses remain shuttered across America, people in prisons in at least 40 states continue going to work. Sometimes they earn pennies an hour, or nothing at all, making masks and hand sanitizer to help guard others from the coronavirus. Those same men and women…

Source — People's world

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May 6, 2020

USA: el coronavirus se ensaña con las cárceles

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Coronavirus North America Health United States

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish

May 6, 2020

USA: inside the deadly coronavirus outbreak at Oakdale federal prison

News

Coronavirus North America Health United States

“I just feel like we were all let down,” said one prisoner. At least 39 staff and 113 inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a staff source. Alfred Reece says the outbreak began when his teacher got sick. A former accountant serving an 8-year sentence for convictions related to…

Source — VICE

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May 6, 2020

USA: while jails drastically cut populations, state prisons have released almost no one

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Coronavirus North America Health United States

In recent weeks, local governments across the U.S. have drastically reduced their jail populations to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Many have reduced the number of people in jail by 25% or more, recognizing that the constant churn of people and the impossibility of social distancing in jails make…

Source — Prison Policy

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May 4, 2020

USA: the violent history of Angola prison

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North America Violence United States

The Louisiana State Penitentiary is named after the slave plantation that existed on that land where the prison now stands. Columbia University explains that the plantation took its name from the nation its slaves were taken from: Angola. In 1880, former Confederate Major Samuel James purchased the plantation…

Source — Grunge

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April 24, 2020

USA: what data exists about Native American people in the criminal justice system?

News

North America United States

Problems with data collection - and an unfortunate tendency to group Native Americans together with other ethnic and racial groups in data publications - have made it hard to understand the effect of mass incarceration on Native people. The scarcity of data on Native Americans in the U.S. criminal justice…

Source — Prison Policy Initiative

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April 24, 2020

USA: inmates at N.J. women’s prison endured years of sex abuse, justice dept. finds

News

North America Women Violence United States

WASHINGTON — Inmates at New Jersey’s only state prison for women were regularly sexually assaulted by guards and sometimes forced to engage in sex acts with other prisoners while staff members looked on, according to a Justice Department report released on Monday detailing widespread, pervasive sexual…

Source — The New York Times

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April 23, 2020

USA: el miedo al coronavirus en las cárceles provoca huelgas de hambre, protestas y motines

News

Coronavirus North America Protest United States

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish

April 23, 2020

USA: Living behind bars during a pandemic

Testimonial

Coronavirus Health United States

Robert C. is currently serving an 11-year sentence in a prison in Michigan than presents a very high infection rate. He writes about the first outbreak that occurred a couple weeks ago. Read more

April 23, 2020

USA: la détresse des détenus libérés en pleine pandémie

News

Coronavirus North America Health United States

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

April 9, 2020

USA: probation and parole officers are rethinking their rules as coronavirus spreads

News

Coronavirus North America Justice Health United States

In the effort to release people from jails to stem coronavirus outbreaks behind bars, those jailed for probation and parole violations have been an obvious choice. They’re locked up not for committing new crimes but for breaking the rules of their supervision, like drinking alcohol, traveling without…

Source — The Marshall Project

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