United States
Coronavirus
North America
Access to legal rights
Health
United States
Despite a record number of new COVID-19 cases in prisons this month, some state departments of correction are already starting to roll back necessary suspensions of medical co-pays. Prior to the pandemic, most prison systems charged incarcerated people between $2 and $5 for each medical appointment —…
Source — Prison Policy Initiative
Read more
North America
Women
Access to legal rights
Justice
Health
Torture
Violence
United States
The “freedom-loving” U.S. has been practicing the forced sterilization of its least desirable citizens since the early twentieth century.
It is conservatively estimated that over 60,000 American citizens suffered this procedure until it was supposedly abolished little by little, state by state, in the…
Source — Prison Legal News
Read more
North America
Women
LGBTI
Access to legal rights
Justice
United States
Nicole Rose Campbell was diagnosed with gender dysphoria prior to going to Racine Correctional Institute, a medium-security men’s state prison in Wisconsin. She was “permitted to receive hormone treatments, counseling, and even allowed to wear some women’s clothing” since starting her sentence, but was…
Source — LGBTQ Nation
Read more
Coronavirus
North America
Health
Overcrowding
United States
They live in crowded conditions, sharing bathrooms and eating facilities where social distancing is impossible. They have high rates of asthma, diabetes and heart disease. Many struggle with mental illness. A disproportionate number are Black and Hispanic, members of minority communities that have been…
Source — The New York Times
Read more
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 as…
Source — New Security Beat
Read more
United States: think private prison companies are going away under Biden? They have other plans
News
North America
Rehabilitation
United States
For the second time in four years, fears that a Democrat would be elected president sent private prison stocks plummeting earlier this month. To the casual observer, the prospect of President-elect Joe Biden—who promised to “stop corporations from profiteering from incarceration”—presented an existential…
Source — The Marshall project
Read more
North America
Mental health
Violence
Rehabilitation
United States
Early this year — before COVID-19 began to tear through U.S. prisons — five people were killed in Mississippi state prisons over the course of one week. A civil rights lawyer reported in February that he was receiving 30 to 60 letters each week describing pervasive “beatings, stabbings, denial of medical…
Source — Prison policy
Read more
Coronavirus
North America
Mental health
Suicide
United States
Rather than improve under a class action lawsuit dating back to 1990 (now Plata v. Newsom) and seeking constitutionally acceptable mental health care for prisoners, conditions continue to slide, exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Mental health problems are especially egregious at CDCR’s California…
Source — Prison legal news
Read more Etats-Unis: peine de mort, l’administration Trump poursuit les exécutions malgré sa défaite
News
North America
Access to legal rights
Justice
Death penalty
United States
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French
United States: can correctional facilities negotiate phone contracts that prohibit deposit fees ?
News
North America
Material conditions
Social ties
United States
The high cost of calling home from prisons and jails rightly gets a lot of attention in the press, but the industry’s practice of tacking on hidden fees is getting an increasing amount of attention from regulators and the savviest correctional facilities. These fees can be called by a variety of different…
Source — Prison policy initiative
Read more
Coronavirus
North America
Justice
Rehabilitation
United States
In a sweeping acknowledgment of the risks of the coronavirus in cramped prisons, New Jersey will release more than 2,000 inmates on Wednesday as part of one of the largest-ever single-day reductions of any state’s prison population.
More than 1,000 additional prisoners will be released in the coming…
Source — The New York Times
Read more
North America
Access to legal rights
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
United States
British prisons and jails must provide for vegan inmates by law; as of January this year, veganism is an explicitly protected belief under the Equality Act 2010, the same as religious beliefs.
This protection is not absolute, nor does veganism have legal protection everywhere in the world. In the U.S.,…
Source — Sentient Media
Read more
United States: California law is step forward but fails to guarantee safety for trans prisoners
News
North America
Women
Access to legal rights
Justice
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Violence
United States
Syiaah Skylit has been imprisoned in California since 2015. Despite multiple requests to be placed in a women’s prison, Skylit, a Black trans woman, has always been incarcerated in the state’s men’s prisons. There, she has faced attacks by incarcerated men as well as sexual abuse and retaliation by prison…
Source — Truthout
Read more
North America
Access to legal rights
Mental health
United States
When Drew Harrison was in prison, just sitting in his cell overloaded his senses. To dim the fluorescent lights, he covered the bulbs with toothpaste or paper. To mask overwhelming odors, he wrapped his uniform around his head.
Once, when he asked to stay longer in the prison yard, Harrison, who has…
Source — The Marshall Project
Read more
Coronavirus
North America
Health
United States
As COVID-19 threatened jails and prisons in March, the Connecticut Department of Corrections decided to waive the $3 fee it charged prisoners for a medical visit.
“We didn’t want the lack of funds to be a reason offenders were denied medical treatment, especially during the pandemic,” said Andrius Banevicius,…
Source — The Marshall Project
Read more
North America
Minors
Access to legal rights
Justice
Mental health
Material conditions
Violence
United States
Detainees in Texas’ juvenile prisons suffer from frequent physical and sexual abuse, inadequate mental healthcare and high rates of staff turnover, two youth advocacy groups wrote in a federal complaint Wednesday.
The rights of the hundreds of youths detained in five secure facilities around the state…
Source — San Francisco Chronicle
Read more
North America
Long-term prisoners
Mental health
United States
Kyle H. has been incarcerated since 2001 and is serving a life sentence. He is held at River North Correctional Center in the state of Virginia. He bravely tells how an ordinary day goes by, when voices cannot stop, and when he becomes a stranger to himself.
Read more
Coronavirus
North America
Women
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
United States
“I am forced to make a choice on what’s more important, my freedom or my health,” Ortega said.
Source — The 19th News
Read more
Coronavirus
North America
Access to legal rights
Health
Work
United States
California’s prison system has taken drastic measures to combat the coronavirus, halting rehab programs, religious services and educational classes. But correctional authorities kept one type of operation running through much of the last six months: prison factories.
Source — Los Angeles Times
Read more Estados Unidos: la paradoja de la pena de muerte
News
North America
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Justice
Death penalty
United States
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
Coronavirus
North America
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Rehabilitation
Work
United States
As record-shattering wildfires rage throughout California, the state’s incarcerated population is doing the backbreaking work at the front lines. They plow fire lines and battle blazes, for $1 an hour, plus reduced prison time—a program that saves the state tens of millions of dollars annually. While…
Source — The Appeal
Read more
North America
Minors
Access to legal rights
Justice
Mental health
Material conditions
Violence
United States
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued notice on February 5, 2020 that it has found the “totality of the conditions, practices, and incidents” it discovered at Broad River Road Complex (BRRC), South Carolina’s long-term juvenile commitment facility, violated the juveniles’ Fourteenth Amendment rights.
After…
Source — Prison legal news
Read more
North America
Facilities
United States
A California assemblymember said nearly $200 million in operating costs will be saved after the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) announcement on Friday of the closure of a state prison in Tracy.
The Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy was chosen for closure based on…
Source — CBS Sacramento
Read more