Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

June 26, 2019

USA : gangs ran this private prison

News

America North America United States

It was a prison brimming with violence, awash in weapons—and severely short on guards to patrol its cell blocks. But security-camera footage caught the action when Brad Fitch arrived in unit F at Mississippi’s Wilkinson County Correctional Facility on Jan. 31, 2018.

June 26, 2019

Paraguay: ministerio de Justicia cierra dos cárceles por superpoblación de presos

News

America South America Facilities Overcrowding Paraguay

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

June 25, 2019

Argentina: peor el remedio que la enfermedad

News

America South America Argentina

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

June 24, 2019

USA: 100 prisoners In Shakopee wear blue to demand LGBTQ changes this pride

News

America North America United States

Inside Shakopee Prison last Saturday. Prisoners wore blue - the only color they can wear without getting in trouble - to protest in favor of changes demanded by LGBTQ prisoners

June 21, 2019

Paraguay: más cárceles no solucionan el hacinamiento

News

America South America Material conditions Paraguay

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

June 20, 2019

USA: après la prison

News

America North America United States

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

June 18, 2019

United States: prisons ban dozens of technology and programming books over security concerns

News

America North America United States

Oregon’s Department of Corrections has banned dozens of introductory technology and coding books from state prisons over security concerns.

June 17, 2019

10 dead in Paraguay prison riot

News

America South America Drugs Violence Paraguay

At least 10 people died during a riot in the San Pedro prison here on Sunday, with five of them having been beheaded, state media has reported. Paraguayan newspaper reported that four people died due to sustaining burns since a long time, while one more died later in a hospital, after quoting prose…

June 13, 2019

United States: 300 inmates in Texas' Harris County jail are quarantined over a mumps outbreak

News

America North America United States

A mumps outbreak at the Harris County jail in Houston has forced staff to isolate 14 symptomatic people and quarantine a few hundred other inmates, officials said Thursday.

June 12, 2019

Uruguay: una cárcel simula un pueblo para recuperar presos

News

America South America Uruguay

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

June 12, 2019

United States: San Francisco announces plan to stop charging jail inmates for phone calls

News

America North America Social ties United States

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Sheriff Vicki Hennessy on Wednesday announced plans to stop charging inmates to make phone calls from jail and to eliminate the county’s markups on items sold at the jail commissary.

June 12, 2019

Argentina: la sobrepoblación pone en riesgo a las cárceles

News

America South America Overcrowding Argentina

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

June 11, 2019

United States: after a transgender woman’s death at Rikers, calls for justice and answers

News

America North America LGBTQI United States

In April, Layleen Polanco, a transgender woman, was arrested on misdemeanor assault charges and sent to the Rikers Island jail complex because she could not afford to pay a $500 bail. Nearly two months later, she was found dead in her cell.

June 10, 2019

Time — 1/12

Inside Outside

America North America South America Women Asia Europe Long-term prisoners

Each month, the photographer Bertrand Gaudillère creates an image or chooses one from his archives. Prison Insider sends it to a dozen participants, prisoners around the world. They are in Argentina, in the United States of America, in France, in Switzerland, in Guatemala, in Ukraine, in Colombia…

June 9, 2019

Canada: un premier centre d'injection supervisée dans une prison canadienne

News

America North America Drugs Canada

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

June 6, 2019

Equator: infraestructura y reformas del periodo correísta agravaron crisis carcelaria

News

America Central America and the Caribbean Ecuador

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

June 6, 2019

United States: what it’s like to spend half a life in solitary confinement?

News

America North America Discipline United States

Tony Medina has spent two decades in a concrete box in Texas, alone.

June 6, 2019

United States: district of Columbia could restore voting rights to felons in prison

News

America North America United States

The nation’s capital is set to consider legislation that would let people with felony convictions vote while in prison.

June 6, 2019

Mexico: autogobierno, la crisis en las cárceles

News

America Central America and the Caribbean Mexico

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

June 3, 2019

United States: how secret languages thrive behind bars?

News

America North America United States

On a now-private Facebook page, a prison guard in Texas casually joked last month about wanting to “gas” prisoners (throw urine or feces at them). Others in Georgia and Missouri posted about putting inmates in “the box” or “the hole” (slang for sending them to disciplinary confinement).

June 3, 2019

United States: the latest YouTube craze, videos that show you what it’s like to live in prison

News

America North America United States

Prison channels on YouTube have more than 2.1 million subscribers.

May 28, 2019

Brazil: 55 inmates killed in spate of prison riots

News

America South America Violence Brazil

Fifty-five inmates have died in gang-related riots at four prisons in western Brazil, according to authorities. Fifteen prisoners were found dead Sunday and 40 more Monday in the city of Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas, the region’s Governor Wilson Lima said.

May 27, 2019

Venezuela: la verdad detrás de la “masacre en Acarigua”

News

America South America Venezuela

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

May 27, 2019

United States: commissioner says Alabama prison system culture must change

News

America North America United States

Much has been reported about the scarcity of staff, overcrowding, and crumbling physical conditions in Alabama’s prisons.