Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

January 30, 2018

USA: women's prison populations in 35 states 'worse than men's' study says

News

North America Women United States

In a few states, women’s prison populations have even grown enough to counteract reductions in the men’s population.

September 27, 2017

USA: House Dem introduces bill to incentivize states to reduce prison populations

News

North America United States

A House Democrat has introduced a criminal justice reform bill in the House would create 20$ billion to incentivize states to reduce the nation’s mass incarceration.

September 13, 2017

Canada : les cellules d’isolement des détenus contestées devant la Cour

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North America Discipline Canada

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

August 22, 2017

Canada: former watchdog: Mental health needs of women in prison not being met

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North America Women Health Mental health Canada

“I don’t agree that it’s society’s fault”. The Royal should never have accepted an acutely ill inmate like Marlene Carter at its Brockville Mental Health Centre as part of a contract it had with Correctional Service Canada, says retired Conservative Senator Bob Runciman

August 4, 2017

Canada's legally innocent prisoners are dying in jail

News

North America Canada

Nearly 270 people have died in Canadian provincial jails over the past five years. Two-thirds of them were legally innocent.

July 23, 2017

United States: condemned to death — and solitary confinement

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North America Discipline United States

Arizona death row inmate Scott Nordstrom lives alone in a room smaller than a parking space. He’s allowed to leave his cell a few times each week to shower or exercise alone in a similarly-sized mesh cage and is forbidden from making physical contact with visitors from the outside.

July 22, 2017

United States: how the US imposes the worst of its prison paradigm abroad

News

North America United States

At least $22 million have been devoted to a US international prison program focused mainly on Central American prisons. This program operates out of a web of government offices and programs, most prominently the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) of the US State Dep…

July 21, 2017

United States : mentally ill prisoners in Louisiana were made to bark like dogs for food, new lawsuit claims

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North America Mental health United States

Reports to the Advocacy Center said that disabled people who are incarcerated at David Wade Correctional Center have been beaten, slapped, kicked, stripped of their clothing in the winter and sprayed with mace and bleach. One report to the center said that disabled inmates were made to bark like do…

July 20, 2017

United States: the accident that changed my life in prison

News

North America United States

Even though my boss and I didn’t quite get off to the right start, over the years I grew to respect him and see him more as a person and less as a badge. For one, he did not laugh at me when he caught me crying over the loss of my father, because he, too, had recently been in mourning. In prison, t…

July 19, 2017

United States: nine lessons about criminal justice reform

News

North America United States

“Reform” is one of those ambiguous words that mean different things to different people. I think of reform as something that aims to reduce the numbers of Americans who are removed from society and deprived of their freedom, and to do it without making us less safe. In 1972, when I was starting my…

July 18, 2017

United States: how to count the hidden prisoners

News

North America United States

Now, a new study by the Urban Institute is trying something different. The nonprofit counted how long people currently in prison — many of whom still have long sentences to serve — have been there. Examining data from 43 states and Washington, D.C., the organization’s Justice Policy Center found th…

July 13, 2017

United States: my friend killed himself in an Alabama prison

News

North America United States

We called him Tyson. He was a short kid. Very good looking. And he was kind of like a child. He was very soft-spoken. We knew he suffered from a mental illness. You can just tell when a person’s not normal. He was like our nephew—like a child that needed to be fostered. Sometimes he would stray aro…

June 25, 2017

Canada: suicide attempts spike amid Ontario prison system overhaul

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North America Suicide Canada

At a time when Ontario prison officials have vowed to take a more humane approach to inmate care, the province has recorded a significant rise in the number of suicide attempts in its correctional facilities. Over the past decade, provincial institutions have averaged 106 suicide attempts a calenda…

June 24, 2017

United States: nineteen women inmates graduate with associate degrees

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North America Women United States

College graduations are emotional occasions, but it would be hard to match the level of enthusiasm and joy that pervaded the gymnasium at the Washington Corrections Center for Women this month when 19 inmates received diplomas.

June 23, 2017

United States: the importance of raising the age of criminal responsibility

News

North America United States

Raising the age for criminal responsibility of juveniles is an issue on the front lines of criminal justice reform. Raise the age bills have been passed at some point in almost all 50 states and allow for juveniles to be treated as juveniles unless they have committed certain violent offenses, such…

June 23, 2017

United States: judge accepts sweeping reforms of Arizona death penalty protocols

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North America United States

A U.S. judge accepted on Thursday major revisions to Arizona’s death penalty procedures, such as eliminating paralytic drugs in lethal injections and giving witnesses more access to watch prisoners inside the death chamber, a lawyer for the death row inmates said. The changes were part of a settlem…

June 22, 2017

United States: a new war on drugs

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North America Drugs United States

Jeff Sessions wants a new war on drugs. It won’t work.

June 22, 2017

United States: prosecutors: prison supervisor ordered juveniles hog-tied

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North America United States

An indictment says a former supervisor at a South Carolina juvenile prison ordered guards to hog-tie two inmates and leave them lying on their stomachs for two hours because they made too much noise.

June 22, 2017

United States: gang revolt at Florida prison injures 1 inmate, 7 officers

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North America Protest United States

A gang revolt at a Florida state prison injured seven corrections officers and one inmate Wednesday morning, authorities said.

June 21, 2017

United States: lawyers contest constitutionality of Nebraska death penalty

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North America United States

Attorneys for an inmate accused of strangling his cellmate have asked a judge to declare Nebraska’s death penalty unconstitutional. Concerns over the recently reinstated capital punishment that was repealed in 2015 are among the 11 arguments in a motion filed Monday by Todd Lancaster and Sarah Newe…

June 20, 2017

United States: Alaska officials work to reform solitary confinement system

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North America Discipline United States

“Segregation is known to be psychologically detrimental to those who are in there for any length of time,” Bruce Busby, the state department’s director of institutions said.

June 20, 2017

Canada: l’isolement dans les prisons canadiennes sera limité à 15 jours

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North America Discipline Canada

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

June 19, 2017

Canada: liberal government to impose 15-day limits on solitary confinement

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North America Discipline Canada

Nearly a decade after teenager Ashley Smith died by self-strangulation in a solitary confinement cell, the Liberal government has introduced a bill that would place new restrictions on indefinite solitary confinement in federal prisons but falls short of the expectations of some prison-rights advoc…

June 9, 2017

Canada: 13-man riot at Regina jail injures 2, causes more than $100K in damage

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North America Canada

A riot involving 13 inmates erupted at Regina Provincial Correctional Centre on Thursday night, injuring two people and causing more than $100,000 in damage.