North America
Coronavirus: Prison Fever
Africa
Coronavirus
North America
Central America and the Caribbean
Pre-trial detention
South America
Asia
Europe
Middle East
Health
Material conditions
Protest
Activities
What measures are taken to guarantee the safety of all prisoners and prison staff? What are the consequences of the pandemic on the living conditions in prisons? Here is an overview. — Update 13/07/20
Read more
North America
Health
United States
A state prisoner who’d been losing a dramatic amount of weight began to vomit uncontrollably, and was repeatedly given Ibuprofen that made her internal bleeding worse before she died.
Another person behind bars waited nearly an hour for a nurse to call an ambulance after he collapsed and had a seizure.
And…
Source — The City
Read more
North America
Canada
Two former federal prison inmates are trying to bring a class-action lawsuit against the federal government to argue strip searches represent a “serious deprivation of liberty.”
Under federal law, prison staff can strip search inmates if they have reasonable grounds to suspect an inmate has contraband…
Source — CBC
Read more
North America
Long-term prisoners
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
United States
Every year people die in the custody of Illinois Department of Corrections, the vast majority due in part to overincarceration. COVID-19 is highlighting this fact because it is attacking the elderly and infirm, many of whom have spent decades enduring harsh prison conditions. They die lonely deaths for…
Source — Truthout
Read more
Coronavirus
North America
Health
United States
The situation inside the nation’s jails and prisons amid the Covid-19 pandemic has become the stuff of nightmares. Overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, shortages of personal protective equipment (not to mention soap) and restrictions on hygiene products such as hand sanitizer have turned detention facilities…
Source — New York Times
Read more
Coronavirus
North America
Health
United States
As the coronavirus established a foothold in southern New Mexico’s Otero County Prison Facility in mid-May, state officials quietly moved 39 inmates out of the massive complex near the Texas border to another prison near Santa Fe.
The inmates shared something in common: None was a sex offender.
In the…
Source — New Mexico In Depth
Read more
Coronavirus
North America
Health
Canada
“They were afraid, they were stressed, they were kept in isolation”
Source — Nunatsiaq
Read more
Coronavirus
North America
Health
Material conditions
United States
The number of coronavirus cases in California’s San Quentin state prison has crossed a thousand, with more than 900 cases being diagnosed in the last two weeks alone.
Source — L'Express
Read more USA: abogados, “es probable que haya más contagiados en cárceles”
News
Coronavirus
North America
Health
United States
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
USA: los ayuntamientos gastan lo mismo en Policía y cárceles que en sanidad y hospitales
News
North America
United States
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
North America
Rehabilitation
United States
At least 77 million U.S. adults have criminal records, including nearly 7 million currently in prison or jail or on probation or parole.
Typically, more than 10,000 of the incarcerated leave prison and nearly 200,000 churn through jails every week. But because more than 64,000 inmates and workers have…
Source — National Interest
Read more USA: après 17 ans d’interruption, les exécutions fédérales reprennent
News
North America
Death penalty
United States
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French
France: à Guéret, les détenus, moins nombreux qu'avant, retrouvent parloirs et activités
News
Coronavirus
North America
Activities
Social ties
France
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French
USA: les spectaculaires progrès de New York contre l’incarcération massive des Noirs
News
North America
Justice
United States
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French
Coronavirus
North America
Religion
Canada
OTTAWA – Federal prison chaplains say the spiritual needs of inmates have become an unnecessary casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic at a time when offenders are feeling particularly vulnerable and alone.
The Correctional Service of Canada is allowing only emergency in-person visits from chaplains to prevent…
Source — CTV News
Read more
USA: after Louisiana women's prison flooded in 2016, temporary dorms inundated with coronavirus
News
Coronavirus
North America
Women
United States
In one massive room filled with rows of metal bunk beds about an arm’s length apart, 70 women share three toilets and four sinks. There’s no such thing as social distancing inside the female prison dorms that have become inundated with coronavirus cases.
The high case numbers have prompted Department…
Source — The advocate
Read more
Touch — 9/12
Inside Outside
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, in…
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more 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
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
Read more