United States of America
Seen in the press
Read our selection of press reports about this country. This is a short description of prison conditions on a national scale.
United States: seen in the press / 2023
Violence, acts of protest, prison conditions, justice reforms: find out what is new about prisons and justice in this country. Prison Insider monitors the press on a regular basis.
United States: seen in the press / 2022
Violence, acts of protest, prison conditions, justice reforms: find out what is new about prisons and justice in this country. Prison Insider monitors the press on a regular basis.
United States: seen in the press / 2021
Violence, acts of protest, prison conditions, justice reforms: find out what is new about prisons and justice in this country. Prison Insider monitors the press on a regular basis.
Estados Unidos: Nueva York trasladará mujeres y transexuales de la peligrosa cárcel de Rikers
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
United States: Mumia Abu-Jamal, how he ended up in prison, and why MOVE wants him freed
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a 66-year-old former journalist incarcerated in a Pennsylvania state prison for the 1981 shooting death of Officer Daniel Faulkner. “We’re not asking for no apologies. We’re not asking for no investigation, because neither one will mean anything,” said Janine Africa during an Apr…Source — Billy Penn
United States: prisons shouldn’t be charging medical co-pays, especially during a pandemic
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
United States: new documentary released on forced sterilizations of female prisoners
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…Source — Prison Legal News
United States: trans inmate wins federal case to get gender affirming surgery
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…Source — LGBTQ Nation
United States: prisons are Covid-19 hotbeds. When should inmates get the vaccine?
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…Source — The New York Times
United States: reproductive justice prison system
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…Source — New Security Beat
United States: think private prison companies are going away under Biden? They have other plans
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 exist…Source — The Marshall project
United States: no escape, the trauma of witnessing violence in prison
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 m…Source — Prison policy
United States: mental health crisis in California’s lock-ups worsens with Covid-19
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 Ca…Source — Prison legal news
Etats-Unis: peine de mort, l’administration Trump poursuit les exécutions malgré sa défaite
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 ?
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 di…Source — Prison policy initiative
United States: 2,258 N.J. prisoners will be released in a single day
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 comin…Source — The New York Times
United States: the role of plant-based food in the prison system
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…Source — Sentient Media
United States: California law is step forward but fails to guarantee safety for trans prisoners
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…Source — Truthout
United States: prison is even worse when you have a disability like autism
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 ha…Source — The Marshall Project
United States: should prisoners have to pay for medical care during a pandemic?
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…Source — The Marshall Project
United States: advocates file complaint over Texas youth prison conditions
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 st…Source — San Francisco Chronicle
United States: inside the COVID unit at the world’s largest women’s prison
“I am forced to make a choice on what’s more important, my freedom or my health,” Ortega said.Source — The 19th News
United States: California kept prison factories open
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
Estados Unidos: la paradoja de la pena de muerte
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish