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.
USA: prisons are not the answer to preventing crime
Each day in the United States and Canada, it seems like the news media reports another shooting or act of violence that ends in tragedy. As a result, politicians and the public often leap to the conclusion that violence is on the rise and that the answer is to throw more people behind bars.USA: study shows link between restrictive housing and increased risk of mortality after release from prison
A new study led by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found that being held in restrictive housing (i.e., solitary confinement) is associated with an increased risk of death after a person is released from prison.USA: Sheriffs release sick people from jail to avoid paying hospital bills
Michael Tidwell’s blood sugar reading was at least 15 times his normal level when sheriff’s deputies took him to the hospital. But before they loaded the inmate into the back of a car, deputies propped up his slumping body and handed him a pen so he could sign a release from the Washington County J…USA: a college education in prison opens unexpected path to freedom
Cal State LA’s Prison Graduation Initiative is the state’s only public B.A. program sending professors to teach behind bars. College programs like it were once far more common, but today advocates are hopeful the political winds have shifted enough to bring public dollars back to prison education.USA: judge threatens to lock up Texas prison officials over air conditioning violation
A federal judge was visibly frustrated Friday as he suggested that putting state officials in uncooled cells might be the only way to get their attention after they broke a settlement agreement to keep some inmates in air conditioning.USA: justice for all: how Camp Grace strives to make prison safer
For an NBC News series shedding light on the nation’s criminal justice system, TODAY’s Craig Melvin travels to California’s Salinas Valley State Prison to learn about its Camp Grace program. The wives of two incarcerated men say the summer camp is offering inmates a chance at redemption.USA: we must abolish prisons to rebuild communities fractured by mass incarceration
It is sometimes said that we can’t be what we cannot see, so are we able to imagine a world without jails and prisons? The U.S. is the world’s leader in incarceration. But how and where would we even begin to dismantle this enormous so-called prison-industrial complex, and what are the real solutio…USA: New York plan to close notorious prison clears hurdle
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French
USA: let’s fight for freedom from electronic monitors and e-carceration
I spent a whole year on that monitor, devoting a lot of that e-confinement time to considering the meaning of freedom. People kept asking me, “Well it’s better than prison, isn’t it?” I laughed and told them that that was the wrong question.