Even if an inmate's sentence is not oppressively long, their treatment while incarcerated can still constitute subhuman treatment. Prisons are not medical facilities, but they regularly are forced to deal with mental health problems and care for elderly and terminally ill inmates. Food, if it's even edible, usually lacks enough nutrition for inmates' health to not deteriorate. Plus, with a lack of opportunities to see family, read, or gain skill sets, inmates are placed in buildings which lack any resemblance of the civilized world.
“Wright said the banning of Prison Legal News is another way some penal institutions try to prevent inmates from knowing their rights. Under Silver’s directive, the state of Arizona and its corrections department can no longer violate prisoners’ First Amendment rights, which include the right to read — something that also impacts non-incarcerated people once prisoners are released, Fathi said.“
Washington Post
November 12, 2019
Read More“Today, however, the jail complex — the second-largest in the United States — is nearly synonymous with the tolls of mass incarceration and its disproportionate effects on blacks and Hispanics. Thousands of inmates have been held there for years on end as they await trial, critics say, in facilities that have been rife with abuse, violence and mismanagement for decades. Now, Rikers will probably be closed for nearly the same reason it was opened.“
Washington Post
October 18, 2019
Read More“When we talk about solitary confinement, the common assumption is that prisons use it to control the worst of the worst, men and women who committed such horrific crimes that they will probably never walk out of those facilities. The letters from this inmate show that is not the case. They show that what happens behind those barbed-wired fences will be carried outside of them on the backs of those who are released.“
Washington Post
May 30, 2019
Read More“What were intended as spinoffs of the viral #FeelingCuteChallenge have since sparked outrage this week as many argued the posts made light of serious issues surrounding the treatment of inmates. At least four state corrections departments have launched investigations into employees accused of taking part in the challenge.“
Washington Post
April 18, 2019
Read More“The recommendation to build a new jail, however, is a shortsighted proposal that fails to address a more enduring problem: D.C.’s legacy of over-policing, over-incarcerating and dehumanizing its most vulnerable community members.“
Washington Post
March 22, 2019
Read More“Prisons often occupy the “geography of nowhere.” They are found in unpopulated areas, far away from cities, so that both the facilities and the people they hold are invisible to most of the general public. We often hear talk of “removing” criminals from society; the location of prisons makes that rhetoric a reality.“
Washington Post
February 6, 2019
Read More“One prisoner was not seen by a doctor after collapsing and complaining of shortness of breath; she died that day of heart failure. A second woman’s rapid weight gain and severe chest pain were ignored until her heart also failed. For a third, it was sudden weight loss, wheezing and back pain; she was found dead during her dialysis, after a nurse left her unattended. A fourth died at a hospital; her neurological disorder went undiagnosed until she had a stroke.“
Washington Post
January 4, 2019
Read More“However, the state’s apparent progress is marred by a lack of transparency and by troubling signs suggesting the reforms may not be all they are cracked up to be. In September, a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of an inmate at Red Onion said he had been held for more than 12 years in solitary confinement, suffers from severe and deepening mental illness, which has gone untreated, and has been unable to access less restrictive housing owing to his inability to speak English and illiteracy in Spanish, his native language.“
Washington Post
December 11, 2018
Read More"In 2016, 242 inmates were still in isolation at Red Onion and another facility, Wallens Ridge State Prison. And the ACLU’s research suggests that the spirit of reform has not permeated the state’s Department of Corrections. The advocacy group collected harrowing prisoner accounts of their time in solitary."
Washington Post
June 3, 2018
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