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.
"More than 40 inmates in jails and prisons in the Washington, D.C. area have died by suicide in custody since 2014, according to an investigation by the News4 I-Team. Records obtained from correctional agencies in D.C., Virginia and Maryland under the Freedom of Information Act show 400 other inmates attempted suicide since 2014, many of whom were saved by correctional officers and jail staff."
NBC Washington
July 24, 2018
Read More"The suit was filed in June 2017 by the family of Henry Clay Stewart, an inmate who died Aug. 6, 2016, because of internal bleeding from a perforated stomach ulcer. Inmates at the Portsmouth facility said that on Aug. 5, 2016, or the day after, Stewart 'appeared not to be breathing and was foaming at the mouth,' according to the lawsuit. The suit alleged that correctional officers and medical staff provided Stewart with inadequate and delayed care in response."
Richmond Times-Dispatch
July 24, 2018
Read More"State prison officials are in emergency-response mode this week as a heat wave bears down on a large swath of Texas, rivaling the system that triggered the deaths of 10 inmates from heat stroke in 2011."
Houston Chronicle
July 22, 2018
Read More"In order to change this culture, we need to take action. We need to advocate for sweeping changes to practices within the jail, and we need to hold the Sheriff’s Office accountable for implementing those changes. We need to stand up to the culture of negligence that allowed seven people housed in a county facility to die in 18 months."
Milwaukee Courier
July 14, 2018
Read More"If the deaths are confirmed as suicides, they will bring the tally over the last 12 months to to 21. By comparison, there were just eight inmate suicides in the state during the previous 12-month period. Sarah Geraghty, managing attorney for the Southern Center for Human Rights, attributes the rising number of inmate suicides to Georgia’s increased use of strict isolation."
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
June 27, 2018
Read More"Florida is currently on track to outpace its 2017 record for most prison deaths at 428, with 97,794 prisoners in the state system. As of June 2018, 216 people have died in Florida prisons. In 2015, the Miami Herald chronicled a steep rise in prison deaths since 2000, and since then the numbers have continued to climb. "
The Appeal
June 25, 2018
Read More"In many situations, closest relatives are informed of loved ones’ deaths through voicemails, text messages and letters, according to advocates and families of incarcerated people. It can take days or weeks for them to find out. Families say the way they were notified ends up being the searing, specific detail that pains them long after their loved one is buried."
The Marshall Project
June 21, 2018
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