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 inmates died in North Carolina’s jails in 2018 than any other year since the state began tracking deaths in 1997. Forty-four inmates died behind bars or at a medical facility after becoming ill in the jail last year. That’s four more than the previous high in 2015. But over the past five years, jail deaths have trended upward despite more public awareness.“
Greensboro News & Record
February 17, 2019
Read More“Prisoners like Derrick, who has served 20 years of a 22-year sentence at Holman and wishes to withhold his last name for safety reasons, claim that corrections officers knowingly ‘put certain people close to each other that have a history of violence toward one another, which leads to more blood spilled. If they wanted the violence to stop, they wouldn’t keep doing this.’ The reason, according to Derrick and prison justice groups, is that the state, pointing to overcrowding and minimal staffing, wants to justify building more maximum security prisons, a move that would only exacerbate the current crisis.“
Think Progress
January 15, 2019
Read More“Despite the redactions, the report makes clear the corrections department has far understated just how dire the staffing shortage is behind the prison walls. While the department has said that 1 in 4 correctional officer jobs are vacant, the report shows the state would have to double the current staff to more than 4,000 to meet industry standards.“
Charleston Post and Courier
January 12, 2019
Read More“Reform rarely happens without accountability, yet accountability for jail deaths is rare. When it does happen, it’s the result of a lawsuit, local government investigation or — rarest of all — a federal investigation. Two jails are going through that process now.“
The Virginian-Pilot
December 13, 2018
Read More“All told, the board concluded that the deaths of approximately 50 prisoners statewide over the past five years could have been prevented with simple medical treatment. Officials with the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision say that even one such case is unacceptable, but that only around 0.02% of the total prison population of nearly 50,000 are referenced in the reports.“
NY Daily News
November 12, 2018
Read More“Hempstead is far from unique in complaining about the brutalities and indignities of the Florida prison system from an inmate’s perspective. But he is one of the few to have the focus and dedication to write a more than 400-page book cataloging everything he saw and experienced. He calls it: ‘Department of Corruption: Darren Rainey, the Untold Story’.“
Miami Herald
November 1, 2018
Read More“In Santa Clara County, incarcerated people, and a former undersheriff challenging six-term sheriff Laurie Smith, have turned conditions of confinement into a potent electoral issue.“
The Appeal
October 29, 2018
Read More“He said he will set personal bonds, meaning people who walk into his courtroom will be allowed to leave without posting bonds. He said he's going to reach out to the court's administrative judge, Michelle Earley, and try and set up a meeting with jail officials to figure out why so many inmates are dying.“
Cleveland Plain Dealer
October 3, 2018
Read More“The prison has lost one of those role models who are part of their most stable, productive and helpful population: lifers, or those sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Lifers and their positive, stabilizing role in the prisons where they are confined have long been studied by academia.“
Juvenile Justice Information Exchange
September 26, 2018
Read More"His death was announced through a statement that appeared on the department’s website Wednesday, but was not distributed to media outlets. The manner and cause of death are pending an autopsy, according to the statement."
Mississippi Today
August 30, 2018
Read More"Gov. Phil Bryant said Tuesday that multiple state and federal agencies are working together to investigate the numerous MDOC inmate deaths this month. He added officials are 'going to do everything that we can to find out what is going on with each and every one of them. They're just as important as anyone else in the state of Mississippi whose lives have been lost'."
Clarion Ledger
August 29, 2018
Read More"The Virginian-Pilot tracked the cases of 404 people with mental illness who have died in America’s jails since 2010. The total number is likely much larger, but it's untraceable – what little information the federal government keeps on jail deaths does not accurately track the mental health of inmates."
The Virginian Pilot
August 23, 2018
Read More"The ages of the seven deceased inmates range from 29 to 78. Three were housed at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution, two were at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility and two were at Parchman. Four of the deceased were black and three were white. The manner and cause of death has not been made public in any of the seven deaths."
Mississippi Clarion Ledger
August 20, 2018
Read More"Inmates were confined to their cells for four days after the corrections officer was killed, with the exception of emergency medical needs, she said. Inmates are being allowed to shower every other day, up from one shower every three days earlier in the lockdown."
Minnesota Star Tribune
August 15, 2018
Read More"'I’m not saying jails should be overly comfortable, but they should at the very least be humane,' Franks said. 'These young men that have died are human beings, and for whatever reason we lose sight of that once someone enters the jail. They were sons and daughters, mothers and fathers. They have people who miss them. They were worth something'."
The Appeal
August 15, 2018
Read More"The group is encouraging prisoners to participate in work strikes, sit-ins, boycotts and hunger strikes from Aug. 21 until Sept. 9, according to the statement. A series of demands have been issued, including improving conditions in prisons, paying a fair wage for prison labor, providing the possibility of parole to all prisoners, allowing access to rehabilitation programs, increasing funding at state rehabilitation services and restoring voting rights to felons."
The State
August 13, 2018
Read More"Inmates with mental health issues have psychiatrists around during the day, but how many inmates are they really going to get into it with? Nobody wants extra paperwork. I had a lot of time to sit and listen on the 24-hour suicide watch."
The Marshall Project
August 9, 2018
Read More"Nationally, about five of every 100,000 prisoners are murdered and another 16 commit suicide. In Alabama the number of prison homicides is over 30 per 100,000 – six times the national average and twice that of the next-highest state – while the number of suicides has risen to 37 per 100,000, more than twice the national rate."
Prison Legal News
August 6, 2018
Read More"Nobody realized that would happen. Probably [the guard] didn’t, either. But the problem is that there’s protocol and if you say you’re not safe or you need to move they’re supposed to go in and assess the situation. And maybe that wouldn’t have happened if [the guard] did.”
Bangor Daily News
August 3, 2018
Read More"That death came even as the jail was working to drive down its suicide numbers, which were already below the national average. At the same time, the jail has worked to lower its solitary confinement population, slashing the number in half over a five-year period."
Houston Chronicle
July 25, 2018
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