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.
“Felicity Rose, director of criminal justice research and policy for FWD.us, said overcapacity prisons can result in a myriad of problems. ‘That can mean that people are housed in very inhumane conditions. It can be dangerous for the people who work in those prisons, that can lead to less programming, so less opportunities for recidivism reduction,’ she said.“
Illinois Public Media
December 7, 2018
Read More“The problem of rising temperatures amplifies the most pressing issues facing U.S. prisons and jails: chronically tight budgets, aging infrastructure, and the relative invisibility of incarcerated people, a disproportionate number of whom (in Texas, about two-thirds) are black or Latino. In a country that imprisons more of its people—especially racial minorities—than any country on Earth, this will not be an easy problem to untangle. “
PBS
December 5, 2019
Read More“The suit claims the U.S. Bureau of Prisons violated the law by failing to place documents concerning the prison construction in the libraries of federal prisons around the county so prisoners could read them and comment on them. It also claims the prison site is “toxic” and would endanger prisoners, while at the same time saying construction “would permanently degrade the already vulnerable environment.“
Lexington Herald Leader
December 5, 2018
Read More“Instead he worries about cell doors that aren't wide enough for wheel chairs and hospital beds, what it would look like to build something resembling a nursing home at Guantanamo, and one detention camp that is on the verge of falling into disrepair. Addressing those issues is not possible without $69 million the military has requested from Congress for the last five years to build a new detention camp at Guantanamo and make needed repairs to medical facilities.“
NBC News
November 30, 2018
Read More“The importance of getting on is a take away message. This is far harder to achieve in large busy prisons where new prisoners arrive and leave every day. But just like community policing works best if most public interactions are friendly, a prison is a more positive place if most interactions are friendly and benign too. Where prisoners and staff share space, stories and a sense of community the chances of prisoners changing for the better are much improved.“
The Conversation
November 6, 2018
Read More“American penal policies make sense if prisoners are monsters. If not, they’re just making monsters out of their jailers. History suggests it’s the latter.“
The Crime Report
October 15, 2018
Read More“The Houston Chronicle reports the change comes after its disclosure that Texas prison inmates without teeth were routinely denied dentures. The newspaper had reported that state prison policy had said chewing isn’t a medical necessity and that inmates could eat pureed food.“
CBS 11 Dallas
October 5, 2018
Read More“Rubio is referring to a new policy by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, in which the general prison population is being reintegrated with those with sensitive needs. In other words, the general prison population will be sharing facilities with those prisoners serving time for child molestation, or those who've cooperated with law enforcement.“
ABC 7 Southern California
October 4, 2018
Read More“The national prison strike that swept headlines formally ended Sept. 9. Yet in many ways, advocates say, the work has just begun. Some prisoners are still engaging in protests, while others will face retaliation and need support. And the groups that helped organize the strike hope to use its momentum to push for lasting change.“
The Appeal
September 25, 2018
Read More“The tour came about a year after a regional heatwave turned attention to the conditions of prisoners in the facility, which did not have air conditioning. In July, more than 150 protesters gathered outside the workhouse, where temperatures inside reportedly exceeded 120F (49C), only to be dispersed by pepper spray. Three days after the protest, Mayor Lyda Krewson moved to place temporary air conditioning units in the facility.“
The Guardian
September 24, 2018
Read More“In the Texas prison system, toothless and nearly toothless inmates are routinely denied dentures and instead offered blended food — often regular cafeteria meals simply pureed. Sometimes they’re told they can’t get teeth unless they become underweight, at which point dentures might be considered a “medical necessity.” In 2016, prison medical providers approved giving out 71 dentures to a population of more than 149,000 inmates, many of whom are elderly, have a history of drug use or came from impoverished backgrounds with sub-par dental care to begin with.“
Houston Chronicle
September 23, 2018
Read More“Gov. Wolf, I urge you to visit another prison. Talk with those who have to live in these places for years and decades. Take a ride to Philadelphia, from where most of the DOC's population is drawn, and meet the families who already suffer enough and would break under any additional hardship. Meet with the legal community. Hear about the years of litigation Pennsylvania taxpayers will have to pay for because of these new, unnecessary violations of attorney-client privilege.“
Philadelphia Inquirer
September 21, 2018
Read More“‘Historically prisoners have not been part of hurricane planning,’ Mazurek said, ‘until it comes time to use them as cheap labor to help with disasters.’ The same prisoners forced to endure Florence may well be made to do unpaid labor cleaning up its damage, like prisoners in Florida after Irma.“
The Appeal
September 14, 2018
Read More“This conduct shocks the conscience; our country’s Constitution simply cannot tolerate this type of discriminatory treatment, where all free citizens evacuate to save their life, but inmates are placed in dire straits at a local jail because they are incarcerated — noting that many inmates are pretrial detainees who have merely (been) accused of a crime.“
Charlotte Observer
September 14, 2018
Read More“Today, members of Congress introduced a bill that aims to make sure what happened to Winn never happens to anyone else. Cosponsored by a majority of Democratic and Republican women in the House, the bill would ban the shackling and solitary confinement of pregnant inmates in the federal prison system. The Pregnant Women in Custody Act, introduced by Reps. Karen Bass (D–Calif.), Mia Love (R–Utah) and Catherine Clark (D–Mass.), would ban the use of restraints and restrictive housing on female inmates during pregnancy, during labor, and post-partum. It would also set standards of care for pregnant female inmates.“
Reason Magazine
September 13, 2018
Read More“Despite an evacuation order encompassing the prison’s location in Jasper County issued Monday, S.C. Department of Corrections officials decided not to remove inmates at the Ridgeland Correctional Institution as of that afternoon, SCDC spokesman Dexter Lee said in an interview with The State.“
The State
September 11, 2018
Read More“‘That’s because it was a peaceful strike,’ said Dr. Breea Willingham, a criminal justice professor at State University of New York at Plattsburgh. ‘If people were getting killed inside those prisons, people would have been all over it.’ The relative lack of attention to the strike underlined the continued indifference to widespread claims of abuse and inhumane conditions inside the nation’s prison system, observers and prison activists told The Crime Report.“
The Crime Report
September 11, 2018
Read More"Since the first day of the call to action, reports of protests and other occurrences behind bars have trickled out through videos recorded by inmates, accounts from family members, statements by prison reform activists and statements from prison officials. It’s not known how many incarcerated people took part in the boycott. The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, a labor union for prisoners, said that reports of prisoner participation have come from at least 14 states thus far."
USA Today
September 8, 2018
Read More"Recasting mass incarceration as “prison slavery” — usually by way of the Thirteenth Amendment — is perhaps the growing movement’s most innovative intervention. This terminology speaks to the various deprivations experienced behind bars, the movement’s base in states throughout the former Confederacy, and its long-term objective of prison abolition."
Jacobin Magazine
September 2, 2018
Read More"Some prisoners in Ohio have come to expect retaliation. The Appeal spoke by phone with a man in a minimum-security Ohio prison who asked to be identified only by his nickname, “Fridge.” 'Intimidation, threats all of that is coming down the pipe, without a doubt, for even discussing [the strike],' he explained."
The Appeal
August 31, 2018
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