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.
“This isn’t the first time Trump has tried to axe the prison. And this won’t be the first time his administration finds itself tangling with Rep. Hal Rogers either. The Kentucky Republican (pictured) has pushed for the Letcher County lockup since 2005. And he knows how to get a federal prison built in his district. He already has three.“
Real Clear Politics
March 9, 2019
Read More“Now that prison populations are leveling off or falling, corrections officials are revisiting the podular model, which comes in many variations. The basic element is a suite holding from about 16 to 40 inmates, who can be surveilled by a single corrections officer. Meals are brought to inmates in the pod, which ideally has outside views and includes a day room, toilets, showers, and counseling and medical-exam rooms all within the locked perimeter.“
Architectural Record
March 4, 2019
Read More“The MASS report for Vera charts the evolution of carceral typologies, develops a framework for evaluating the current landscape of prisons, and culminates with a vision for a “reimagined system” in which the mission and objectives of the current model are shifted from a retributive, punitive, and sequestering approach to a restorative and therapeutic one—one which many experts believe could greatly reduce the high recidivism rate and help former inmates succeed in reentering their communities.“
Architectural Record
March 4, 2019
Read More“Colorado lawmakers on Friday listened as state officials offered proposals and previewed bills that would tackle criminal justice reforms, including alleviating the state’s packed prison system and whether to reopen a $200 million empty building.“
Denver Post
February 22, 2019
Read More“But advocates and lawmakers say the system has failed. Attitudes about criminal justice shifted soon after the system was put in place. The state began using the jails as way stations for inmates convicted of more serious crimes on their way to state prisons. Few rehabilitative services were made available in state jails, and the low-level offenders who went to the facilities have been rearrested at a higher rate than the general prison population.“
Texas Tribune
February 14, 2019
Read More“Alabama legislators today put a temporary hold on the Alabama Department of Corrections' plans to pay a company $10 million to design new prisons and analyze the system’s needs in preparation for the possible construction of three prisons. The Legislature’s contract review committee can hold contracts for up to 45 days but cannot stop them.“
Birmingham News
December 13, 2018
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
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