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.
"Earn Your Way Out will reduce New Jersey's prison population, saving tax dollars and savings lives, by giving inmates meaningful purpose in their lives -- for themselves, their families and their communities. Ending abuse of solitary confinement will make peaceful re-entry to society more likely."
New Jersey Star-Ledger
July 2, 2018
Read More"Meanwhile, there is no constitutional rule about how long a defendant can wait before the initial court appearance that triggers this right to counsel.....They can wait even longer to see their attorneys. The lengthy uncounseled detentions of presumptively innocent people mimic the police "disappearances" so common under authoritarian regimes. Our country has failed to honor its promise of a right to counsel. The breach of this promise has staggering implications."
Dallas Morning News
July 1, 2018
Read More"In the two months following an April 15, 2018 riot at the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, South Carolina that left seven prisoners dead and at least 22 injured, the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) has renewed its push to get the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve jamming contraband cell phones in prisons and jails. Additionally, several prisoners who were wounded during the riot have filed lawsuits alleging that staff at the facility failed to protect them from foreseeable violence."
Prison Legal News
July 1, 2018
Read More"Even before their incarceration, prisoners are likely to have unmet dental needs, research shows. While in prison, they have a constitutional right to dental care, but the courts have offered little guidance on the services that institutions must provide."
The Marshall Project
June 28, 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"Improvements in medical care, longer jail terms because of stricter sentencing guidelines and an increase in the number of older adults being sent to prison have had a significant effect on the U.S. prison population: The average age of inmates is rising."
Washington Post
June 27, 2018
Read More"Despite the incredible success rates among older people safely released from prison, we continue to annually spend approximately $16 billion to incarcerate this population. The financial impact will increase substantially with population projections for elderly incarcerated people to hit 400,000 by 2030. We have barely touched the surface of the potential savings that could be reinvested by safely returning older incarcerated individuals to the community."
The Crime Report
June 26, 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"Before these people died in 2017, they were among the 34,000 people housed in Arizona’s state prisons who are completely dependent upon the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) and its for-profit contractor, Corizon Health, for all medical and mental health care. ADC, in its own reviews, found that these deaths were 'caused by or affected in a negative manner by healthcare personnel'."
ACLU
June 25, 2018
Read More"Four suicides may sound like a small number for a prison system that houses about 21,000 inmates. But if the trend continues for the remainder of 2018, the inmate suicide rate in Alabama’s prisons will be about 40 suicides per 100,000 inmates this year, ten times higher than the rate the DOC reported four years ago."
The Crime Report
June 22, 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
Read More"He said he witnessed sewage leaking from toilets and that the jail’s kitchen reeked of the stench of mold buildup. Prisoners had to take their food back to their dorms. One prisoner yelled he had been bitten by a rodent, lifting his pant leg to reveal a gaping hole."
The Appeal
June 18, 2018
Read More"In recent years, death row inmates were just as likely to die awaiting execution as they were to be executed. Last year, 24 death row inmates across the country died in prison awaiting execution, mostly due to natural causes, while 23 inmates were executed."
Reuters
June 18, 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
Read More"There is some evidence that the program helps people stay out of emergency rooms and hospitals: A study in the American Journal of Public Health of 200 chronically ill former inmates in San Francisco, half assigned to a Transitions clinic and half to a primary care program, found that the Transitions patients’ use of emergency rooms was 50 percent lower."
New York Times
May 29, 2018
Read More"Working with Workforce Solutions Alamo to determine local employer market needs, the Alamo Colleges have developed new classes. Some of the class offerings now include national certification in manufacturing quality and safety, Express-News education writer Alia Malik reported recently. Over the last four years, nearly 3,000 inmates have taken at least one of the vocational classes offered by the Alamo Colleges District."
San Antonio Express-News
May 14, 2018
Read More"Since the 1980s, the increase in restrictive housing has mirrored the exponential rise of incarceration. Originally intended to manage people who committed violence within jails and prisons, restrictive housing has become a common tool for responding to all levels of rule violations, from minor to serious; managing challenging populations; and housing people considered vulnerable. In short, just as systems have come to rely too heavily on incarceration, departments of corrections now rely too much on restrictive housing."
Vera Institute
May 1, 2018
Read More"The devastating and lasting psychiatric effects of solitary confinement have been extensively documented. Solitary confinement is harmful to the mental health of inmates because it restricts social contact, which is a psychological stimulus that humans require to remain healthy and functioning. Prolonged isolation causes anxiety, panic, hallucinations, paranoia, insomnia, aggression, depression, and an increased risk of suicide, especially for people with pre-existing mental health conditions."
The Appeal
February 13, 2018
Read More"Inmates in state prisons can’t be held in solitary confinement for more than 15 days, the Colorado Department of Corrections announced on Thursday in the latest effort to overhaul a practice criticized as “torture” by the agency’s chief. The changes also require that inmates who are held in solitary confinement at the discretion of prison officials get at least four hours per day outside a cell for recreation or group classes."
Denver Post
October 12, 2017
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