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.
“Ellis had stepped into the G Gate “guard shack,” a room the size of a closet, and not even two minutes later, he saw the same prisoner, now with a shirt on, but standing outside the door looking in, pointing a sword toward Ellis’s chest. “Stay in the shack,” the prisoner said, but then cut his eyes toward another officer who had just arrived on the scene. That’s when Ellis stepped out and sprayed the prisoner with pepper spray and he took off running.“
WBRC Birmingham
April 8, 2019
Read More“A federal court this week sided with an inmate who sued the Texas prison system to get a cotton blanket after repeatedly telling officials he was allergic to the standard-issue bedding, which he alleged is made of "recycled waste" that caused him to have open sores.“
Houston Chronicle
April 4, 2019
Read More“There can be no more shocking illustration of those dynamics than these photos. They were taken inside St. Clair Correctional Facility, a state prison in Springville, AL, that has long been infamous for violence and despair. There have reportedly been four homicides inside St. Clair in the past six months. In 2003, the SPLC sued St. Clair for having dangerously inadequate health care. Multiple incidents of violence at the prison are cited in this week’s scathing new Justice Department report, including knife fights, stabbings, beatings, and murders of inmates by stabbing and strangling.“
Splinter News
April 5, 2019
Read More“Alabama is not alone in having troubled, violent prisons. But the state has one of the country’s highest incarceration rates and its correctional system is notoriously antiquated, dangerous and short-staffed. The major prisons are at 182 percent of their capacity, the report found, contraband is rampant and prisoners sleep in dorms they are not assigned to in order to escape violence.“
New York Times
April 3, 2019
Read More“DOC spokesman Jim Lockwood quickly made assurances that prison officials would not force prisoners to work without compensation. Ultimately, the DOC replaced prisoner wages with a point system. At the end of each month, a prisoner’s accumulated points are converted into a monetary amount ranging between $8 and $77 for most prison jobs. Prisoners can earn more working for OCE, which pays an average of $158 per month, according to the agency. That is equivalent to around $1.25 per hour rather than the maximum $0.61 per hour for non-OCE prison jobs.“
Prison Legal News
April 2, 2019
Read More“With a sigh, Johnny Perez rises from his plastic chair, unfolds his lanky frame and extends his wingspan until the tips of his middle fingers graze the walls. “It was from here to here,” he says. “I know because I used to do this all the time.” Until recently, these measurements—10 feet by 6 feet—fit his entire life.“
April 1, 2019
Read More“They did some digging on the DOC website last Friday and found a memo that had been posted over two weeks ago. The memo implies that "used publications" are a security risk and that the DOC is "moving away from allowing used publications to enter our correction facilities." The exceptions are books accepted by the Washington State Library, or, for incarcerated students, books approved through their school's official bookstore.“
The Stranger
April 1, 2019
Read More“Although millions are imprisoned behind the drab concrete walls and cold steel bars of your stereotypical detention facility, an ever-growing number—estimated as high as 200,000—are instead being clamped with the trendiest weapon of the U.S. prison industrial complex: electronic monitoring.“
History News Network
March 31, 2019
Read More“Between January 2011 and May 2018, 675 elder New Yorkers and more than 1,000 people of all ages have died in a New York state prison. Over the last 20 years, the number of incarcerated older New Yorkers has more than doubled, from 4,706 to greater than 10,000. Yet the state's overall prison population has fallen by 30 percent.“
Albany Times Union
March 30, 2019
Read More“My ambition is for News Inside to be distributed throughout all 50 states; we are fundraising to expand the program. Over the years I watched many friends go home. I always felt a surge of jealousy, followed by a wave of guilt, accompanied by a hope that the departing friends would not forget me. Maybe they would send a letter, photos, food packages or something to make us smile, to show they cared. Now that I have been released, News Inside is my way of not forgetting.“
The Marshall Project
March 28, 2019
Read More“But in jail, the cost of a phone call is set by the county sheriff. Nationwide, the cost of a 15-minute in-state phone call from jail varies widely. In some places, it can cost more than $1 per minute.“
WOSU Public Media
March 27, 2019
Read More“The recommendation to build a new jail, however, is a shortsighted proposal that fails to address a more enduring problem: D.C.’s legacy of over-policing, over-incarcerating and dehumanizing its most vulnerable community members.“
Washington Post
March 22, 2019
Read More“The bill stems from an incident in the Columbia County Jail in 2017, which was caught on video and received media coverage. An inmate was mauled by a dog in his cell for failing to come out. The 48-year-old was awarded $251,000 in a lawsuit settlement late last year. Since that time, the jail voluntarily stopped using dogs for this purpose.“
KTVZ Oregon
March 21, 2019
Read More“According to the release, current policies mean some jails provide limited menstrual hygiene products to inmates. Herod’s bill would require all jails, multi-jurisdictional jails and municipal jails to provide them to people at no expense, according to the release.“
Denverite
March 20, 2019
Read More“Education is not only empowering for the individual, but it is also contagious. I have witnessed how education can indirectly influence the college trajectory of sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and even parents of incarcerated students. My incarcerated college students often tell stories about the conversations they have in the visiting room with their family about the books they are reading and the lessons they are learning in the classroom. Their education journey has inspired family members to start, or continue, their own journeys of education.“
The Conversation
March 18, 2019
Read More“The argument for using solitary is that it is one of the few means that corrections officials have to discipline inmates. There is a place for it, such as in isolating gang members from one another in prison. But there need to be limits on the use of solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure. The HALT Act would allow the use of what’s euphemistically called “special housing units” only for prison violations that constitute a concrete and immediate threat to safety. The governor’s plan would allow time in such units for nearly any violation. There is likely a middle ground to be found.“
Buffalo News
March 16, 2019
Read More“Evans' plight underscores the serious bind for prisoners facing life-threatening illnesses — and the real-world effects of the First Step Act, a law President Trump signed last December to lighten sentences for some drug offenders. Another part of the law gives sick or elderly inmates the chance to petition a judge for early release if the Bureau of Prisons fails to act on their petitions after 30 days.“
NPR
March 15, 2019
Read More“The "Beat the Heat" challenge, hosted by Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates, was held in support of Senate Bill 321 and House Bill 936, which would require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to maintain temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees within all Texas prison facilities. The “cell,” made out of plywood and heated with lamps and a generator, hovered at a little over 90 degrees on Tuesday. Robert Lilly, who was formerly incarcerated at Texas’ Wallace Unit in Colorado City and now works for Texas Advocates for Justice, said the temperatures inside the mock cell were nowhere near what he faced in prison during the summer months.“
My San Antonio
March 12, 2019
Read More“Alabama is facing important questions as an intensifying prison crisis continues to claim lives. Each day there is unrelenting violence. How to spend millions of dollars is being debated and it is important to know more about the Alabama prison crisis, its causes, and potential solutions.“
Equal Justice Initiative
March 11, 2019
Read More“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
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