Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

January 15, 2018

US: a cruel profit, exploiting the vulnerable in Charlotte

News

United States

What if corporations and law enforcement officials got together and conspired on how to exploit poor people for profit. Would you be surprised?

January 14, 2018

USA: Florida prisoners prepare to strike, demanding an end to unpaid labor and brutal conditions

News

United States

Florida prisoners are calling for a general strike to start this week — marking the third mass action over the course of a year in protest of inhumane conditions in the state’s detention facilities. Detainees in at least eight prisons have declared their intention to stop all work on Monday — Marti…

January 12, 2018

USA: New York cancels private prison care packages program

News

Facilities United States

New York corrections officials said Friday they have suspended a program that forced families and friends to send care packages to prisoners only through select private vendors, amid an uproar that the move raised costs and limited choices.

January 10, 2018

USA: Alabama sheriffs filled their wallets by starving prisoners

News

Violence United States

Alabama law lets sheriffs keep whatever doesn’t get spent on food from their jail food funds. Now 49 of those sheriffs are refusing to disclose how much of that money made it to detainees’ plates, and how much landed in their own pockets.

January 3, 2018

US: Can New York shut down its most notorious jail?

News

United States

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has vowed to close Rikers Island, the city’s infamous jail. Critics worry it won’t happen. But he just gave them reason to hope.

January 1, 2018

USA: the wall of love outside a jail

News

Topic United States

The signs are clustered at one end of the low-slung warehouse that faces the detention center, on 29th Street. There is no formal system behind the effort, no Facebook group.

December 27, 2017

Prison food is making U.S. inmates disproportionately sick

News

Health Material conditions United States

Lapses in food safety have made U.S. prisoners six times more likely to get a foodborne illness than the general population.

December 27, 2017

USA: climate change meets mass incarceration: California's incarcerated firefighters

News

United States

The intersection of climate change and mass incarceration is not unique to California, but as the state experiences its deadliest and most destructive year on record for wildfires – including the second-largest in the its history – the state’s incarcerated firefighter Conservation Camp program has…

December 26, 2017

USA: Idaho inmate says he had to swallow razor blade to get proper medical care in prison

News

Health United States

A man whose leg got so infected that it required amputation is suing Idaho’s prison health care contractor, Corizon Health, for alleged failure to provide medical care. Gary L. Merchant, 65, says in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that it wasn’t until he swallowed a razor blade that the prison’s medical st…

December 20, 2017

United States of America: prison shakedown

Testimonial

United States

“Inmates! On the floor!” 6.45am, a prison shakedown occurs. Kenneth Key, imprisoned in the USA, shares his story.

December 16, 2017

US: rethinking Rikers

News

United States

New York City is trying to radically overhaul the Rikers Island. Chicago’s Cook County Jail could serve as a model. Take a look inside both jails in 360 video.

December 9, 2017

The end of American prison visits: jails end face-to-face contact – and families suffer

News

Justice Social ties United States

It’s been described as ‘Skype for the jailed’ and is being sold as safer and more convenient. But it begs the question: are in-person visits a human right?

December 1, 2017

Turkey: elderly prisoner gets 11 days in solitary for expressing hope for release

News

Europe Middle East Discipline Justice United States

Ali Osman Karahan, an 87-year-old Turkish man who has been in an Isparta prison for almost 15 months over alleged links to the Gülen movement, was given 11 days of solitary confinement.

November 29, 2017

USA: working their way home from prison

News

United States

Brian L. Frank photographs young men in a California prison camp and on their journeys to freedom.

November 28, 2017

USA: reaching inside the jails to break the cycle of homeless arrests

News

Health United States

Reaching inside the jails to break the cycle of homeless arrests

November 27, 2017

Etats-Unis : voici les œuvres d'art des détenus de Guantánamo, dont ils sont maintenant privés

News

Culture United States

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

November 24, 2017

USA: in prison, women are nine times more likely to be HIV-positive

News

Women Health United States

The disparity between infection rates in incarcerated and non-incarcerated women highlights the deeply unequal state of our criminal-justice system.

November 9, 2017

USA: the unique sexual harassment problem female prison workers face

News

Women United States

When women report abuse from the men in their custody : “ One male captain made her so uncomfortable she avoided him. But the worst abuse came from inmates“

November 8, 2017

USA: Frackville prison’s systemic water crisis

News

Material conditions United States

On September 19, 21, 24 and 27, 2017, we prisoners at Pennsylvania’s SCI-Frackville facility experienced four incidences with respect to the crisis of drinking toxic water.

November 8, 2017

USA: updates on resisting the BOP’s toxic prison in Letcher county

News

United States

Last week, on September 29, 2017, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons BOP closed the public comment period on it’s “Final Supplemental Revised Environmental Impacts Statement.”

November 8, 2017

USA: hunger strikes breaking out in jails and detention centers

News

United States

In the last week, we’ve seen a successful hunger strike take place at a detention facility in Northern Oregon, and another pop off at a prison in Indiana.

October 25, 2017

États-Unis : le gouvernement Trump veut empêcher une mineure sans-papier d'avorter en détention

News

United States

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

October 24, 2017

Estados Unidos : video revela abusos en cárceles de inmigración

News

United States

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the Spanish version.

October 22, 2017

USA: "You're Still in Jail"

News

United States

How Electronic Monitoring Is a Shackle on the Movement for Decarceration.