Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

October 18, 2017

USA: a long decline in executions takes a detour

News

Death penalty United States

Recent court rulings and start-stop access to lethal drugs push numbers up this year.

October 17, 2017

USA: federal prisons don’t even try to rehabilitate the undocumented

News

United States

The Bureau of Prisons fails to provide basic resources to undocumented prisoners.

October 14, 2017

Etats-Unis : un homme condamné par erreur a été libéré après 23 ans en prison

News

United States

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

October 14, 2017

USA: California inmates help battle raging wildfires

News

United States

Prisoners from the McCain inmate crew from San Diego clear brush from a road this week in Calistoga, California.

October 10, 2017

USA : violence and humiliation in Alaska

News

Torture Violence United States

On September 19, 2017, the Office of the Ombudsman of Alaska (United States) released a report on a complaint filed about a 2013 incident.

September 27, 2017

USA: House Dem introduces bill to incentivize states to reduce prison populations

News

North America United States

A House Democrat has introduced a criminal justice reform bill in the House would create 20$ billion to incentivize states to reduce the nation’s mass incarceration.

September 26, 2017

USA: ICE violates own policy by locking up pregnant women, complaint alleges

News

Women United States

Lawyers in South Texas say they noticed the change about two months ago: More pregnant women were being held for weeks in detention centers run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

September 20, 2017

USA: after hurricane Irma, as keys recover, inmates moved to Palm Beach

News

United States

More than 460 of those evacuees were inmates from the Monroe County Detention Center on Stock Island, the first island north of Key West. Those inmates, as well as dozens of jail staff, rode out the storm at the Palm Beach County Jail.

September 20, 2017

USA: prison isn’t the solution for mentally ill criminals

News

Mental health United States

On Monday, I was in a criminal courtroom at the Prince George’s County District Court for a journalism assignment Monday. In front of me stood a balding man in a casual black top.

September 20, 2017

USA: inmate sues Kansas prison for "imposing christian propaganda"

News

Religion United States

Shari Webber-Dunn, an inmate serving a murder charge in Kansas, said her First Amendment rights were violated by “Christian propaganda” imposed by the all-female prison.

September 20, 2017

USA: why Oklahoma’s female incarceration is so high

News

Women United States

Robyn Allen saw her daughter for the first time in two years from across the yard of Oklahoma’s largest women’s prison, the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center.

September 19, 2017

USA: at Lake Placid, a hint of freedom

Testimonial

United States

Tewhan writes about Anne-Valérie’s visit…

September 14, 2017

USA: I can’t visit my sons in prison because I have unpaid traffic tickets

News

United States

A mother with debts — and cancer — wonders if she’ll ever see her incarcerated children again.

September 9, 2017

USA: is there a constitutional right to cash in on the Poor?

News

United States

They elect local judges in Craighead County, Arkansas, and two men decided two years ago to run for the bench there with a clear mission statement: if elected they would rein in a private probation company called The Justice Network and the local judge and prosecutor they said had countenanced its…

September 9, 2017

USA: trapped in Irma’s path

News

United States

As Florida state and local officials urge South Florida residents to evacuate before Hurricane Irma makes landfall there Sunday morning, nearly 4,500 inmates inside facilities in evacuation zones have not been moved.

September 8, 2017

USA: weathering a hurricane in prison

News

United States

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have prompted mass evacuations in Texas and Florida. But many Americans have been unable to flee, including huge numbers of prison inmates. The two states together are home to a quarter million incarcerated people. Texas has the largest prison population in the country, a…

September 6, 2017

USA : hurricane Harvey, forgotten prisoners

News

United States

Natural disasters don’t stop at prison doors. Since August 27 , Hurricane Harvey has affected the Houston region (Texas, USA). Torrential rain has struck within a radius of 320 kilometers. Nearly 6,000 prisoners from five penal institutions have been evacuated due to the threatening flood of Brazos…

August 29, 2017

Les jurés américains rejettent de plus en plus la peine de mort

News

Death penalty Violence United States

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

August 29, 2017

USA: at Guantánamo, men accused in 9/11 attacks faced their 24th round of pretrial hearings

News

United States

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his nephew Ammar al-Baluchi donned new Baluchi hats last week for the 24th round of pretrial hearings in the military commission case against the five men accused in the 9/11 attacks.

August 29, 2017

USA: why so few violent offenders are let out on parole

News

Violence United States

In recent years, national discussions of criminal-justice reform have largely revolved around non-violent drug-related convictions—as illustrated by the hundreds of federal inmates that Barack Obama granted clemency to at the end of his second term.

August 28, 2017

USA: two more state prisons face evacuation due to Hurricane Harvey flooding

News

United States

Two additional state prisons were facing evacuation late Monday as flooding from Harvey continued to escalate the high-water emergency southwest of Houston. Texas Department of Justice officials said rising floodwaters from the Brazos River were likely to force the relocation of an estimated 1,400…

August 26, 2017

USA: thousands of Texas inmates evacuated from prisons ahead of floods

News

United States

Thousands of inmates were being evacuated on Saturday from three prison facilities in Rosharon, Tex., as the Brazos River there continued to rise under heavy rains from Tropical Storm Harvey.

August 24, 2017

USA: transgender prison guard says colleagues call her a freak

News

LGBTQI United States

It didn’t take long for Meghan Frederick to feel the harassment she feared would come when she told her fellow correctional officers at a Sacramento prison that she identified as a transgender woman.

August 17, 2017

USA: the secret, dangerous world of private prisons

News

United States

GEO and other leading for-profit prison corporations have been plagued by health and safety issues for years, with prisoner and staff complaints and wrongful-death lawsuits piling up like mounds of unopened jail mail.