Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

June 18, 2019

United States: prisons ban dozens of technology and programming books over security concerns

News

North America United States

Oregon’s Department of Corrections has banned dozens of introductory technology and coding books from state prisons over security concerns.

June 13, 2019

United States: 300 inmates in Texas' Harris County jail are quarantined over a mumps outbreak

News

North America United States

A mumps outbreak at the Harris County jail in Houston has forced staff to isolate 14 symptomatic people and quarantine a few hundred other inmates, officials said Thursday.

June 12, 2019

United States: San Francisco announces plan to stop charging jail inmates for phone calls

News

North America Social ties United States

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Sheriff Vicki Hennessy on Wednesday announced plans to stop charging inmates to make phone calls from jail and to eliminate the county’s markups on items sold at the jail commissary.

June 11, 2019

United States: after a transgender woman’s death at Rikers, calls for justice and answers

News

North America LGBTQI United States

In April, Layleen Polanco, a transgender woman, was arrested on misdemeanor assault charges and sent to the Rikers Island jail complex because she could not afford to pay a $500 bail. Nearly two months later, she was found dead in her cell.

June 10, 2019

Time — 1/12

Inside Outside

North America South America Women Asia Europe Long-term prisoners

Each month, the photographer Bertrand Gaudillère creates an image or chooses one from his archives. Prison Insider sends it to a dozen participants, prisoners around the world. They are in Argentina, in the United States of America, in France, in Switzerland, in Guatemala, in Ukraine, in Colombia…

June 9, 2019

Canada: un premier centre d'injection supervisée dans une prison canadienne

News

North America Drugs Canada

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

June 6, 2019

United States: what it’s like to spend half a life in solitary confinement?

News

North America Discipline United States

Tony Medina has spent two decades in a concrete box in Texas, alone.

June 6, 2019

United States: district of Columbia could restore voting rights to felons in prison

News

North America United States

The nation’s capital is set to consider legislation that would let people with felony convictions vote while in prison.

June 3, 2019

United States: how secret languages thrive behind bars?

News

North America United States

On a now-private Facebook page, a prison guard in Texas casually joked last month about wanting to “gas” prisoners (throw urine or feces at them). Others in Georgia and Missouri posted about putting inmates in “the box” or “the hole” (slang for sending them to disciplinary confinement).

June 3, 2019

United States: the latest YouTube craze, videos that show you what it’s like to live in prison

News

North America United States

Prison channels on YouTube have more than 2.1 million subscribers.

May 27, 2019

United States: commissioner says Alabama prison system culture must change

News

North America United States

Much has been reported about the scarcity of staff, overcrowding, and crumbling physical conditions in Alabama’s prisons.

May 27, 2019

USA: a San Quentin prison culinary program and its restaurant-ready inmates

News

North America United States

The scent of brown butter and toasted pine nuts wafts from the H Unit kitchen of the oldest prison in California, where eight inmates are learning to make gnocchi. Outside, the building is surrounded by guards and razor wire. But inside save for the knives chained to the work stations this could be…

May 26, 2019

United States: why are so many people dying in US prisons and jails?

News

North America United States

The number of Americans dying while incarcerated has surged while the US prison population has increased by 500% over the last 40 years.

May 25, 2019

United States: it looks like any other graduation except these graduates earned their degrees in prison

News

North America United States

There was pomp and circumstance. There were caps and gowns. Proud family members sat in the audience.

May 23, 2019

United States: Florida pushes back in prison hepatitis legal battle

News

North America United States

Last month, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker expanded the number of inmates ordered to receive potentially expensive care, following up on a previous order that mandated the state properly treat inmates with the virus.

May 21, 2019

United States: miscarriages, a baby born in a cell, inadequate services for disabilities

News

North America United States

Women miscarrying due to a lack of proper health care, a woman giving birth alone in a cell, and deaf inmates not getting interpretation services during doctor visits.

May 21, 2019

Canada: new course trains yoga instructors to teach in Canadian prisons

News

North America Canada

Hot yoga, prenatal yoga, yoga in the park: Since coming to the West, the increasingly popular practice of yoga has taken a kaleidoscopic number of forms. Now a new training course in Vancouver is helping it flourish in another arena: prisons.

May 17, 2019

United States: let prison inmates vote

News

North America United States

Should Americans caught up in the justice system be stripped of their right to vote?

May 14, 2019

United States: who's legally responsible for prison and jail suicides?

News

North America Suicide United States

Lawsuits used to be a path to prison reform, but they’re now an uphill battle for prisoners and their families.

May 13, 2019

United States: the Democratic debate over letting people in prison vote, explained

News

North America United States

Bernie Sanders sparked a debate over prisoners voting rights. But most of the public and most Democrats aren’t on board.

May 10, 2019

United States: texas Senate passes bill to end the shackling of pregnant women in prison

News

North America Women United States

The bill addresses many of the conditions of the state’s incarcerated women. It would also require the department to offer up to 10 free feminine hygiene products to women each day.

May 9, 2019

Death penalty: global trends

Analysis Report

Africa North America Asia Death penalty Violence

Reduction of 30% in the number of executions, decrease in the number of countries having recourse to the executions: human rights organisation Amnesty international publishes its 2018 report on recourse to the death penalty.

May 6, 2019

United States: "a culture of cruelty"

News

North America United States

Protesters gathered at the Arizona Capitol on Friday afternoon, demanding the firing of Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan, and saying that the state’s prison system has a “culture of cruelty.”

May 3, 2019

United States: penalties make life after prison difficult in Tennessee

News

North America United States

With each criminal conviction, the state of Tennessee matter of factly tells the defendants how long they will spend behind bars. Hidden from view, in the fine print, is a long list of additional penalties attached to these convictions.