Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

April 29, 2019

United States: treated like "animals", lockdown at prison over guard shortage entering 4th month

News

North America United States

Roughly 1,800 of the 3,000 inmates at the South Mississippi prison in Leaksville are locked in their cells 23 hours a day and haven’t been allowed visitors in at least three months.

April 27, 2019

United States: broken locks at Arizona prison lead to inmate's serious assault, death

News

North America United States

On June 6, 2018, inmates should have been locked in their cells in the Morey Unit at Arizona’s Lewis Prison outside Buckeye.

April 24, 2019

United States of America: prison population is shrinking

News

North America United States

In 2018, the number of prisoners hit a nine-year low. But some states are resisting the trend. The number of people in U.S. prisons fell to a nine-year low of just under 1.5 million last year, a 1.3 percent decrease, according to a report released today by the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice.

April 23, 2019

United States of America: solitary confinement worsens mental illness

News

North America Discipline Mental health United States

Prisoners who volunteered for a mental health diversion program say promises of therapy and time out of their cells weren’t fulfilled. And Texas prison officials aren’t regularly tracking success rates — even as they ask lawmakers to fund an expansion of the program.

April 20, 2019

United States of America: congress considers making college more accessible to people in prison

News

North America United States

Inmates are among the least-educated people in America. That’s despite research that shows education is one of the most effective ways to keep people from coming back to prison.

April 14, 2019

USA: can better data fix Florida’s prisons?

News

North America United States

A landmark law lets the state track people through the justice system. But that’s tougher than it sounds.

April 9, 2019

USA: California inmates detail prison conditions of maggots, mice falling in dining hall

News

North America Material conditions United States

Maggots and mice have fallen onto inmates’ dining tables at a California state prison where holes in the roof also allow rain and bird droppings to seep through and streak the walls, according to an inmate lawsuit that charges the state isn’t moving fast enough to repair deteriorating prisons.

April 6, 2019

USA: should a pregnant person ever go to prison?

News

North America United States

Siwatu-Salama Ra knew it was time to go to the hospital. As the early stages of her labor began on a day in late May 2018, officers placed handcuffs on her wrists and led her into the transport van. She arrived to the hospital and to a delivery room where, inside, armed guards would wait all day an…

April 5, 2019

USA: if prisons don’t work, what will?

News

North America United States

The Democratic presidential candidates should look at what a growing number of prosecutors are doing to end mass incarceration.

April 5, 2019

USA: America is finally being exposed to the devastating reality of prison violence

News

North America Violence United States

Recent reports show how overcrowding, understaffing, and limited resources are contributing to violence in prisons.

April 4, 2019

USA: in Alabama prison reveal horrific conditions and abuse

News

North America United States

A trove of photographs depicting brutalized and murdered prisoners in Alabama’s St. Clair Correctional Facility has thrust the treatment of our nation’s 2.3 million incarcerated people into public view. The first horror is what these people have endured in prison. The second horror is that while sh…

April 2, 2019

USA: free prison calls could finally be coming to connecticut

News

North America United States

Connecticut may soon be the first state in the nation to make calls from prison free for incarcerated people and their families, following on the heels of New York City, which became the first city to do so last year. Decades of research have shown that keeping in touch with loved ones while incarc…

March 31, 2019

USA: German-style program at a Connecticut maximum security prison emphasizes rehab for inmates

News

North America United States

Taking cues from the prison system in Germany, where the main objective is rehabilitation, a program based on therapy for 18 to 25-year-old offenders is taking shape at a prison nicknamed ‘the Rock.’

March 28, 2019

USA: Supreme court stays execution of Buddhist inmate

News

North America Religion United States

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the execution of a Buddhist inmate in Texas whose request that his spiritual adviser be present in the execution chamber had been denied.

March 19, 2019

USA: Nebraska prison population hits new high; 'I hope it's an anomaly,' corrections chief says

News

North America United States

Here’s a record Nebraska leaders didn’t want to set: a new high for prison overcrowding.

March 18, 2019

USA: Pennsylvania state prison system to ban tobacco

News

North America United States

Pennsylvania’s prison system is banning all tobacco products at all facilities. Corrections Secretary John Wetzel announced the ban Monday.

March 14, 2019

USA: the school-to-prison pipeline is getting worse for black and brown girls

News

North America United States

In the US, black and Latinx girls are disproportionately punished and assaulted by school administrators for simple infractions such as showing emotions.

March 12, 2019

USA: federal prisons official used prisons labor

News

North America United States

The Bureau of Prison’s South Central regional director utilized incarcerated people from a Texas prison to work on a landscaping project at his church. A high-ranking Federal Bureau of Prisons official used incarcerated people from a Texas prison to provide labor for his church to finish a landscap…

March 12, 2019

United States of America: hopeless insomnia

Testimonial

North America United States

Robert Lee Allen is currently serving his fifth year of a 17 years-sentence. He tells Prison Insider how doing time is a daily battle.

January 7, 2019

Canada: prison drug scans for visitors potentially unreliable and keeping families apart, researcher says

News

North America Drugs Social ties Canada

Ion scanners cause stress for families of prisoners, research shows.

December 11, 2018

Canada: au Nunavik, les prisonniers d’un système inadapté

News

North America Canada

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

December 9, 2018

Canada: épiés 24/24, les détenus souffrent d’un manque d’intimité

News

North America Canada

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

November 5, 2018

Canada: Length of solitary stays increasing in Ontario prisons

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North America Discipline Canada

Five years after Ontario vowed to curtail its use of solitary confinement, average inmate stays in segregation cells have grown longer, with one prisoner in Ottawa remaining in isolation for at least 835 days, according to newly released provincial data.

October 30, 2018

Canada: drugs in jails, ministry says it doesn't keep track of overdoses and naloxone use

News

North America Drugs Canada

Ontario’s corrections ministry says it does not track the number of opioid overdoses in its jails, even though prisoners have died and staff are routinely treating inmates for overdoses.