Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

May 20, 2020

USA: a nation of prisons and pandemics

Testimonial

Coronavirus North America Health Overcrowding United States

The United States Penitentiary Canaan holds about 1,300 people. Qwantay A. is one of them. He has been incarcerated for 16 years and will be released in 2034. He drew some parallels between the coronavirus pandemic and mass incarceration, and shared his thoughts with Prison Insider.

May 19, 2020

USA: filling the maternal-care gap

News

North America Women Health United States

Nonprofit pregnancy support organizations help strengthen bonds between incarcerated women and their newborn children.

May 19, 2020

USA: Kim Kardashian est devenue une actrice-clé de la réforme carcérale

News

North America United States

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

May 14, 2020

USA: le Missouri va mener une exécution avec distanciation sociale

News

Coronavirus North America Death penalty United States

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

May 14, 2020

USA: crime doesn’t pay but prison does, even amidst a pandemic

News

Coronavirus North America United States

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As factories and other businesses remain shuttered across America, people in prisons in at least 40 states continue going to work. Sometimes they earn pennies an hour, or nothing at all, making masks and hand sanitizer to help guard others from the coronavirus. Those same men and…

May 14, 2020

Coronavirus: distintos países del mundo descongestionan las cárceles

News

Africa Coronavirus North America Europe Middle East Oceania Justice

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

May 6, 2020

USA: el coronavirus se ensaña con las cárceles

News

Coronavirus North America Health United States

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

May 6, 2020

USA: inside the deadly coronavirus outbreak at Oakdale federal prison

News

Coronavirus North America Health United States

“I just feel like we were all let down,” said one prisoner. At least 39 staff and 113 inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a staff source. Alfred Reece says the outbreak began when his teacher got sick. A former accountant serving an 8-year sentence for convictions related…

May 6, 2020

USA: while jails drastically cut populations, state prisons have released almost no one

News

Coronavirus North America Health United States

Our analysis finds that jails are responding to the unprecedented public health crisis by rapidly dropping their populations. In contrast, state prisons have barely budged.

May 4, 2020

USA: the violent history of Angola prison

News

North America Violence United States

The Louisiana State Penitentiary is named after the slave plantation that existed on that land where the prison now stands. Columbia University explains that the plantation took its name from the nation its slaves were taken from: Angola. In 1880, former Confederate Major Samuel James purchased the…

April 29, 2020

Map of the coronavirus in prisons

News

Africa Coronavirus North America Central America and the Caribbean South America Asia Europe Middle East Oceania Health

Prison Insider is partnering with Justice Project Pakistan on its collaborative map to report the number of confirmed cases and deaths among prisoners worldwide.

April 24, 2020

USA: what data exists about Native American people in the criminal justice system?

News

North America United States

Problems with data collection - and an unfortunate tendency to group Native Americans together with other ethnic and racial groups in data publications - have made it hard to understand the effect of mass incarceration on Native people. The scarcity of data on Native Americans in the U.S. criminal…

April 24, 2020

USA: inmates at N.J. women’s prison endured years of sex abuse, justice dept. finds

News

North America Women Violence United States

WASHINGTON — Inmates at New Jersey’s only state prison for women were regularly sexually assaulted by guards and sometimes forced to engage in sex acts with other prisoners while staff members looked on, according to a Justice Department report released on Monday detailing widespread, pervasive sex…

April 23, 2020

USA: el miedo al coronavirus en las cárceles provoca huelgas de hambre, protestas y motines

News

Coronavirus North America Protest United States

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

April 23, 2020

USA: la détresse des détenus libérés en pleine pandémie

News

Coronavirus North America Health United States

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

April 9, 2020

USA: probation and parole officers are rethinking their rules as coronavirus spreads

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Coronavirus North America Justice Health United States

Social distancing is pressing officials across the country to skip traditional methods such as jailing people for “technical violations” like missing check-ins.

April 9, 2020

USA: is social distancing possible behind bars?

News

Coronavirus North America Health United States

The short answer is no - social distancing is even harder behind bars than in nursing homes or on cruise ships.

April 6, 2020

USA: prison outbreak affects health of entire state

News

Coronavirus North America Health United States

Absent immediate action, COVID-19 will overrun Connecticut’s jails and prisons. Connecticut’s Department of Correction has now confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in the prison population after announcing that three DOC officers tested positive for the virus last week. This affects us all and the…

April 6, 2020

USA: prison telecom giant offers aid to prisoners - for a price

News

Coronavirus North America Social ties United States

The insidious games of the prison phone companies, masked by their generosity during the pandemic

March 26, 2020

USA: how Louisiana’s oil and gas industry uses prison labor

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North America Work United States

This story was published in partnership with Southerly for our Powerlines series, which looks at climate change, justice, and infrastructure in the American South. The series is supported by the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University, and is part of…

March 26, 2020

USA: as pandemic threatens to devastate prison population, new report provides updated “big picture” view of incarceration

News

Coronavirus North America Minors Foreign prisoners Health United States

The Prison Policy Initiative’s new “Whole Pie” report reveals what’s at stake if prisons and jails do not take immediate steps to decarcerate.

March 26, 2020

USA: technical violations, immigration detainers, and other bad reasons to keep people in jail

News

North America Foreign prisoners United States

How ICE and probation and parole detainers (or “holds”) contribute to unnecessary jailing

March 26, 2020

Covid-19: l’ONU s’inquiète des risques de contamination dans les prisons et réclame des mesures d’urgence

News

Africa Coronavirus North America Central America and the Caribbean South America Asia Europe Oceania Health

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

March 19, 2020

Canada: suspending prison visits over COVID-19 sparks fears of inmate backlash

News

Coronavirus North America Health Canada

‘I am concerned that I’m going to get a call saying my son has been sent to hospital, or worse’