United States of America
Seen in the press
Read our selection of press reports about this country. This is a short description of prison conditions on a national scale.
United States: reproductive justice prison system
The United States imprisons the most women in the world. Across the United States, approximately 200,000 women are incarcerated—nearly an 800 percent increase since 1980. Women of color are disproportionately affected by the criminal justice system. In 2017, twice as many Black women and 1.3 times…Etats-Unis: peine de mort, l’administration Trump poursuit les exécutions malgré sa défaite
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French
United States: the role of plant-based food in the prison system
British prisons and jails must provide for vegan inmates by law; as of January this year, veganism is an explicitly protected belief under the Equality Act 2010, the same as religious beliefs. This protection is not absolute, nor does veganism have legal protection everywhere in the world. In the U…United States: California law is step forward but fails to guarantee safety for trans prisoners
Syiaah Skylit has been imprisoned in California since 2015. Despite multiple requests to be placed in a women’s prison, Skylit, a Black trans woman, has always been incarcerated in the state’s men’s prisons. There, she has faced attacks by incarcerated men as well as sexual abuse and retaliation by…United States: advocates file complaint over Texas youth prison conditions
Detainees in Texas’ juvenile prisons suffer from frequent physical and sexual abuse, inadequate mental healthcare and high rates of staff turnover, two youth advocacy groups wrote in a federal complaint Wednesday. The rights of the hundreds of youths detained in five secure facilities around the st…United States: California kept prison factories open
California’s prison system has taken drastic measures to combat the coronavirus, halting rehab programs, religious services and educational classes. But correctional authorities kept one type of operation running through much of the last six months: prison factories.Estados Unidos: la paradoja de la pena de muerte
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
United States: conditions at South Carolina juvenile facility unconstitutional
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued notice on February 5, 2020 that it has found the “totality of the conditions, practices, and incidents” it discovered at Broad River Road Complex (BRRC), South Carolina’s long-term juvenile commitment facility, violated the juveniles’ Fourteenth Amendment…United States: California announces first closure of state prison since 2003
A California assemblymember said nearly $200 million in operating costs will be saved after the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) announcement on Friday of the closure of a state prison in Tracy. The Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy was chosen for closure based o…United States: nearly 1,000 inmates, more than 200 staff in Wisconsin prisons have tested positive for coronavirus
After nearly flattening for about three months, positive coronavirus tests in Wisconsin prisons are back on the rise at rates worse than ever. More than 600 inmates in state-run prisons tested positive for coronavirus in the past month, bringing the total to 953 since the beginning of the pandemic.…Estados Unidos: informes profundamente alarmantes sobre esterilización forzosa de mujeres detenidas por el ICE
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
United States: the expensive burden of parole, probation unjustly places people in a second prison
When President Donald Trump commuted Alice Marie Johnson’s life sentence in 2018, many observers assumed that the grandmother was fully free. What they didn’t realize at the time was that Johnson, who was convicted of a first-time, nonviolent drug offense, still wore the “invisible shackle” of prob…United States: can Kentucky keep charging prisoners for their jail stay if they are found not guilty?
Kentucky State law allows county jails to charge prisoners a daily fee during their stay while fighting their case. But what happens when the person is found not guilty of the charges and gets released? According to a February 14, 2020 ruling by the Kentucky Court of Appeals, even if the state thro…