Editorial
Prison Insider's editorial
The members of Prison Insider periodically put forth their critical points of view -- different opinions from different people are the assets of the Prison Insider team.
USA: it costs about 50 times more to make a call from an Illinois jail Than from an Illinois state prison
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UK: at Birmingham prison, government takeover from G4S extended for another six months
Birmingham Prison is to remain in government hands for a further six months due to the “fragile” state of the jail, the government has said. The Prison Service stepped in to operate HMP Birmingham last August after an inspection uncovered soaring violence, drug use and appalling living conditions.…USA: from life in prison to published author
Drug deals and gun violence were everyday realities for Chris Wilson growing up. Straddling homes in D.C.‘s Lincoln Heights neighborhood and Prince George’s County’s Temple Hills community, Wilson watched his mother fall victim to both domestic abuse and drug abuse. Many of his friends were locked…
New Zealand: how sport in prison could help stop reoffending
A sports programme which is being piloted in New Zealand prisons aims for a reduction in reoffending. Not only does physical activity help prisoners with their wellbeing and mental health, but it could help them into employment, according to UK Professor of Criminological Psychology Rosie Meek. “Sp…USA: Alabama will build 3 prisons for men, Ivey announces
Gov. Kay Ivey announced today that her administration will seek bids for building three regional prisons for men to replace aging, cramped facilities that the Alabama Department of Corrections has said are too costly to maintain and repair. The governor said new prisons are a necessary part of a la…USA: emergency declared at Kansas prison because of staffing shortage - 95 jobs unfilled
Kansas prisons have been under-staffed for years. Inmate populations are overcapacity. Uprisings in recent years have caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. Now, the state’s corrections agency is declaring an emergency at one of its largest prisons – El Dorado Correctional – because of…
Haiti: all inmates escape from Aquin
All 78 inmates of a prison in southern Haiti have escaped from captivity, according to the country’s police. The detainees reportedly made their escape from Aquin prison while police were distracted by anti-government protests nearby Haiti’s national police force said it has launched an investigati…USA: women in prison in Florida get some needed attention
Florida legislators, no matter their party — and no matter their gender — have shown a heartening amount of empathy for incarcerated women on an issue that affects them, uniquely. On Monday, the state Senate Criminal Justice Committee unanimously approve the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act. The…USA: want to shrink the prison population? Look at parole.
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Colombia: El ‘estigma’ de las cárceles en zonas residenciales
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
USA: why the justice department can’t be trusted to investigate abysmal conditions in federal prisons
The humanitarian crisis at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center will have come as a shock to many. It is horrifying. If there is one institution, however, which has no grounds for shock, nor the performance of it, it is the Justice Department. As a late-January polar vortex hit New York with fr…Switzerland’s prison population swells 50% in less than 30 years
The number of prisoners in Switzerland rose 50% from 1988 to 2017. Much of this is due to population growth. Switzerland’s population grew 28% over the same period. However, population growth doesn’t account for all of the increase in prison numbers. In 1988, there were 70 prisoners per 100,000. By…USA: Mississippi’s prison bribery scandal is in the past, but the state still hasn’t learned its lesson
Since 2014, a massive bribery scandal involving some of the most powerful prison industry corporations in America has hung like a cloud over Mississippi’s already-troubled corrections system, which locks people up at a higher rate than almost any other state.United States: inmates at freezing federal jail in brooklyn pounded out a message
The Metropolitan Detention Center had been largely without power and heat for more than a week. Inmates have been banging on the windows of their cells to call attention to the conditions, and protesters have been rallying outside the jail calling for improvements.