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Mississippi Jailed More Than 800 People Awaiting Psychiatric Treatment in a Year. Just One Jail Meets State Standards.
Counties are allowed to hold people awaiting court-ordered psychiatric treatment in jails only if the facilities meet safety and health standards, but there’s no funding to help them comply and no penalties if they don’t. By Isabelle Taft On November 13, 2023 Fourteen years ago, Mississippi legislators passed a law requiring county jails to be…
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Kids Behind Bars: Chaos, violence and neglect plague youth prisons and detention centers
By Laura A. Bischoff, Cameron Knight, and Amy L. Knapp On November 11, 2023 Ohio’s juvenile prisons and detention centers are supposed to be safe places, where the state’s most troubled children are sent for what might be a last chance to turn their lives around before adulthood. But instead of finding refuge from crime and mayhem,…
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San Quentin Is Decaying. California Has No Clear Plan to Fix It
The prison will be turned into a new-age rehabilitation center, but over $1 billion in maintenance needs are being neglected. By Kevin D. Sawyer On November 9, 2023 On each of the five floors of the west block building at San Quentin State Prison is a maintenance sheet that lists year-round problems. “Water leaking in…
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Hundreds of Women File Rape Lawsuits Against City Jails
The suits filed as part of the state’s extension of the statute of limitations under the Adult Victims Act allege a culture of abuse and cover-up at the Department of Correction. By Reuven Blau On November 9, 2023 Inette Baez has held the secret of what happened to her on Rikers Island for nearly 20…
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Inside Illinois’ Youth Lockups, Children Go Without Basic Services and Face “Excessive” Punishments
State audits point to troubling conditions in juvenile detention centers, but no agency has strong enough oversight to bring about change. By Molly Parker On November 8, 2023 In late December, a teenage boy with a broken arm was left to suffer alone in his cell at a youth lockup in rural southern Illinois. Staff…
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Nearly one in five state prisoners go directly from maximum security to the street
By Jenifer B. McKim and Margot Amouyal On November 7, 2023 Jamaul Vital says he was restricted to a cell for at least 20 hours a day while incarcerated at the state’s maximum security prison in Lancaster for more than two years. The 28-year-old Lynn man remembers his last night behind bars — pacing in…
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Prison Telecom Giant Deletes Months of Incarcerated Writers’ Work
Securus Technologies says a “technical glitch” last week caused the deletion of Washington prisoners’ writings. They offered compensation of two e-stamps—a value of less than $1. By Christopher Blackwell and Ethan Corey On November 7, 2023 I sat there, staring at an inbox that now read zero. Just hours ago, it had the number nine,…
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Incarceration rates for Black men and women have been declining since 2000. Reform efforts are helping.
Despite recent policy changes, the imprisonment rate among Black people remains the highest, and researchers say political trends may put progress in “jeopardy.” By Candice Norwood On October 30, 2023 Between the 1970s and early 2000s the United States saw a 700 percent increase in incarceration, which disproportionately targeted Black and low-income people. Now, reform…
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People in redlined neighborhoods may be less likely to receive bystander CPR
By Laura Williamson On November 7, 2023 People who live in neighborhoods that were subjected to the historical practice of “redlining” may be less likely to receive lifesaving care from a bystander during a cardiac arrest than people in other neighborhoods, new research suggests. The greater the amount of redlining, the lower the likelihood of…
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