San Quentin, You Been Living Hell To Me

Maybe it's a byproduct of Abu Ghraib and maybe it's just a coincidence, but there do seem to be more articles than usual lately on conditions in stateside prisons and jails. The San Francisco Bay Guardian's feature on California abuses makes an explicit comparison to Iraq; the Baltimore City Paper's report on the local detention center does not. Those of you who don't like to get your news from alt-weeklies can turn to USA Today, which has run a sobering piece on the Native American prison system.