"There is an obligation both to incarcerated persons and the taxpayers not to keep someone incarcerated for longer than they should be," a Louisiana district attorney said. "Timely release is not only a legal obligation, but arguably of equal importance, a moral obligation."
The U.S. Sentencing Commission might make medical neglect a qualifying condition for compassionate release.
On Thursday, the South Carolina Supreme Court began hearing arguments in a case that could see the state's attempt to execute inmates by electrocution or firing squad declared unconstitutional.
"Just because I made some bad choices in my life, they shouldn't be allowed to make bad health choices for me and my baby," said one woman whose labor was induced against her will.
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State prisons around the country ban the roleplaying game, too, because of bizarre concerns about gang behavior and security threats.
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Inmates with opioid addiction suffered severe withdrawal after the Jefferson County Correctional Facility stripped them of their medication.
The California State Auditor's Office found that the jails responded poorly to inmate deaths.
This deadly and contagious disease has exposed problems with prison systems that have been ignored for decades.
"What they are doing to people is cruel and unusual. It isn't right."
Lawyers, inmates' families, and correctional officers worry the jail is ill-prepared to handle an outbreak.
Inmates complained for years that they were in fear for their lives. Now one of them is a quadriplegic.
The FIRST STEP Act gives dying inmates the opportunity to appeal to a judge for compassionate release. This case shows why.
It's encouraging to see police stand up for inmates' rights.
A bill to stop the dangerous practice reaches the next step.
In California's Santa Rita Jail, pregnant inmates were pressured to have abortions, forced to go without food, and made to live in unsanitary conditions, a new lawsuit alleges.
Tulsa County owes $10.2 million in damages.
Even with the best of intentions, using jails to house the mentally ill is a bad policy.