Prisons
San Quentin Prison's COVID-19 Deaths Highlight Officials' Inept Pandemic Response
Six dead in a week, and 1,500 infections, all due to poor decisions by the state. And leaders still wonder why people won't do what they say.
COVID-19 Pulls Back the Mask on America's Prison System
This deadly and contagious disease has exposed problems with prison systems that have been ignored for decades.
Inmate Coronavirus Infections Skyrocket in California
A third of prisoners at San Quentin have gotten COVID-19, most in just the last two weeks.
These Women Received a Death Sentence for Being Sick In Prison
A Reason investigation has identified three deaths from alleged medical neglect at FCI Aliceville, a federal women's prison. Current and former inmates say it's routine, but the Bureau of Prisons won't talk about it.
Prison Guards Who Locked Naked Inmate in Cell Filled With 'Massive Amounts' of Feces Got Qualified Immunity
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that the plaintiff's Eighth Amendment rights were violated.
Report: Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons Spiked by 500 Percent When Coronavirus Hit
In a matter of weeks, the number of inmates in solitary jumped from 60,000 to nearly 300,000.
'Where Are Libertarians on Police Reform?' Right Where We've Always Been.
Real changes will require fewer laws and less violent enforcement.
At Angola, Coronavirus Turns Life Without Parole for Selling Weed Into a Potential Death Sentence
Fate Vincent Winslow, who has never committed a violent crime, fears catching coronavirus in prison.
Lawmakers Call Out Cuomo and Other Governors for Letting Prisoners Die of COVID-19
Plus: "Karenology," failing fashion brands, and more...
Celebrity Criminals Are Leaving Prison Early Because of COVID-19. What About the Drug Offenders?
If officials want to ease the burden of the pandemic behind bars, there are hundreds of thousands of inmates who can help them do it.
8 of The Top 10 Biggest U.S. Coronavirus Hotspots Are Prisons and Jails
And those numbers are likely an undercount.
Prisoner in Ohio Halfway House Complains About Lack of COVID-19 Preparations. He's Sent Back to Prison. Now Ohio Prisons are Exploding with COVID-19.
While his own prison is not yet facing a huge problem, Brandon Baxter had a prescient complaint for which he seems to be being punished.
Chicago Jail Inmate With COVID-19 Dies Shackled to His Hospital Bed
The Cook County jail is the country's largest known single source of new coronavirus infections.
Ohio Governor Says State Will Seek Release of Some Inmates in Response to Coronavirus
The state will seek the release of nearly 200 inmates who are either at risk or nearing their release dates anyway in response to COVID-19.
Texas Inmates Sue for Access to Hand Sanitizer as Coronavirus Threatens Prisons
The ACLU is also suing Washington, D.C. jails.
Coronavirus Fears Mount in D.C. Jail After Quarantines
Lawyers, inmates' families, and correctional officers worry the jail is ill-prepared to handle an outbreak.
Justice Department Investigates Appalling Conditions at Mississippi Prisons
Videos and photos smuggled out by Mississippi inmates have shown gruesome violence and wretched living conditions.
Groups Call for Justice Department To Investigate Mississippi Prisons after Violence Leaves Five Inmates Dead
In Mississippi's severely understaffed prisons, gangs run the show.
Prison Guards Forced an 8-Year-Old Girl To Strip Before She Could Visit Her Father
Virginia is now suspending its strip-search policy for minors.
West Virginia Inmates Will Be Charged by the Minute to Read E-Books on Tablets
The tablets aren't supposed to replace regular books, but similar policies have led to restrictions on book donations and price-gouging in other states.
This Florida Prison Guard Allegedly Paralyzed an Inmate. Now He's Been Arrested for Child Molestation
Inmates say Keith Turner abused them for a decade. Now children have stepped forward with complaints of molestation.
Florida Prisons Are a Slow-Motion Disaster
"We are a prison system that's overstuffed and under-guarded, and that is a lethal combination of policies," says state Sen. Jeff Brandes.
New York City Council Votes To Build Four New Jails and To Close Notorious Rikers Island
But can the city commit to reducing its jail population—and will Rikers' infamous culture just be transplanted to the new jails?
Prisons Are the Hardest Places to Read About Mass Incarceration
If you think a map of the moon might help an inmate escape, you might be a prison censor.
Lawsuit: Savage Beating by Guards at Florida Women's Prison Leaves Inmate Paralyzed
Cheryl Weimar, 51, is now a quadriplegic after what a lawsuit describes as a "malicious and sadistic beating" by Florida prison guards.
China's Mass Internment of Uighurs Is a 'Modern Cultural Genocide'
Activist Nury Turkel discusses the vast network of camps that may hold over a million Uighurs in western China.
Lawsuit: Florida Inmate Thrown In Solitary for Biting Guard While Having Seizure
Dean Higgins claims he was put in a cell that regularly flooded with raw sewage for seven months after he bit a guard while having an involuntary seizure.
4 Businessmen Used Cash and Casino Chips as Bribes to Secure Mississippi Prison Contracts
They're the latest to plead guilty in the Mississippi Department of Corrections bribing scheme.
Court Sides With Prison Guards Who Forced Female Inmates To Expose Genitals During Training Exercise
The search raised Fourth Amendment concerns.
Criminal Justice Reform Is Having a (Long Overdue) Moment
Slowly but surely, some of the most glaring problems of our criminal justice system are being addressed.
To Hold but Not to Have: California's Marijuana Laws Get Weird When You're in Jail
It's not illegal for inmates to have marijuana, but it's still a felony if they try to smoke it.
Nobody Should Be Placed in Solitary Confinement—Not Even Paul Manafort
Paul Manafort isn’t deserving of torture. Neither was Kalief Browder.
The State Can't Keep Drugs Out of Prisons. How Was It Ever Going to Keep Them Out of America?
This is the nature of government. It can't stop the flow of illicit substances in a sealed and militarized building that's under its total control.
Jail Guards Joked That ReGina Thurman Had 'Jail-litus' and Threatened Her As She Died
Fellow inmates did more to help ReGina Thurman than her guards and nurses.
Guantanamo Bay Prison Commander Fired Weeks Before Scheduled Departure
Navy Rear Admiral John Ring's legacy will likely be defined by his funding requests to build a new prison for aging inmates.
Bernie Sanders Is Right: We Should Let the Boston Marathon Bomber Vote
Incarcerated people are already paying their debt to society. What good does it do the rest of the population to take away their right to have a say?
What Inmates, the Amish, and Imperial Chinese Law Teach Us About Relying on the State
David Friedman’s Legal Systems Very Different from Ours explores the costs and benefits of various legal systems across time.
Prison Guards Are '#FeelingCute' About Threatening To Assault Inmates for No Reason
"Feeling cute, might just gas some inmates today, IDK."
How Even Legal Marijuana Use Can Land You in Jail
Failed drug tests can send people on probation or parole back into prison cells.
U.S. Prisoners Have Lost a Combined 20,000 Years of Life to False Convictions
Annual exoneration report shows growth in amount of time served and increasing levels of official misconduct.
Texas Inmate With a Wool Allergy Has Spent 10 Years Trying To Get a New Blanket
He's now representing himself in a lawsuit.
Will Utah Ban the Shackling of Inmates in Labor?
A bill to stop the dangerous practice reaches the next step.
Michigan Governor Pardons Drunk Driver, Leaves Thousands of Prisoners Waiting for Their Second Chance
Gov. Rick Snyder's clemency record could have been a lot better.
Gitmo Preps for an Upgrade
This monument to the war on terror is still open, and it's costing taxpayers a fortune.
The Supreme Court's Recent Religious Liberty/Death Penalty Decision is Bad -- But Not Quite as Bad as Many Think
The justices were wrong to reject a religious discrimination claim in a case where a person sentenced to death was not allowed access to a Muslim cleric at the moment of death. But the decision was not the result of anti-Muslim bigotry.
