prisons

Call It “Overcrowding,” Not “Understaffing,” and Fix It With Parole

In 1996, the Prison Litigation Reform Act was enacted in response to the rising number of lawsuits prisoners were filing…

January 17, 2024

Smoking in Prisons Has Changed. Why Are We Denied Lung Cancer Screens?

A talking point often circulated in harm reduction is that the moment someone is released from incarceration, their risk of…

December 20, 2023

NYC Activists Rally as Rikers Receivership Decision Delayed

On December 14, a federal judge held the New York City Department of Correction in contempt of court, as Gothamist…

December 15, 2023

“Split Sentences” and the Right to Housing

The room I rent in a Georgia boarding house for people on the sex offender registry costs $800 per month.…

December 7, 2023

WA Prisons Still Using Drug Test Kits at Center of False-Positives Lawsuit

Sabastian Johnson had been unsuccessfully trying to get copies of a legal document related to his case into Washington Corrections…

December 4, 2023

On Thanksgiving I’m Grateful to Have Internet, Until Our Prison Catches Us

I am thankful that on my 33rd Thanksgiving in prison, I’ll be allowed an early shower. Thankful to have gotten…

November 22, 2023

The Nightmare of Prison Suicide Watch, Where Watching Is All We Do

Imagine looking through a window into a room at someone who’s been forcibly taken from their home, stripped naked and…

November 20, 2023

For Decades, Tattoos Helped Me Make Sense of Death and Prison

I got my first tattoo at 15, a Grim Reaper profile with the scythe arcing over its head. My father…

November 17, 2023

The Right to Consensual Sex—and Condoms—in Prison

Greg* has been incarcerated in Tennessee for about 18 months. He’s been on a waiting list for job placement for…

November 8, 2023

Tennessee’s HIV Sex Offender Law Discourages Testing, Not Transmission

In the mid-'90s at Washington State Penitentiary, a corrections officer (CO) and I had been yelling at each other for…

November 2, 2023