America’s Most Notorious Jail Keeps Getting Worse
A horrific death and the high-profile booking of former President Donald Trump propelled Georgia’s Fulton County Jail into the national spotlight. But heightened scrutiny has done nothing to improve conditions.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Sep 13, 2023
LASD Says It Wants to Keep Hitting People in the Head
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has taken legal action against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to stop deputies from hitting incarcerated people in the head so often. Yesterday, LASD said it should not be forced to change.
Meg O'Connor Jun 27, 2023
New Jail, Same Problems: Why Cleveland is Resisting Plans for a ‘Modern’ Detention Center
Cuyahoga County is the latest community to debate a proposal to build a new jail in response to inhumane conditions at the current facility. Advocates say there’s no such thing as a humane jail.
Katie Rose Quandt Mar 28, 2023
Georgia Jail Detainees Say Their Lives Are at Stake Ahead of Key Sheriff’s Election
With a special election for Clayton County sheriff coming up next week, people detained at the county’s scandal-plagued jail are speaking out about horrific conditions.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Mar 13, 2023
Pregnant People Are Shackled and Abused in Harris County Jail
Pregnant people are among the many casualties of a politically manufactured crisis that has led to abysmal conditions at the jail.
Krish Gundu, Elizabeth Rossi, Eric Reinhart Feb 08, 2023
Internal Report Details Severely Malnourished Detainees at Atlanta-Area Jail
The facility’s medical provider described people with mental illness wasting away in a unit overrun by an outbreak of lice and scabies.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Nov 17, 2022
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
A California appeals court orders San Quentin prison to reduce its population by half, the ACLU’s Death by Incarceration project paints a stark picture of COVID-19’s toll, and a new law grants early release to 3,000 New Jersey prisoners.
Kelly Davis Oct 21, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
How a collaboration between scholars, public health officials, and the Wayne County jail has kept COVID-19 in check; the California prison with the most coronavirus cases kept prisoners working despite the outbreaks; two counties report spikes in infections among juvenile detainees.
Kelly Davis Oct 14, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
A ’freedom fighter’ reports from the San Quentin prisons on Twitter, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a ruling made to protect elderly prisoners, and a class-action lawsuit seeks $400 million from the state of Delaware for ignoring basic COVID-19 precautions.
Kelly Davis Oct 09, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
COVID-19 has exposed a huge gap in knowledge over the rights of hospitalized prisoners, Wisconsin sees a spike in new cases in correctional facilities, and vitamin D might help save the lives of incarcerated people.
Kelly Davis Oct 07, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
After being COVID-free for months, Massachusetts facilities see new outbreaks; a New York lawmaker wants to make it easier for people to serve prison and jail sentences at home; and deaths continue to plague a Virginia prison.
Kelly Davis Oct 05, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
A ruling by a Texas judge slams officials for deliberate indifference toward vulnerable prisoners; in San Diego, an ill-advised hospital visit led to a massive COVID-19 outbreak; and a new report finds an alarming increase of Latinx and Native American youth in juvenile-detention facilities.
Kelly Davis Sep 30, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
A new report documents pandemic-driven efforts to release people from Chicago’s Cook County jail, how Virginia’s 900-page COVID-19 response plan has failed elderly and ill prisoners and federal prosecutors argue that a life sentence equals a death sentence.
Kelly Davis Sep 28, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
New Jersey is close to enacting a law that would release up to 3,000 people from prison, advocates urge New York legislators to consider early parole for elderly prisoners, and California prisons see a new spike in coronavirus cases.
Kelly Davis Sep 25, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
Experts discuss ongoing issues with COVID-19 in prisons and jails, Oklahoma prison officials agree to mandatory testing of all staff, and an incarcerated journalist pens a heart-wrenching account of his experience with coronavirus.
Kelly Davis Sep 23, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
Documents obtained by the ACLU suggest that restarting executions caused a COVID-19 outbreak at a federal prison; Florida’s Brevard County jail says it quashed an outbreak, but a lack of testing raises questions; and San Quentin’s newspaper is publishing again.
Kelly Davis Sep 21, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
After testing positive for COVID-19, Tommy Zeigler, whose case inspired legislation and multiple investigative reports, is missing in a Florida prison; advocates for women inside Oklahoma’s Eddie Warrior Correctional Center want to hear from Gov. Kevin Stitt; and men quarantined in a previously shuttered prison say they’re being forced to pee in cups.
Kelly Davis Sep 14, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
A court ruling allows the Cook County Jail to return to double-occupancy and dorm-style housing, a state oversight agency makes an example of New York’s Fishkill prison, and we update our ongoing map of new COVID-19 cases.
Kelly Davis Sep 10, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
Doctors at California’s San Quentin State Prison hope other correctional institutions will learn from their experience, COVID-19 causes one Colorado county to cancel its plans to build a bigger jail, and guards at Oregon’s Snake River Correctional Institution are blamed for an ongoing outbreak.
Kelly Davis Sep 08, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
Women at California’s Folsom prison fear that men with COVID-19 will be transferred into their building, a new report looks at the shockingly high rate of COVID-19 deaths among incarcerated people, and we update our ongoing case tracker map.
Kelly Davis Sep 04, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
As states move toward reopening, jails and prisons continue to report large COVID-19 outbreaks; researchers call for greater transparency in reporting infection rates; and prisoners at a New York federal jail say screening is limited to, ‘Are you OK?’
Kelly Davis Sep 02, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
California’s corrections secretary is retiring amid criticism over his handling of COVID-19 outbreaks, a Baltimore public defender describes his struggle to get an elderly client out of prison, and advocates for incarcerated people in Colorado want Gov. Jared Polis to consider more prisoner releases.
Kelly Davis Aug 31, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown considers releasing more people from prison, how California’s Fresno County quietly became a major COVID-19 cluster, and new updates to our coronavirus outbreak map.
Kelly Davis Aug 28, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
A new lawsuit uses the lesson of one prison to demand the release of people from New Mexico lock-ups, a new bill would require more transparency in reporting COVID-19 cases in prisons and jails, and deaths of incarcerated people hit a grim milestone.
Kelly Davis Aug 26, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
What makes Ohio prisons so deadly, the CDC urges corrections officials to conduct mass testing, and the Washington Post editorial board finds a surge in jail and prison COVID-19 outbreaks ’morbidly unsurprising’.
Kelly Davis Aug 24, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
Gov. Ron DeSantis ignores calls to release elderly people from Florida prisons, quarantines are no longer hampering California prison fire crews, and an update to our ongoing COVID-19 outbreak map.
Kelly Davis Aug 20, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
Amid ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks in state prisons, Oregon lawmakers grapple with decarceration plans; the Sacramento County Sheriff won’t share infection data with the oversight board; and Oklahoma corrections officials use CARES Act money to ’boost morale’.
Kelly Davis Aug 19, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
California prison watchdog finds lapses in COVID-19 screening procedures, the ‘trailer jails’ that officials in one Missouri county praised as ‘innovative’ are the site of an outbreak, and the U.S. Marshals Service is blamed for spreading infections among federal detention facilities.
Kelly Davis Aug 17, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
Newspaper fearmongers around releasing people from prison due to COVID-19, oversight agency urges state DOC to ease restrictions on people in prison who have faced months of lockdown due to pandemic, sheriff orders staff not to wear masks.
Kelly Davis Aug 13, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
New outbreaks continue to hit California prisons, advocates have harsh words for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and a longtime journalist weighs in on a sheriff’s decision to take a battle with the ACLU to the Supreme Court.
Kelly Davis Aug 12, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
A new research project aims to better understand how COVID-19 spreads through jails, the virus continues to sweep through California’s death row, and federal prison employees are suing for hazard pay.
Kelly Davis Aug 10, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
Attorneys file a class-action lawsuit over the outbreak at a California forensic psychiatric hospital, cases increase among Vermont prisoners sent to Mississippi, plus a map of new cases.
Kelly Davis Aug 07, 2020
Prisoners Inside Georgia’s Clayton County Jail Describe Desperate Efforts To Avoid COVID-19
They shared their stories as part of a lawsuit seeking urgent changes to protect prisoners. One prisoner wrote that a jail officer denied his request for a mask, so he tied old underwear around his face.
Lauren Gill Aug 07, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
Dozens of Vermont prisoners sent to an out-of-state private prison test positive for COVID-19, new study shows the prison infection rate is more than four times the general public’s, and Jay-Z’s Team Roc sues a Mississippi prison over “sub-human and deplorable” conditions.
Kelly Davis Aug 03, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
California watchdog agency that repeatedly warned of “dire consequences” of prison overcrowding urges lawmakers to implement reforms; human rights org tweets “keep-you-up-at-night horrifying” stories from Georgia jail; and we map out four days of coronavirus outbreaks.
Kelly Davis Jul 30, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
COVID-19 tears through a Texas prison for medically fragile women; California prisons are flattening the curve on new diagnoses, but deaths continue to climb; and the ACLU finds jails releases haven’t led to an increase in crime.
Kelly Davis Jul 27, 2020
Coronavirus Has Raged Inside American Prisons At A Higher Rate Than Rest Of Nation
All lawmakers have a duty to use every available lever to reduce the number of people in prison, whether by compassionate release or expanded use of furloughs or some other mechanism. Taking these steps will demand immense political courage. But not doing it means consigning people—some just months away from release—to die preventable deaths.
Sharon Dolovich, Brendan Saloner Jul 23, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
Prisons that have lagged on releasing people have also seen significant COVID-19 outbreaks, one Indiana sheriff is spending his CARES Act money on high-tech virus prevention tools and California’s corrections chief says he’ll crack down on staff who refuse to wear masks.
Kelly Davis Jul 17, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
There are nearly 1,000 new cases at Seagoville Federal Correctional Institution in Texas, the Cook County Jail gets praise for its COVID-19 response, and California’s jail oversight board announces plans to collect and publish county-level data.
Kelly Davis Jul 16, 2020
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons
Today’s update focuses on major outbreaks in two state prisons in tiny Buckingham County, Virginia that in June gave it one of the highest per-capita COVID-19 infection rates in the U.S.
Whet Moser Jul 15, 2020