Prisons

One in every five state and federal prisoners in the United States has tested positive for the coronavirus, a rate more than four times as high as the general population.

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Alabama over conditions in the state prisons

In many states across the country, people with felony convictions are prohibited from voting, or only allowed to vote under certain conditions, even after they’ve served their sentence. Jay Jordan, who served time in prison as a young man and is currently the Director for Californians for Safety and Justice, explains how limiting their rights hurts more than just former...

Since coronavirus entered the U.S., nearly 16,000 have fallen ill of COVID-19 and 134 have died. That number does not include people incarcerated in state prisons across the U.S. The Marshall Project’s criminal justice reporter Keri Blakinger explains why the general public should care about protecting people in prisons.

California’s corrections secretary is retiring after two years in a job that Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday said involved “unparalleled challenges” — most recently coronavirus outbreaks that swept state prisons and led to calls for new leadership amid increasing social pressure to ease mass incarceration. Ralph Diaz will retire Oct. 1 after 30 years with the California Department of Corrections…

California has launched a $30 million program to provide thousands of parolees with community services after they complete their prison sentences or are released months early because of the coronavirus pandemic, officials announced Thursday.

Demonstrators gathered Monday morning outside the Sacramento-area home of Gov. Gavin Newsom, demanding he take action to prevent the growing spread of the coronavirus in state prisons, KCRA reported.

There has been a major drop in the number of people behind bars in the U.S. An analysis by The Marshall Project and The Associated Press found that between March and June, more than 100,000 people were released from state and federal prisons.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to significantly shrink the footprint of California’s prison system, partly because of massive budget cuts prompted by the pandemic but also because of philosophy. The revised budget he sent to state lawmakers this week envisions closing two state prisons in the coming years; cutting nearly one in five of the 43 inmate firefighter camps; and…

As the coronavirus pandemic decimates many companies, big business that has become synonymous with the world’s largest prison system continues to make money

California is planning to release within days as many as 3,500 inmates who were due to be paroled in the next two months as it tries to free space in cramped prisons in anticipation of a coronavirus outbreak, state officials said Tuesday. The move comes a week after Gov. Gavin Newsom halted intakes from jails, a move projected to lower…

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS) have unveiled a new tool to track COVID-19 cases among California’s incarcerated population. On Wednesday, CDCR and CCHCS unveiled a patient testing tracker, which displays the number of incarcerated patients who have been tested for COVID-19, have tested negative, tested positive, have recovered, or...

The federal Bureau of Prisons is struggling to manage the growing coronavirus pandemic as advocates and even prison guards call for major reforms to head off a potential outbreak behind bars