Prison Health News

12/01/2026

STARTING TODAY! We're asking friends and supporters to call South Central prison in Missouri to demand that they accept free print publications ordered by people in prison. We have won against prison censorship in other states and other prisons in Missouri, but South Central refuses to allow Prison Health News! Please call and follow the instructions here:

January 2026 Call-in to South Central prison in Missouri Demand: We are asking Colleen Harper and all mail room staff to accept free print magazines ordered by people in prison and not send them ba…

08/01/2026

Please help us call South Central prison in Missouri to demand they accept free print magazines! We're asking everyone who cares about access to reading material in prison to like and share this post, make the call Monday or later next week, and comment on our Instagram post (click on the image below) to let us know what happened.

More info: https://prisonhealth.news/call-missouri/

Thank you for your solidarity!

18/12/2025

We know it's the guards bringing drugs in. Here's some more evidence:

ST. GABRIEL - In the wake of what the Department of Corrections is calling an uptick

25/11/2025

Check out our new issue of the magazine, at the printer now! With a book excerpt about revolutionary jailhouse lawyer Martin Sostre, an investigation of what help is still available for sexual assault survivors in prison now that the PREA resource center has been defunded by Trump, why the risk of toxic shock syndrome is higher behind bars, and more!

View the full magazine online athttps://prisonhealth.news/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/fallwinter-2025_issue-62_final-version.pdf

23/11/2025

"It’s well understood that contact between incarcerated people and their families is essential for the well-being of people in prison, their children, and their communities. Letters in particular have been found to have important mental health benefits, especially for those in crisis. Stripping access to physical mail further imperils thousands of people incarcerated in Illinois, in no small part because the state prison system has repeatedly failed to fix its broken mental health care services."

Proposed rule change would make devastating mail restrictions permanent for thousands in Illinois’ prisons

17/11/2025

10/11/2025

"Serious injuries went untreated, medications were denied or scaled back, and needed medical appointments were delayed at the ICE detention center, the state’s largest, located near Buffalo.

In one case, a Nigerian migrant arrived in February at the Batavia ICE detention facility suffering frostbite. A doctor who provided emergency care ordered that he see a specialist within a week before releasing him into ICE’s custody. Agents in Batavia never took him to the appointment. By the time he saw a doctor, it was too late to save his fingers; parts of six were later amputated."

“It's just freak luck that no one has died in Batavia in the last two years," one advocate said of medical treatment in the ICE prison.

06/11/2025

“People who are incarcerated have been, in a sense, the canary in the coal mine for authoritarianism,” they said. “If we’re not in solidarity with incarcerated people already, this is the time to get connected and learn from that.”

Morse then established that their intention is to create safe LGBTQ+ spaces within the carceral system. While others have suggested creating exclusively LGBTQ+ prison units, Morse does not believe in creating more jails. They then emphasized the importance of addressing issues that might lead to incarceration, like being kicked out of housing or dealing with substance abuse."

On Wednesday, Oct. 8 the Critical Diaspora Studies undergraduate working group hosted a panel discussion on transgender justice in the carceral system. The event featured Dr. Nicole Morse and Dr. Vesla Weaver, who joined the panel in person, and Arianna Lint, who joined virtually, moderated by Haile...

31/10/2025

"Our last conversation took place over the phone, three months before he died. ... Below is a transcript of our last conversation, lightly edited for clarity and chronology. Marcus died before he could review the final draft."

Months before his death, Ralph Marcus explained how a COVID-era leg injury led to a rare bone cancer that didn’t have to be fatal.

31/10/2025

"Covid is spreading, but incarcerated people are being told vaccines aren’t necessary."

Covid is spreading, but incarcerated people are being told vaccines aren’t necessary.

29/10/2025

"Almost 60% of people in prisons and 25% of those in local jails are confined in rural counties, which are home to 3,000 of the nation’s correctional facilities. Following massive cuts to Medicaid passed by Congress this year, many rural hospitals will be forced to scale back operations or close entirely. As a result, critical, lifesaving healthcare will be further out of reach for huge swaths of the incarcerated population and those who live and work nearby, making an already bad situation far, far worse."

The Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill Act will result in the closure of many rural hospitals, leaving people in the surrounding communities — including ...

10/10/2025

"Healing Futures is Philadelphia’s first pre-charge restorative justice diversion program for youth, led by YASP and created in partnership with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. Instead of pushing young people deeper into the system, Healing Futures brings them and those they’ve harmed into a community-led process focused on accountability, repair, and healing. And the results speak volumes:

✨ 100% of participants, both youth who caused harm and those who were harmed, report satisfaction with the process and say they would recommend it to others.
✨ In over two years, only 1 out of 30 young people who completed the program was adjudicated for a new offense. That’s a recidivism rate of just 3%."

In early 2023, YASP was honored to receive the Stoneleigh Foundation Emerging Leaders Fellowship to support our Healing Futures Restorative Justice Diversion Program. This report highlights the first two years of Healing Futures, sharing key data and insights about its impact on Philadelphia’s you...