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Prison Health News Health info, resistance, and a lifeline for people in prisons across the U.S. Prison Health News is published four times a year for people in prison in the U.S.

We strive to lift up the voices, experience and expertise of currently and formerly incarcerated people. We are the only resource that responds to all types of health questions from people in prisons and jails everywhere in the United States. With the radical power of information, we work to break down prison walls and build health and social justice for all. Please donate at https://prisonhealthnews.wedid.it/

"Over the past century, prison labor has become deeply entrenched in the U.S. food system. A recent investigation by the...
19/06/2025

"Over the past century, prison labor has become deeply entrenched in the U.S. food system. A recent investigation by the Associated Press revealed a complex web of hundreds of popular food brands and retailers — from Cargill to Tyson Foods — sourcing agricultural products from prisons. These products can include fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, and even specialty items. In fact, smaller businesses also rely on prison labor, often for artisanal or niche products like goat cheese. Ultimately, these foods produced with prison labor end up on supermarket shelves without clear labeling or consumer awareness."

No image draws a more obvious connection between chattel slavery and mass incarceration in the United States than that of Black men toiling in fields under the watch of armed overseers on horseback at Angola, an antebellum plantation turned plantation prison.

"According to a report released this week from FWD.us, an advocacy organization aimed at criminal justice reform, having...
03/06/2025

"According to a report released this week from FWD.us, an advocacy organization aimed at criminal justice reform, having a loved one in prison or jail is estimated to cost families across the country nearly $350 billion each year — about four times the amount the federal government estimates it costs taxpayers annually to operate the nation's prisons and jails.

On average, people with a family member behind bars spend around $4,000 a year on their incarcerated loved ones, the report says."
https://www.michiganpublic.org/2025-06-03/the-true-cost-of-prisons-and-jails-is-higher-than-many-realize-researchers-say

A new report tries to capture the true cost of incarceration to families of people behind bars. It found it costs them around $350 billion every year — almost four times the government's estimate for the cost of incarceration.

"Algoa Correctional Center in Missouri is one of four prisons in the state where none of the housing units have air cond...
21/05/2025

"Algoa Correctional Center in Missouri is one of four prisons in the state where none of the housing units have air conditioning. And, due to the building's design, it is frequently hotter inside the prison than outside. Even at night, temperatures remain high because the building continues to release daytime heat. While the prison has some practices for helping inmates deal with extreme temperatures, the suit claims they are ineffective."

Inmates at a Missouri prison have filed a lawsuit claiming they're suffering from life-threatening extreme heat in their un-air-conditioned cells during

"The information about who died in custody and why, released to USA TODAY after a three-year court battle, allows for th...
25/04/2025

"The information about who died in custody and why, released to USA TODAY after a three-year court battle, allows for the first public accounting of deaths in custody nationwide since an updated version of the federal Death in Custody Reporting Act took effect on Oct. 1, 2015."

USA TODAY's initial analysis of previously secret records shows how numbers of in-custody overdoses, murders and suicides changed pre-pandemic.

"Attorneys said the roughly 20 parolees the state has returned to lockup need significant help performing basic function...
21/04/2025

"Attorneys said the roughly 20 parolees the state has returned to lockup need significant help performing basic functions of daily life, with some in wheelchairs or suffering from debilitating mental or physical disabilities. They say outside facilities have the capacity to provide more compassionate and humane care to very ill prisoners."

California has halted a court-ordered medical parole program, opting instead to send its most incapacitated prisoners back to state lockups or release them early.

"Across the country, clinicians, public health advocates, and medical students have allied with grassroots organizations...
09/04/2025

"Across the country, clinicians, public health advocates, and medical students have allied with grassroots organizations to halt the expansion of carceral institutions and call for alternative models of care and transformative justice. This book was inspired by these activities and emerged as a collaborative effort to document, expand upon, and propagate this growing area of research, practice, and activism to a broader public."

Assistant Professor Carlos Martinez's latest co-edited book explores the public health impacts of punitive policing, incarceration, and deportation policies and describes how the abolitionist health justice movement is working toward a new, more just vision of “safety” that protects, rather than...

"The UCLA team is also analyzing the mortality data, examining possible drivers and correlates of prison deaths such as ...
03/04/2025

"The UCLA team is also analyzing the mortality data, examining possible drivers and correlates of prison deaths such as restrictive housing (also known as solitary confinement), racial disparities, length of incarceration, and other factors."

For almost 20 years, from about 2000 until 2019, the federal government offered at least some idea of how many people across the U.S. die in prisons and jails each year, thanks to the Death in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA). But for the past six years, as the DCRA implementation goes through turmoil,....

“Monthly injections are safer for everyone,” says Andrea Brockman, a regional mental health ombudsman for a state correc...
03/04/2025

“Monthly injections are safer for everyone,” says Andrea Brockman, a regional mental health ombudsman for a state correctional system and a clinical psychologist who worked for the BOP for 11 years before joining the team of the federal Prison Education and Reform Alliance (PERA). “It protects participants from being beaten up, or worse, by people who want the oral strips to sell or use.” She warned the change to strips could increase suicides, overdoses and conflict."

Incarcerated people are reporting that the abrupt changes are wreaking havoc on their health and mental well-being.

"She began requesting hormone therapy in 2011 and was approved for it in 2015, according to court records. The 2019 laws...
18/03/2025

"She began requesting hormone therapy in 2011 and was approved for it in 2015, according to court records. The 2019 lawsuit that led to her transfer to a women's prison and her surgery was initially handwritten and prepared with the help of only another inmate."

In 2019, Cristina Iglesias filed a lawsuit that changed the course of treatment for herself and other transgender inmates in federal custody.

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All subscriptions are free! Please write to us at Prison Health News, 4722 Baltimore Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19143 or at [email protected] to request a subscription.

Prison Health News is published four times a year for people in prisons across the U.S. We strive to lift up the voices, experience and expertise of currently and formerly incarcerated people. We are the only resource that responds to all types of health questions from people in prisons and jails everywhere in the United States. With the radical power of information, we work to break down prison walls and build health and social justice for all.