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Prisoner rights

US Prison Horror Show Plays On

December 17, 2025 John Kiriakou, Consortium News. , , ,
Hopes for a major restructuring of the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) a year into President Donald Trump’s second term in office have come to naught.  Trump in June named former federal prisoner Josh Smith as the BOP’s deputy director. It was a bold and, in my view, progressive move. While greeted with hostility from the union representing federal corrections officers, it inspired hope among the tens of thousands of prisoners in federal custody.  Many of us thought that the next step would be something equally bold — perhaps to turn away from private prisons, which have cost the government millions of dollars in lawsuits because of wrongful deaths in custody, or perhaps to institute programming that would better prepare prisoners for release and for reintegration into society. 

Is The Labour Government Willing To Let Hunger Strikers Die?

December 16, 2025 Ana Vracar, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
In Britain, pressure is mounting on the Labour government to respond to demands put forward by dozens of activists imprisoned for direct action in support of Palestine, many of whom have been on hunger strike since early November. “The hunger strike, which involves eight prisoners for Palestine, is now on day 40,” the campaign Prisoners for Palestine wrote on Friday. “They are in the danger zone, where irreparable harm is likely, and their health becomes critical.” Even before launching the strike, the prisoners had pressed for a set of demands, including fair trial, deproscription of direct action group Palestine Action, and an end of Elbit Systems operations in the country.

Historic 12-Day March For Mumia Ends At SCI Mahanoy

December 12, 2025 Betsey Piette, Workers' World. , , , , ,
Around 150 participants filled both sides of the entrance road to State Correctional Institution (SCI) Mahanoy for a rally on Dec. 9 – the final day of the historic March for Mumia. The march demanded “Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal, End Medical Neglect [in Pennsylvania prisons] and End Elder Abuse.” The 12-day, 103-mile march started in Philadelphia on Nov. 28 and ended in Frackville, Pennsylvania, with over 65 people walking the last three miles. A long-time supporter of Mumia, Pam Africa, with International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, reminded people that Mumia was a journalist, a teacher, and a family man, who was railroaded and never had a fair trial. She urged people to keep on fighting for justice for Mumia.

Attica: When Prisoners Revolted

August 22, 2025 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , , , , ,
Each August marks the annual commemoration of a month honoring the legacy of Black prisoners kept behind bars for political activism. Black August is a month to honor the history of struggles for Black liberation, in defiance of racial, colonial, and imperialist oppression, both inside and outside prison walls. The 1971 Attica prison revolt, in which incarcerated people rose up in a struggle against oppression and inhumane conditions, and were subsequently repressed by state forces with horrifying brutality, is honored each year during Black August. On September 9, 1971, Attica prisoners took over a part of the prison in an event especially notable for its mass participation. Out of roughly 2,200 men imprisoned at Attica, 1,281 seized control of the facility.

Protecting Incarcerated People From ‘Prison-To-Ice Deportation Pipeline’

July 24, 2025 Tamar Sarai, Next City. , , ,
About 70% of the people who are currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody were transferred from the carceral system, often the same day that they completed their sentence and were formally released from prison or jail. According to California-based advocacy group Freedom for Immigrants, in California alone, this “prison-to-ICE detention pipeline” funnels some 1,500 incarcerated people per year into immigration detention centers the moment they have finally secured their release from prison.

Supporters Rally Behind Political Prisoners Who Stopped White Supremacist Attack

June 8, 2025 Frances Madeson, Truthout. , , ,
An upcoming clemency hearing will determine the near-term fate of Christopher “Naeem” Trotter, a political prisoner who has been held captive for over 40 years as punishment for a spontaneous act of community self-defense inside prison walls. On February 1, 1985, Trotter and another incarcerated man — John “Balagoon” Cole — led a rebellion within the prison now known as Pendleton Correctional Facility to protect a fellow prisoner, Lincoln “Lokmar” Love, who was being attacked with nightsticks by Indiana Department of Corrections prison guards. Trotter and Cole are now known as the “Pendleton 2,” and people nationwide have rallied in their defense.

Another Inmate Death At Federally Operated Detention Center

April 11, 2025 Darren Thompson, Last Real Indians. , , ,
Red Lake Indian Reservation - A death at a federally regulated jail on the Red Lake Indian Reservation is one of several inmate deaths in recent years, and the family is speaking up. Robin Hanson, 52, a Red Lake Band of Chippewa citizen, died while in custody at the Red Lake Detention Center on April 2, said his wife Betty Hanson in an interview with LRI Media. The jail is on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota and is regulated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), unlike other detention facilities in the state. “What they did to him and how they treated him feels like, to me, third world war—where they don’t care about anyone,” said Betty Hanson.

Incarcerated Transgender Women Challenge Trump’s Order

March 13, 2025 Betsey Piette, Workers World. , , , ,
Among the most horrific executive orders signed by Donald Trump on Jan. 20, were those withdrawing protection for transgender women incarcerated in federal prisons and terminating all their necessary gender-affirming medical care. The orders, which explicitly prohibit women’s prisons and detention centers from housing transgender female inmates, placed 22 trans women in imminent risk of transfer to a men’s facility where they would be subjected to strip searches and showering in front of men, violating the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).

This Black-Owned Bank Is Disrupting Recidivism

February 23, 2025 Hibah Ansari, Next City. , , , ,
For 21 years, Halim Flowers was incarcerated in prisons across the country, often spending his time reading books about economics, banking and finance. It wasn’t until 2018, during his last few months in the D.C. Department of Corrections, that 44-year-old Flowers was able to validate what he was learning, meet bankers from D.C. based-Industrial Bank, and open a savings account from prison with one of the only banks in the country offering services to incarcerated people. “They were good teachers. They humanized us as incarcerated people,” says Flowers, who is now an artist, author and runs his own fashion brand.

After 23 Years, Prisoners Remain In Guantanamo Without Charges

January 14, 2025 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , ,
January 11 marked the twenty-third anniversary of the opening of the US military prison on occupied land in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Clearing the FOG speaks with Andy Worthington, an investigative journalist and author of The Guantanamo Files. Worthington explains that the United States opened the prison in Guantanamo to avoid legal restrictions. He describes the connections between Guantanamo and the CIA 'black sites' where prisoners were tortured and who the men are that were recently released as well as who remains. There are calls for Joe Biden to release all of the men and end the scandal of the prison at Guantanamo Bay before he leaves office.

Los Angeles Fires Ravage Communities, Expose Systemic Issues

January 14, 2025 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
Several wildfires continue to burn in Eaton, Palisades, and other parts of the greater Los Angeles area, incurring a death toll of at least 24 people. Thus far the total area burned has reached nearly 40,000 acres, larger than each of the city limits of San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston and Miami. Over 150,000 people have been forced to flee from their homes, and the Eaton and Palisades fires alone have destroyed over 12,000 structures. As of the time of writing, the Palisades fire is only 14% contained and the Eaton fire is 33% contained.  Wildfires are highly unusual in Southern California during this time of year.

The ‘Ghost’ Of Guantanamo Is Freed

January 1, 2025 Andy Worthington. , , ,
In welcome news, the Pentagon has announced that it has repatriated from Guantánamo Ridah Al-Yazidi, 59, a Tunisian prisoner held without charge or trial since the very first day of the prison’s operations nearly 23 years ago, on January 11, 2002. Although almost completely unknown to the outside world, because of the mainstream media’s persistent lack of interest in investigating the mundane lawlessness of so much of the prison’s operations, Al-Yazidi’s case is one of the most outstanding cases of casual injustice at Guantánamo.

Milwaukee Demands Community Control Over Jail Audit

December 2, 2024 Fight Back! News. , , , , ,
Milwaukee, WI – On Monday, November 25, the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression held a press conference to comment on the recent findings of the jail audit that was released the week before. Two inmates’ mothers, Laquita Dunlap and Kerrie Hirte, spoke of their fights for justice and accountability. The audit was conducted with input from fewer than 40 inmates, and with no public transparency or input whatsoever. The public expected to hear a preliminary report in December with the full audit report coming in 2025. Instead, the entire report was released suddenly and without any forewarning in November of 2024.

How Pandemic-Era Prison Life Shows The Stakes Of Abolition

September 17, 2024 Justin A. Davis, Waging Nonviolence. , , , , ,
A few months before COVID became a permanent part of life in the U.S., the New York City Council approved a plan to shut down the infamous jail complex known as Rikers Island and replace it with four smaller facilities. (That plan was later delayed — and city officials have since acknowledged that they likely won’t meet the plan’s legal deadline.) The vote to close Rikers Island came from years of extensive grassroots organizing by reformists and abolitionists alike. But for those left caged there in 2020, the risks posed by COVID were immediate — not just illness and death, but new forms of the isolation, neglect and violence that already shape life inside. 

From Death Row To Being Seen As Human

August 3, 2024 Kevin Cooper, Scheer Post. , , ,
Every person unlucky enough to be sentenced to death has often dreamed about getting off death row, especially those who have spent decades as a condemned person living in an inhumane and torturous man-made hell.  Some have been able to leave, whether because they received a new trial or hearing, a penalty phase reversal, or they received life without parole (LWOP) in the sentencing or penalty phase of their trial or hearing. Since 1978, 30 men have gotten off death row by committing suicide; 13 were executed by the state. On Jan. 31, 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the dismantling of death row and moving all the condemned individuals to other maximum security state prisons.
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