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Staff shortages have long been a challenge for prison agencies, given the low pay and grueling nature of the work. But the coronavirus pandemic — and its impact on the labor market — has pushed many corrections systems into crisis.

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BALTIMORE (AP) — More than two dozen correctional officers in Baltimore were charged Tuesday with using excessive force on prisoners at state-operated jails in a city plagued by decades of institutional corruption, inside and outside jailhouse walls. The 25 indicted officers are accused of assaulting and threatening detainees at correctional facilities, tampering with evidence and […]

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OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A small group of inmates, disproportionately black, are set to stay in Washington state prisons for life — left out of the latest in a multi-year wave of reforms easing tough-on-crime “three strikes” laws around the U.S. At least 24 states including Washington passed such laws during the 1990s, embracing tough-on-crime […]

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Maggots and mice have fallen onto inmates’ dining tables at a California state prison where holes in the roof also allow rain and bird droppings to seep through and streak the walls, according to an inmate lawsuit that charges the state isn’t moving fast enough to repair deteriorating prisons. California has […]

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Justice Department issued a scathing report on Alabama’s prisons on Wednesday, saying the state is violating the Constitution by failing to protect inmates from violence and sexual abuse and by housing them in unsafe and overcrowded facilities. The department gave Alabama 49 days to correct the violations, or possibly face […]

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America’s jails and prisons have long since banned and censored books that they determined posed a material danger to the safety of inmates and employees. It makes sense to prohibit how-to manuals on crafting homemade weapons or escaping confined spaces, but at least two prisons in New Jersey have decided to ban Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking […]

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SMYRNA, Del. (AP) — Inmates at a Delaware prison took five corrections department workers hostage Wednesday, a move the inmates told a local newspaper was due to concerns about their treatment and the leadership of the United States. The hostage situation drew dozens of officers and law enforcement vehicles to the James T. Vaughn Correctional […]

An advisory panel found that Waller County Jail needs a major overhaul including a new facility, better mental health screenings for inmates and a body cam policy for officers.

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The last of the “Angola Three” inmates, whose decades in solitary confinement in connection with the death of a prison guard drew international condemnation and became the subject of two documentaries, was ordered released Monday. The ruling would free 68-year-old Albert Woodfox after more than 40 years in solitary, which human […]

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In an effort to gain an edge with voters of color over leading Democratic 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, one of her Republican opponents plans…

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ODESSA, Texas (AP) — A prison bus skidded off an icy Texas highway, slid down an embankment and collided with a passing freight train Wednesday, killing eight inmates and two corrections officers, including the bus driver, authorities said. The overpass on Interstate 20 was slick with ice Wednesday morning when the Texas Department of Criminal […]

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NEW YORK (AP) — The New York City mayor wants to spend $130 million over four years to overhaul how the nation’s most populous city deals with mentally ill and drug-addicted suspects, diverting many to treatment instead of the city’s troubled Rikers Island jail complex. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plans, to be announced Tuesday, are […]