incarceration and health

Pamela Winn, a registered nurse by training, was pregnant when incarcerated in 2008. After a miscarriage, she was put into solitary confinement for what she was told was medical observation. That eight months in solitary scarred her for life, she says.

Health & Safety

COVID precautions put more prisoners in isolation. It can mean long-term health woes

1:41pm October 04, 2021

by Katja Ridderbusch

An estimated 300,000 people were held in solitary confinement in the U.S. at the height of the pandemic. Advocates are pushing to limit the practice, citing lasting harm to prisoners' health.

Waiting for an Echo, by Christine Montross

Psychiatrist: America's 'Extremely Punitive' Prisons Make Mental Illness Worse

3:42pm July 16, 2020

by Dave Davies

Dr. Christine Montross says people with serious mental illnesses in the U.S. are far more likely to be incarcerated than to be treated in a psychiatric hospital. Her new book is Waiting for an Echo.

Queue Listen Now

"What makes this pandemic so scary is all the unknown factors," writes 40-year-old Mohammed Monsuri.

Lockdown In Lockup: A Prisoner At Sing Sing On Life During The COVID-19 Crisis

5:28pm June 26, 2020

Mohammed Monsuri, who is incarcerated at the New York prison, describes how he learned about the pandemic and the challenges of staying safe. The coronavirus has hit prisons across the U.S. hard.

Queue Listen Now

On Tuesday, April 28 demonstrators outside Westville Correctional Facility protested conditions in the facility.

Health & Safety

As COVID-19 Cuts Deadly Path Through Indiana Prisons, Inmates Say Symptoms Ignored

5:00am May 26, 2020

by Jake Harper

Prisoners and their relatives have contradicted state officials about the conditions and medical care inside Indiana prisons. Some say didn't learn an imprisoned relative had COVID-19 until he died.

Health & Safety

Setting Precedent, A Federal Court Rules Jail Must Give Inmate Addiction Treatment

10:32am May 04, 2019

by Willis R. Arnold

Many jails and prisons refuse to offer medication for opioid addiction, even to inmates who had been in treatment before incarceration. A recent ruling in a federal court says that's not acceptable.