Some prisons are waiving fees for hygiene supplies and county jails are releasing certain inmates early to combat the potential threat posed by the Covid-19 virus.
Inmates and guards don't have the option of staying home during a coronavirus outbreak, so detention centers risk becoming "incubators" for the disease. Some are scrambling to mitigate the risk.
The Allegheny County Jail runs a full high school for juveniles charged as adults. "In this part of the building, you are a student," Principal Jay Moser tells students on the first day.
The National Sheriffs' Association has published a detailed guide to jail-based medication-assisted treatment. States hardest hit by opioids are moving fastest to get inmates the help needed to quit.
Thousands of Massachusetts residents have been committed to treatment for addiction against their will. Some families say locking up addicts in prison isn't treatment. Others say it saves lives.
Getting mental health treatment to inmates who need it requires money and unprecedented collaboration between state and county departments of criminal justice and social services. Is it working?
While visiting jails and prisons across the country, author Alisa Roth witnessed mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement, wearing restrictive jumpsuits and receiving very limited therapy.
Amid a severe shortage of psychiatric beds and community-based treatment throughout the state and nation, county jails have become repositories for people in the throes of acute mental health crises.
Alisa Roth's new book suggests U.S. jails and prisons have become warehouses for the mentally ill. They often get sicker in these facilities, Roth says, because they don't get appropriate treatment.
Questions about the number of inmates dying in custody drew attention to the standards. A former Corrections chief said existing safety standards contained trade secrets, and would not release them.
Most of the state prison systems in the places that expanded Medicaid under Obamacare have come up short on enrolling exiting inmates, despite the fact that many of them are chronically ill.
The Labor Department is handing out $5 million in grants to fund job centers for people coming out of jail. The program is part of a broader effort to reduce recidivism.
Most inmates lose access to medication-assisted treatment for addiction once they're incarcerated. Among prisons and jails that do offer such treatment, it's often restricted to pregnant women.
Although the government is responsible for providing health services to people in jail and prison, inmates are still often expected to pay for a share of the treatment.
About 1,000 people die in American jails every year and about a third of those are suicides. Jails often house people who've never been in legal trouble before, and it can have a traumatic effect.
County jails that send inmates far away to serve short-term sentences can be a cost-saver to local governments. But it could have major consequences when prisoners are released.
