A federal judge in Nevada has ruled that a law that further penalizes those who re-enter the U.S. after deportation is unconstitutional. Section 1326 says if you were denied entry to the U.S. or were deported at some point, that law makes entering the U.S. a felony. The Nevada judge says it violates the U.S. Constitution because of its racist, anti-Mexican origins. The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing this decision.
In the midst of a pandemic that's wreaking havoc on prisons and disproportionately affects older people, activists known as the Kings Bay Plowshares have been sentenced to up to 33 months in prison.
"Nearly three decades after [Dustin Lee] Honken coldly ended the lives of five people, including two young girls ... he has finally faced justice," a spokeswoman said in a statement.
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.
The spread of coronavirus behind bars is likely much more rampant than what's known right now. In prisons, jails and immigration detention centers, limited testing already shows widespread infection.
The state of Mississippi is the subject of lawsuits and a federal investigation following the deaths of more than 30 inmates in its prison system since late last year.
Rikers Island jail in New York City is currently in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak. Inmate Daryl Campbell is currently under quarantine and shares his experience.
In California, former inmates released early to help reduce coronavirus risks behind bars lack support when they get out, say advocates, who want better, organized help to address the crisis.
More than 100 prisoners at Monroe Correctional Complex's minimum-security unit set off fire extinguishers in protest after six fellow inmates were diagnosed with COVID-19 in recent days.
The state's Department of Corrections said it is largely decommissioning the facility. Federal officials have condemned Alabama's prison system as understaffed, overcrowded and outright "cruel."
In Getting Wrecked: Women, Incarceration, and the American Opioid Crisis, aRikers Island doctor says drug treatment in U.S. jails and prisons is often shaped by societal prejudice, not science.
Lawyer-poet Reginald Dwayne Betts for years hid the fact that he had served time in prison. Now, this time in his life is at the center of his new collection of poems.
Turns out the departing "visitor" wasn't a woman at all – but a drug trafficker sentenced to decades in prison and boldly trying to escape. He was reportedly caught because he was acting nervous.
Natalie Lynch spent the last two weeks of her pregnancy in a prison cell, mostly alone. As female incarceration rates rise, some states are banning solitary confinement of pregnant women.
People convicted of felonies often have difficulties getting hired. But many employers say they're suffering a labor shortage, and attitudes toward hiring people with criminal records are changing.
An Idaho inmate sued the state to receive sex reassignment surgery and won. If she prevails in federal appeals court, she'll become the first inmate to receive the surgery through court order.
The current prison system fails to protect inmates from killing themselves, a federal court ruled. The decision comes after 15 state inmates died by suicide in 15 months.
A civil rights investigation into the Alabama prison system by the Department of Justice finds conditions unsafe and unconstitutional. Violence, understaffing and crowding are common.
Nearly three years after the state of Illinois agreed in a court settlement to revamp mental health care in prisons and provide better treatment, a judge says the care remains "grossly insufficient."
