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Open gates, good food and communal living make for a very different approach to incarceration.
Private companies can provide services - like catering - for inmates.
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Turning prisons into a market opportunity could open them up to corruption.
Los Angeles County women’s jail in Lynwood, California.
Reuters/Lucy Nicholson
A new public opinion survey reveals Americans largely agree on sentencing reform, and how money spent on prisons could be reinvested in communities.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was recently the subject of a racist video rant.
Lintao Zhang/EPA
Calls to impose harsh prison sentences for verbal crimen injuria are often premised on the need to deter such behaviour.
Even the most humanely designed prisons have negative effects on the people living and working inside.
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A wealth of research suggests prisons have serious detrimental effects on prisoners and prison workers.
Stigmatising and shaming ex-offenders hampers efforts to reintegrate them into society.
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Politicians’ knee jerk dismissal of an idea that could help rehabilitate ex-offenders is
unhelpful.
Barbed wire surrounds the the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La.
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
A historian reminds us that protests in prisons are often followed by retaliation.
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Games such as chess should be a welcome addition to the activities available for prisoners.
Around half of prisoners have a substance dependence.
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Some drug and alcohol programs
currently used in prisons have little evidence to support them.
California inmates take a break from their ‘jobs’ fighting fires to play some chess.
Reuters/Lucy Nicholson
Prisoners in 17 states are striking to call attention to harsh conditions and low pay for their labor, something that may run afoul of the 13th Amendment and other legal commitments.
Corrupt practices in prison take many forms.
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Containing wealthy corruptors in underfunded, understaffed prisons is like putting a grizzly bear in a wobbly bamboo cage designed to hold goats guarded by unskilled shepherds.
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A new female offender strategy in England and Wales plans to put fewer women in prisons. Here’s why that’s so important.
Preliminary research into the Chess for Life Program in Alberta, Canada, shows that youth who are sentenced to chess instruction after committing non-violent crimes are learning useful life skills.
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In Alberta, an alternative initiative sees youth who commit non-violent crimes sentenced to 25 hours of chess instruction with a University of Lethbridge professor.
A Georgia penitentiary in 1911.
Library of Congress
Digitized state records help to tell the stories of African-American prisoners in the 19th and 20th century.
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A visiting scheme envisaged to deter police misconduct in custody is not fit for purpose.
Why isn’t there more public pressure to improve the state of British prisons?
Dan Kitwood/PA Archive
Without public pressure, politicians won’t make improving conditions in prisons a priority.
Having a safe and stable place to live is key to breaking entrenched cycles of poverty and criminal justice system involvement.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Experiencing homelessness increases the risk of criminal justice system involvement, and experiencing imprisonment increases the likelihood of homelessness.
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Digital and communication poverty is unhelpful – depriving prisoners is short-sighted.
A royal commission has recommended that the Don Dale detention centre be closed.
Neda Vanovac/AAP
The Don Dale royal commission’s capacity to make lasting change lies with the government implementing its recommendations.
Neuroscience can help incarcerated brains.
Donald Tong
Hollywood pushes a fantasy version of what neuroscience can do in the courtroom. But the field does have real benefits to offer, right now: solid evidence on what would improve prisons.