Key Facts

Total Number of People in County Jails and State Prisons, 2015
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When New York Corrections Officers Went on Strike for Better Working Conditions, Those of Us Incarcerated Continued to Suffer

LaShawn Lewis is currently incarcerated at one of the prisons affected by this year’s corrections officer strikes.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an extreme shortage of staff within the carceral system. As a result, security staff are at times forced to work and are routinely exposed to high levels of stress and traumatic events. Without a doubt, this pattern becomes taxing both mentally and physically. This fatigue affects a number of different ...

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  • LaShawn Lewis
May 13, 2025
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With 20 Deaths in 2025, LA Jails Continue Deadly Trend

97 people have died in LA County jails since the start of 2023.

How are people dying? Los Angeles County has not yet publicly issued causes of death for everyone who has died in county jails in recent months. And even once even once autopsy reports are finalized, they don’t tell the whole story. When the coroner rules that a death is the result of “natural causes,” jail conditions can still be to blame. Researc ...

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  • Sam McCann
May 09, 2025
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People Are Being Deported Because of Their Tattoos

Hundreds of people have been deported to El Salvador’s mega-prison because of their tattoos. It’s not the first time tattoos have been weaponized against immigrants.

Tattoos and clothing—markers of appearance—are being used by the United States government to decide who gets to stay in the country and who is subject to indefinite imprisonment in a notorious prison in El Salvador. On March 15, immigration officials summarily deported 238 Venezuelan citizens to El Salvador, where they are now being held in the Ce ...

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  • Nazish Dholakia
May 06, 2025
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