COVID-19 has exposed systemic injustice and institutional failures at every level of society, and nowhere more than in the criminal justice system. Incarcerated people are already being hit hard by the pandemic, but the situation is rapidly deteriorating -- and the effects will be felt beyond the walls of prisons and jails.
Read MoreSqualid and unhealthy even in the best of times, prisons and especially jails are especially vulnerable during a pandemic. That's not just a danger to incarcerated people -- it's a disaster for public health.
Read MoreRegardless of how it looks, there’s no direct evidence that Jeffrey Epstein’s jailhouse death on August 10 was anything other than a suicide. But there’s abundant evidence of a systemic problem with prison suicide — something that’s far more common than most people realize.
Read MoreA county sheriff in Alabama helped himself hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fund intended to feed jail inmates — and it’s all perfectly legal. How is that possible? And why do sheriffs have so much power over the conditions in which people are incarcerated in the first place?
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