Prisons

Younger correctional officers could soon be headed to jails in Essex County, Massachusetts. In order to address a critical staffing shortage, the sheriff there is lowering the minimum hiring age from 21 years old to 19 years old.  The new minimum goes into effect Monday. To be eligible, applicants have to be 19 years old as of June 1. Essex County…

Right now correctional officers are pulling double shifts to keep the prison up and running. They hope lowering the hiring age will help fill vacancies.

It’s only been a few weeks since the “Growing Up Chrisley” star’s parents Todd and Julie Chrisley began serving their respective 12 and seven-year-long prison sentences on Jan. 17.

About 50 correctional officers at a Massachusetts prison are participating in a pilot program to evaluate the use of body cams in improving safety and transparency in state Department of Correction facilities, officials announced Monday. The program is taking place at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, a maximum security facility and the reception and diagnostic center for all newly…

Free weights should be removed from maximum and medium security prisons in the Bay State, after a correction officer was “violently assaulted” with gym equipment last week, the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union Executive Board said Tuesday. Correction Officer Matthew Tidman is on life support after being assaulted by an inmate with a 10-15 pound piece of lead gym equipment…

A Massachusetts correction officer was seriously hurt when they were attacked by an inmate at MCI-Shirley on Wednesday, according to the Department of Correction. DOC said the inmate assaulted the officer with a metal object while in the gymnasium of the building. Other staff had to step in to stop the attack, which knocked the officer unconscious. The officer was…

Carmela Mose is an inmate at Central California Women’s Facility and the winner of the Securus original hip-hop track contest. Her song, “I Think,” was chosen as the winner by the rapper Lecrae, who joined Mose for a studio session – the only one in 10 years that Lecrae has ever cried. LX News storyteller Ngozi Ekeledo meets them both...

Recent reporting on the federal prison system has revealed layer after layer of abuse, neglect and leadership missteps in the Bureau of Prisons — including failure to tell families when a prisoner is severely ill or dying.

A follow-up to an earlier Associated Press investigation finds that the crisis at the federal correctional institution in Dublin, California, is far from over.

Grassroots organizations across the country battle prison restrictions and pandemic struggles to send books to incarcerated people.

Julius Jones is sitting in an Oklahoma prison, no longer scheduled for execution but with no chance at release. Gov. Kevin Stitt commuted Jones’ sentence to life without parole in November 2021, after the state parole board expressed about the doubts about the evidence that led to his conviction for the murder of Paul Howell. Rev. Keith Jossell, Jones’ pastor,...

The coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the labor market have pushed many prison staffing systems into crisis

“They didn’t know what to do with us,” says Jermaine Archer, who caught COVID while incarcerated at Rikers Island. The New York City jail holds people pretrial and has faced criticism for deaths and crowded conditions. NBC New York’s Kay Angrum was live outside after 2 counter-protesting groups spoke on behalf of corrections workers and the incarcerated.

Pope Francis has called for “more humane” prison life in the wake of bloodshed in a prison in Ecuador in which 118 people died and dozens more were injured.