Articles

By JAKE PEARSON and TOM HAYSRikers Island jail with the New York skyline in the background. Over the past five years, there have been three deaths in New York City's jails in which inmates were alleged to have been fatally beaten by guards. Yet in none of those cases was anyone ever charged with ...

By: CLIFTON ADCOCK | December 13, 2014Published by request of OklahomaWatch.orgRazor-wire fencing surrounds the Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington. Ben Fenwick / Oklahoma WatchPushing to reduce prison overcrowding, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections has quietly changed its policies ...

In a Federal Bureau of Prisons first, inmates serving time in a Miami federal detention center were allowed to dance with their daughters for an afternoon as part of a re-entry program. The theme: There's still time at the ball, still time to take an active role in their daughters' lives.Omar Out...

October 31, 2014A self-trained survivalist was shackled in the handcuffs used by a Pennsylvania state trooper he allegedly killed in an ambush last month, the state police commissioner said during a news conference. U.S. Marshals captured Eric Frein outside an abandoned hangar at Birchwood-Po...

September 30, 2014Introducing for-profit companies into America's criminal justice system has been a bad deal for governments across the country.During the past several years, a movement opposed to profit incentives in our criminal justice system has grown. Private prison corporations such as Cor...

Oscar Pistorius has been sentenced to five years in prison for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. South African Judge Thokozile Masipa delivered the ruling on Tuesday, with the double-amputee Olympic runner in court. JOHANNESBURG -With a judge seeking to strike a balance between mercy and retrib...

Originally formed for self-protection, prison gangs have become the unlikely custodians of order behind bars-and of crime on the streets.By Graeme Wood - Photos by Brian L. FrankSEPTEMBER 16, 2014On a clear morning this past February, the inmates in the B Yard of Pelican Bay State Prison filed ou...

FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2013 file photo, inmates sit in their bunks in Dorm B at Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Ala. When inmates at a notorious Alabama women’s prison came forward to complain of sexual abuse and harassment, state investigators time and again classified the complaints as...

Projected Decline of More Than 12,000 Inmates Over Next Two Years, Attorney General Holder SaysSept. 23, 2014By ANDREW GROSSMAN - Wall Street JournalAttorney General Eric Holder announced the expected decline in federal prison population. Pictured, the Federal Bureau of Prisons correctional compl...