by Jayson Hawkins
Officer Phillip Tippett, 47, died on Christmas Day 2020, shooting himself with a gun he brought into Coleman, a federal prison complex in Sumter County, Florida.
Joe Rojas, a spokesperson for the AFGE Council of Prisons union, said Tippett had been under investigation due to an inmate ...
by Jayson Hawkins
In the summer of 2020, the social landscape of the United States was shaken by nationwide demonstrations following the police killing of George Floyd. In response, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told his employees that the company was committed to “addressing racial injustice and inequity.” To that end, ...
by Jayson Hawkins
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) shuttered its Wayne Scott Unit in Brazoria County on December 15, 2020. Its Neal Unit in Amarillo and Gurney Unit outside Palestine were also closed by the end of 2020.
TDCJ said the latter two were expected to be temporary ...
by Jayson Hawkins
A two-year federal investigation into the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (MDOC) found that prisoners’ constitutional rights had been violated in regard to mental health care.
Investigators cited hundreds of instances of MDOC employees failing to prevent suicide or other self-harm among prisoners who had been designated for ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Two audits released July 20, 2020 revealed a series of shortcomings by a food service contractor tasked with providing meals to juvenile detainees and in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County.
Florida-based contractor Trinity Services Group was paid $3.5 million to provide three meals a day to prisoners at the ...
by Jayson Hawkins
His Texas ID card identifies him as Jason Jackson, Offender #2208297. The black ink etched in his skin and white clothing he must wear mark him as little different from 140,000 others in the state’s prison system, yet the phrase “Living Legend” tattooed across his face is ...
by Jayson Hawkins
National health experts were concerned early in the pandemic that prisons would prove to be superspreader sites for COVID-19.
They were right.
According to The Marshall Project, more than 20% of the incarcerated population nationwide had tested positive for the novel coronavirus as of December 2020. ...
by Jayson Hawkins
For the millions of Americans with loved ones behind bars, information posted online by the prison systems often provides the only inkling of what is happening inside the walls on a dayto-day basis. Never has this been more true than during the pandemic. But what happens when ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Recent public outrage over the needless killings of Black men at the hands of police has led to greater scrutiny of the many instances in which people of color die either while being arrested or while in police custody. The patterns of racism, casual violence, arrogance, and ...
by Jayson Hawkins
When facing the harsh reality of incarceration, whether for a few years or several decades, one will soon confront a rather crucial question: “What am I going to do with all this time?”
For many, the answer is to distract themselves with dominoes and television. Others turn ...
