Each year, 200,000 adults and children are sexually abused in U.S. jails, prisons, and detention centers: more than the population of Tallahassee or Birmingham, Alabama (JDI). It’s not like this is a secret. The United States, which incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, openly acknowledges the prevalence of sexual assault in
He served more than 20 years in the Florida prison system — and every day was a battle for survival. Only 18 when he was sentenced, this man — who has asked to remain anonymous — was raped at knifepoint six months after arriving at the notorious Everglades Correctional Institution. He was transferred out of
Prisons wreak havoc on mental health — the isolation, chaos, and daily humiliations of life behind bars cause emotional scars that can take years to heal. To stave off depression, many incarcerated Americans rely on mail from loved ones. Letters from home were so important to Johanna Mills — a formerly incarcerated woman and prisoners’
In 2018, when I reported for Future Tense on a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections program that restricts physical mail, I collected scans from incarcerated people of photos and cards sent by their loved ones. Under the program, loved ones send mail to a facility in Florida, operated by the private company Smart Communications, which then scans and sends correspondence to the
The liquid hit her straight in the right eye. On a Monday afternoon in January, after an officer in New Jersey’s only women’s prison searched a cell, a prisoner appeared to use a bottle to squirt something at the officer’s face, according to a new state report. It might have been milk. It might have