The Disturbing Science of Incarceration in the U.S.
Nearly one in 100 U.S. adults is in prison or jail, often as a result of questionable or biased convictions and subject to living (and dying) under conditions that research reveals as extremely inhumane
Solitary Confinement Is Cruel and Ineffective
Isolating inmates inflicts permanent mental harm. The practice must be curbed
Many Prisoners on Death Row are Wrongfully Convicted
Researchers estimate that more than 340 U.S. inmates that could have been exonerated were sentenced to death since 1973
Should Prisoners Be Used in Medical Experiments?
History is rife with unethical experiments on inmates. But with proper safeguards prisoner studies may hold the key to the accurate representation of vulnerable groups and lead to health benefits...
Criminals Need Mental Health Care
Psychiatric treatment is far better than imprisonment for reducing recidivism
Yoga Lowers Inmates' Aggression and Anxiety
Yoga practice reduces anxiety and impulsivity in prison populations
IQ Cutoff for Death Penalty Struck Down by Supreme Court
The ruling acknowledges the inherent variability in IQ scores and their margin of error
Debate on Who Is Smart Enough to Be Executed
The Supreme Court will soon grapple with the science of how intellectual disability is measured. The arguments will bear on applying the death penalty to people who don't understand the legal process...
Condoms Behind Bars: A Modest Proposal to Cut STIs in Calif. Prisons
A “harm reduction” approach to public health, rather than an abstinence or look-the-other-way policy, scored another win this month when the California state legislature gave the green light to a bill that would provide condoms for adult prison inmates...
Prisons in Post-Soviet Russia Incubate a Plague
The collapse of the Soviet health care system in the 1990s coupled with prisons releasing improperly treated inmates and endemic poverty escalated incidences of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis to epidemic proportions...
Brain Injury Rate 7 Times Greater among U.S. Prisoners
Prisoners suffer disproportionately from past traumatic brain injuries. Researchers are hunting for the best tools to treat this population in an effort to help them reintegrate into society--and avoid re-incarceration...
Let's Stop Pretending the Death Penalty Is a Medical Procedure [Editorial]
The use of drugs to carry out capital punishment is putting bona fide medical patients at risk
How to Help the Growing Female Prison Population
Orange Is the New Black, the popular Netflix show based on the memoir by Piper Kerman, brought female prisons into America's living room, highlighting several issues that are plaguing the correctional system...
Faulty Forensic Science under Fire
Two federal agencies aim to set standards for crime labs
