Truthout
Prison
![Four women in two rows construct face masks at workstations reminiscent of a sweatshop](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/06/2020_0605prison-400x300.jpg)
Companies Are Using Pandemic to Squeeze Money From Incarcerated People Like Me
Being incarcerated should not make people like me and our families targets for extortion by phone companies.
![A sheriff with a COVID-19 badge stands in front of prison bars](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/05/2020_0529-sheriff-covid--400x300.jpg)
California Sheriff Refuses to Release People From Jail as COVID Outbreak Rages
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said he would not enforce public health orders meant to prevent spread of COVID-19.
![Attorney General William Barr looks over notes during an event at the U.S. Department of Justice on December 3, 2019, in Washington, D.C.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/05/2020_0526-william-barr-release-400x300.jpg)
Feds Made It Harder to Free Prisoners Amid COVID, Even as Barr Promised Releases
A secret Bureau of Prisons policy has kept all but 1.8 percent of federal prisoners behind bars, where the virus rages.
![Jeremiah Bourgeois gives a presentation to students at the University of Washington School of Law three days after being released from prison.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0515-incarcerated-stories-400x300.jpg)
Formerly Incarcerated People Should Be Compensated for Telling Their Stories
Expecting us to tell our incarceration stories to people who are paid to be there is yet another inequity we suffer.
![A man in a gray suit puts his arms around three women standing next to him](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/05/regina-photo-400x300.jpg)
With My Child Incarcerated During a Pandemic, I Spend Mother’s Day in Fear
How many more incarcerated people have to die before elected officials take action?
![Uniformed police officers disregard social distancing procedures while standing in a group](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/05/2020_0508-cops-400x300.jpg)
Let’s Imagine a Post-Pandemic Era With Less Policing and No New Jails
During this crisis, we can learn from the people who have been imagining and creating new ways of being in community.
![Calls Grow for Mass Release from Ohio’s Marion Prison as 80% of Prisoners Test Positive for COVID-19](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/05/SEG3-MCI-Protesters-Split-400x300.jpg)
80 Percent of People Held in Ohio’s Marion Prison Test Positive for COVID-19
Eleven prisoners and one staff member have died at the Marion Correctional Institution.
![Prisoners seen through narrow prison windows](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0427-prisoners-400x300.jpg)
To Understand COVID in Prisons, Listen to Incarcerated People
The media must push back against rosy reports from prison officials and demand to speak directly with the prisoners.
![A woman plays a horn while taking part in a vigil outside Queensboro Correctional Facility on April 23, 2020, in New York City.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0427-new-york-prisons-400x300.jpg)
Incarceration Is Killing Us
Kelly Hayes talks with Alan Mills about COVID-19, prisons and making bold demands.
![Pepper-Sprayed, Otay Mesa Detainees Demand Release as COVID-19 Spreads Inside](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/SEG4-Otay-Mesa-Protest-1-400x300.jpg)
Pepper-Sprayed, Otay Mesa Detainees Demand Release as COVID-19 Spreads Inside
Activists say hundreds imprisoned in detention centers in California are on hunger strike.