Truthout
Prison
![A sign reading "SAVE US" is displayed in a prison window festooned with razor wire](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0418-prison-400x300.jpg)
As Coronavirus Spreads Through Prisons, States Are Failing Incarcerated People
Some officials pledged to reduce incarceration to curb the spread of COVID-19, but are they actually following through?
![Prisoners with COVID-19 warehoused in a gym](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0416-prison-gym-covid-19-400x300.jpg)
Where I’m Incarcerated, People With COVID-19 Are Warehoused in a Gym
A private company located hundreds of miles away is making medical decisions for COVID-19 patients in my prison.
![The Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola, is a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections, pictured October 14, 2013.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0414-louisiana-prison-angola-400x300.jpg)
Louisiana Issued a COVID Memo to Release Prisoners — Then Quickly Rescinded It
Louisiana is a COVID-19 epicenter with the U.S.’s highest incarceration rate, but officials won’t release its prisoners.
![A sign pleading for help hangs in a window at the Cook County jail complex on April 9, 2020, in Chicago, Illinois.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0414-prison-coronavirus-j-400x300.jpg)
HIV Prison Activists Are Leading a Freedom Movement in the Face of COVID-19
People who have long organized against HIV in prisons are demanding the release of incarcerated people amid COVID-19.
![The prison pictured is one of over 109 prisons run by the exas Department of Criminal Justice across the state, many of them built during a period of great expansion in the 1990s and laid out on rural farmland.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0410-rural-prison-400x300.jpg)
Prioritizing Jails Over Hospitals Has Made Rural US More Vulnerable to COVID-19
Decades of investment in prison infrastructure instead of public health has laid the track for the unfolding disaster.
![A prisoner facing a coronavirus molecule](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0409-coronavirus-prisoner-j6-400x300.jpg)
Prison Guards Are Receiving Hand Sanitizer. My Incarcerated Son Is Not.
COVID-19 has already killed two people in the prison where my son is held. I am terrified because he has no protection.
![](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/SEG2-Prison-Barbed-Wire-400x300.jpg)
Prisoners Plea for Release, Protection Amid Skyrocketing Infection Rates
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has yet to grant anyone freedom despite a number of confirmed cases among prisoners.
![A pregnant woman in a prison uniform prepares to take a seat](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/2020_0406-prison-400x300.jpg)
As COVID-19 Spreads Behind Bars, Will Officials Release Pregnant People?
Some prison officials are releasing pregnant people and new mothers early; advocates say this needs to occur nationwide.
![](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/04/GettyImages-1208727328-400x300.jpg)
COVID-19 Is Turning Prisons Into “Kill-Boxes”
Activists are calling for large numbers of people to be released from jails, prisons and immigrant detention.
![Prison guard holds keys in prison hallway](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/03/2020_0326-prison-guard-400x300.jpg)
Incarcerated Anti-Fascists Report Targeted Beatings by Guards
Avowed anti-fascist Eric King has been severely beaten, locked up in solitary and denied legal access.