Truthout
Prisons
![Water drinking fountain with grunge texture](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2022/02/2022_0211-water-fountain-400x300.jpg)
This Prison in California Forced Incarcerated People to Drink Arsenic for Years
Thousands of people were forced to consume arsenic-laced water for years at Kern Valley State Prison.
![Officials from San Quentin State Prison in California display their Lethal Injection Facility in 2010. California recently placed a moratorium on capital punishment as botched executions and legal challenges raise brutal questions about lethal injection, but other states are moving in the opposite direction by pursuing other methods, such as gas chambers and firing squads.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2022/01/2022_0128-lethal-injection-400x300.jpg)
The Supreme Court Just Allowed the Executions of Two Disabled Black Men
Donald Grant and Matthew Reeves were executed after failing to “choose” their own method of death, activists say.
![A prison guard takes a picture of a prisoner with a Guardian RFID hand-held Spartan 3](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2022/01/2022_0127-guardian-rfid-spartan-1-400x300.jpg)
Prison Profiteer Is Using Sandra Bland’s Death to Sell Surveillance Technology
Guardian RFID has found a way not only to further surveil people behind bars, but also to profit from it.
![Amid a pandemic, the conditions at youth prisons have become all the more inhumane.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2022/01/GettyImages-1290006431-400x300.jpg)
My Son Was Incarcerated at 13. Six Years Later, It’s Clear the State Failed Him.
Amid a pandemic, the conditions at youth prisons have become all the more inhumane.
![President Joe Biden meets with members of his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in the South Court Auditorium at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on January 20, 2022, in Washington, D.C.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2022/01/GettyImages-1365920125-400x300.jpg)
It’s Time for Biden to Fulfill His Pledge to End the Federal Death Penalty
Aside from a 2021 moratorium on federal executions, the Biden administration hasn’t taken any steps to end the practice.
![An officer walks through a prison cell block in Camp V where prisoners are housed in the single cell facility at the U.S. military prison for so-called enemy combatants on June 25, 2013, in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2022/01/2022_0113-guantanamo-400x300.jpg)
Guantánamo Isn’t Ancient History. It Has Become a “Forever Prison.”
I’ve fought to close Guantánamo for 16 years. It should never have opened.
![Muslim Army Chaplain Who Condemned Torture of Gitmo Prisoners Was Jailed Himself](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2022/01/SEG2-Begg-Split-400x300.jpg)
Former Army Chaplain at Guantánamo Was Jailed There Himself
James Yee was jailed and held in solitary confinement for 76 days after being falsely accused of espionage.
![Illustration of police officer with giant hands boxing in and leading two students](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2022/01/2022_0110-police-pipeline-c-400x300.jpg)
Police-Led Youth Programs Don’t Actually Combat the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Police-led youth diversion programs instead expand the reach of the carceral state and the prison-industrial complex.
![An illustration of a prisoner curled up within the silhouette of a covid-19 particle](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2022/01/2022_0106-omicron-prison-400x300.jpg)
Omicron Outbreaks in Prisons Put Everyone at Risk, But Data Is Scarce
Prisons in multiple states restricted access to pandemic data in 2021.
![Immigrants Held in ICE Jails at Risk Amid New Omicron Surge](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2022/01/SEG2-Briones-free-us-400x300.jpg)
Immigrants Held in ICE Jails at Risk Amid New Omicron Surge
More than 22,000 people being held in jails run by ICE face COVID with no option for social distancing.