Incarcerated

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A study from The University of Texas at El Paso reveals a gender disparity in prison infractions that disproportionately affects women. The study, led by Melinda Tasca, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Security Studies at UTEP, and published in Justice…

I grew up going to federal prisons. From the ages of 4 to 14, I visited my dad twice a year at correctional institutions all over the Midwest — Leavenworth, Terre Haute, Oxford and Sandstone. People sometimes ask me what it was like visiting prison. I usually start off by saying what it wasn’t like: There wasn’t a glass partition to speak through, or a phone, or a lot of sad faces. What there was, mostly: a big, surprisingly lively room filled with women and children. Playing cards, or with Barbies, or…

My parents, Shigeo and Joanne Watanabe, were U.S. citizens born and raised in Seattle — she a student at Seattle University who loved parties and red painted fingernails, he an aspiring accountant with a golden glove and killer smile.In the aftermath of Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, they were imprisoned in an incarceration camp — not an internment camp. Internment. Incarceration. Not many people make a distinction between the two terms or understand why it’s so important to do so. But in a historic decision aimed…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain While previous studies of incarceration and family life have focused on immediate family—parents, partners and children—a new analysis of a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults that asked about siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, cousins, and other extended family members has found that Black adults in the United States are not only more likely to have experienced family…

A Christmas miracle. Meek Mill posted the bail of multiple women last week so they could spend the holiday with their families. According to an Instagram post by his nonprofit REFORM Alliance, the 20 women were incarcerated at Philadelphia’s Riverside Correctional Facility. “The women, who were unable to afford bail, will now be able to spend the holiday season with their families and loved ones,” read the caption. “Five women were released today and will be reunited with their families, with the goal…

Meek Mill is bringing cheer this holiday season, as the REFORM Alliance co-founder paid the bail of women currently incarcerated in Philadelphia.The women, who were incarcerated at Riverside Correctional Facility in Philadelphia, also received gift cards to buy presents for their families. Five women were released today and will be reunited with their families, with 15 more women to be released in the coming week.“It was devastating for me to be away from my son during the holidays when I was incarcerated,” Mill said in a…

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Tuesday, Nov. 29. I’m Ryan Fonseca. Los Angeles County’s system for incarcerated young people is in disarray. A new investigation from Times reporter James Queally reveals that major staffing shortages in juvenile halls in the last eight months have resulted in more fights among youths, increased use of force by detention officers and a slew of resignations.The county’s probation department runs two juvenile hall facilities and a number of camps.…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain When Zimife Umeh, a new assistant professor of sociology at the George Washington University's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS), first embarked on researching the experiences of incarcerated mothers, she worried nobody would talk to her. …

Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck have been accused of stealing lyrics from a poem by an incarcerated man on their collaborative album, 18, Rolling Stone reports.The song Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade appears to take several lines from Hobo Ben, a poem and song by Slim Wilson, the alias of a self-proclaimed cheat and pimp who served time for murder and armed robbery.In 1964, while in Missouri State Penitentiary, Wilson met the folklorist Bruce Jackson, who documented his poetry and toasts – a comic form of narrative Black folk poetry,…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain People with disability are over-represented in prison and some are criminalised because of behaviours related to their disability. But they are unlikely to have their disability recognised or adjusted for, and the connection between the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and the criminal justice system has long been problematic.…