Latest News On Prison Health Care

Latest KFF Health News Stories

Long Waits for Montana State Hospital Leave Psychiatric Patients in Jail

KFF Health News Original

A backlog at Montana’s psychiatric hospital for those facing criminal charges has left people with serious mental illness behind bars for months without adequate treatment. In some cases, judges have freed defendants over due-process violations.

Inmates Who Died Asked for Release Before Falling Ill With Covid

KFF Health News Original

Covid is running rampant through the Alderson women’s prison in West Virginia, in one of the deadliest outbreaks this year at a federal correctional facility. This comes as Bureau of Prisons officials take heat for how the agency has handled the pandemic.

Solitary Confinement Condemns Many Prisoners to Long-Term Health Issues

KFF Health News Original

An estimated 300,000 people were held in solitary confinement in U.S. jails and prisons at the height of the pandemic. An international movement is pushing to limit the form of incarceration due to its damaging physical and psychological effects.

Some County Jail Inmates See Vaccination as Ticket to a Better Life — In the State Pen

KFF Health News Original

In the Los Angeles County Jail system, many inmates hope being vaccinated will get them transferred more quickly to state prison. Some just want to protect themselves against covid, while others are distrustful and refuse vaccination.

Inmates’ Distrust of Prison Health Care Fuels Distrust of Covid Vaccines

KFF Health News Original

Many inmates at Western Missouri Correctional Center, like their peers in prisons across Missouri and the nation, are hesitant about getting vaccinated against covid-19 because they don’t trust prison health care.

Lessons From California Prison Where Covid ‘Spread Like Wildfire’

KFF Health News Original

One California county is home to the two worst clusters of covid in prisons in the country. Ninety-four percent of Avenal State Prison’s inmates contracted the virus. Physical distancing has proved impossible in a facility housing 50% more people than it should.

New Moms Behind Bars Get Help From Someone Who’s Been There

KFF Health News Original

Nina Porter of Indiana spent most of her adulthood behind bars, even raising an infant daughter in prison. Now out of prison, she’s drawing on her struggles to create a program that helps other moms get by in a sometimes unwelcoming post-prison world.

California Prisons Are COVID Hotbeds Despite Billions Spent On Inmate Health

KFF Health News Original

At $3.6 billion a year, California spends more on prison health care than other states spend to run their entire prison systems. But despite the spending, and federal court oversight, prisons across California are struggling to contain deadly outbreaks of COVID-19.

As COVID Cuts Deadly Path Through Indiana Prisons, Inmates Say Symptoms Ignored

KFF Health News Original

Since the start of the pandemic, prisoners and their families have contradicted state officials about the conditions inside Indiana prisons. Many inmates report they’ve had no way to protect themselves from close contact with other inmates and staff members. They believe contracting the coronavirus is inevitable.

Under COVID Cloud, Prisons In Rural America Threaten To Choke Rural Hospitals

KFF Health News Original

A rural Montana county of 5,000 people lays claim to the state’s highest COVID-19 infection rate. The community risks additional spread, though, because of a private prison situated there. If the virus infiltrates the prison and just a fraction of inmates get sick, the area’s limited health resources may not endure.