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incarceration rates

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Low angle view of barbed wire against sky

Nation Sep 15

More people are dying in Louisiana prisons, some before getting a trial

By John Yang, Elizabeth Summers, Roby Chavez, Kaisha Young, Tess Conciatori

Health Mar 07

Rear view of a patient at the hospital looking through window
Why cancer patients leaving prison struggle to get care

There are a domino effect of delays that prevent formerly incarcerated patients from receiving needed cancer-related care, including screening, treatment and check-ups. Those delays add up.

By Laura Santhanam

Education Dec 13

searching
Watch 8:09
Initiative allows inmates to work toward law degree while behind bars

The United States has the highest rate of incarceration based on population. Part of it is due to an overwhelmed, underfunded system in both prosecutors' and public defenders' offices. As Fred de Sam Lazaro reports, one initiative is trying to…

By Fred de Sam Lazaro, Simeon Lancaster

Nation Nov 26

Photo is of Louisiana ten six lifers who were released from Louisiana Prison
Aging Louisiana prisoners were promised a chance at parole after 10 years. Some are finally free

Five "10/6 lifers" have recently been released after more than 50 years behind bars at Angola Prison in Louisiana. Prison reform advocates pushed for their release after decades-old plea deals were ignored.

By Roby Chavez

Nation Sep 21

backtoprison
Watch 8:13
Inmates released to home confinement during pandemic fear ‘devastating’ reincarceration

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Justice Department has released more than 30,000 non-violent inmates to home confinement to try to limit the virus' spread in prison. But, as John Yang reports for our ongoing "Searching for Justice"…

By John Yang, Mike Fritz

Aug 31

Watch 11:15
How ‘the incarceration capital of America’ embraced criminal justice reform

By William Brangham, Frank Carlson

For decades, the state of Louisiana has been known as the incarceration capital of America. But over the past year, the state has been trying to shed that reputation with new reforms that decrease the prison population and save money.

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Nov 04

New York City defied national trends, cut incarceration rate in half, study finds

By Ryan Connelly Holmes

New York City’s incarceration rate fell by more than 50 percent over the last two decades, even as the national incarceration rate rose, a new study reports.

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Feb 16

Watch
How poverty and mental illness are putting more people behind bars

By PBS News Hour

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Jan 24

Poll: Should employers doing background checks be blocked from seeing nonviolent criminal offenses?

By Stephen Fee

A growing number of jurisdictions are banning preliminary questions about job applicants’ criminal records. But advocates suggest a policy that goes a step further: to seal nonviolent, low-level criminal offenses that are more than ten years old, effectively blocking employers…

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Apr 29

How high incarceration rates cost states and shatter communities

By Murrey Jacobson

The documentary profiles the path of four people caught up in the cycle of Kentucky's criminal justice system. The four come from Beecher Terrace, a housing project in the west end of Louisville where one out of every six…

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Full Episode
Wednesday, Oct 1
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