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Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
@PrisonPolicy
Jul 11 • 8 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
“That pain was indescribable. What hurt me more... was the fact that nobody cared”

55,000 pregnant people are admitted to jail yearly – but almost no data exists on how they're treated

Now, researchers are using anecdotes to reveal the horrific truth🧵
prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/07/0…
Given the lack of transparency from jails about pregnancies and reproductive care, a team of researchers with @ARRWIP turned to local news coverage.

They found stories of 35 births within jails over 10 years – along with a grave picture of what's happening behind bars. Chart showing the outcomes of 35 in-jail childbirths reported by media from 2013-2023. Detailed further in thread.
@ARRWIP Among the 35 jail births identified in the news between 2013 and 2023:

➡️ At least two-thirds occurred inside jail cells, which often contain nothing more than a mattress, a toilet, and a floor as options for delivery
@ARRWIP ➡️ In at least 24 cases, jail staff ignored repeated cries for help or medical assistance

➡️ One-fourth of babies were stillborn or died within two weeks of being born

➡️ In at least one-third of births, the baby was born preterm

➡️ >50% of jail births led to a lawsuit
@ARRWIP Keep in mind that women’s incarceration has grown at 2x the pace of men’s in recent decades, and has disproportionately been located in local jails: Graph showing that 93,000 women are held in local jails in the U.S.
@ARRWIP Pregnant people in jails are in dire need of proper and timely care, and their experiences cannot continue to go undocumented.

Now that there are some national-level data from state & federal prisons, it's time for jails to produce the same info.
prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/05/0…
@ARRWIP Ultimately, improved access to reproductive healthcare, expanded data, and training may help avoid distressing births in jails, but our partners at ARRWIP insist that locking up pregnant people endangers maternal & newborn health and perpetuates structural inequities.
@ARRWIP Deeper reforms at the sentencing level would be more effective in moving pregnant women and mothers out of jails to community-based supports and to their families.

Learn more 👇

prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/07/0…

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More from @PrisonPolicy

Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
Jun 26
People have asked for our take on this article that suggests the U.S. prison population could drop by 60% over the coming years.

Here it is: The math checks out. But the assumptions about the future depend on the choices policymakers make today. 🧵

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
The article is right. Prison populations have — for the most part — fallen over the last 15+ years.

That is a reason to celebrate and have hope for the future.

But those trends aren’t guaranteed to continue…and there are reasons to doubt they will. Image
The progress that has been made in recent years is due to reforms that curtail the use of grotesquely long sentences, reduce the number of people incarcerated for minor offenses, and stop treating addiction, poverty, and mental health issues as crimes.
Read 12 tweets
Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
Jun 5
🚨NEW: Prison transfers are common, but that doesn't mean they're easy for incarcerated people and their loved ones.

We examined transfer records & interviews with dozens of formerly incarcerated New Yorkers to find out how transfers upend people's lives 🧵
"The worst experience of my life."

Transfers require people to pack their belongings, undergo invasive strip searches, and take long trips while restrictively shackled.

These moves affect every aspect of life behind bars, from peer networks to familiarity with officers.
These transfers happen A LOT. Half of New York's prisons transfer out at least 60% of their population each year.

This turnover makes everyday life in prisons unstable & uncertain – while also severing friendships behind bars that are important to survival. Graph showing that half of New York prisons transfer out 60% or more of their population each year
Read 8 tweets
Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
May 30
Incarcerated people have to "douse themselves with toilet water" to cool off from sweltering heat, and Texas still refuses to provide air conditioning in prisons.

This is a form of torture.
newsfromthestates.com/article/bill-a…
Texas would rather FALSIFY DATA than install air conditioning in prisons, all while temps routinely exceed 100° and put people in dire situations:
texastribune.org/2025/03/21/tex…
And keep in mind that without A/C, there is no relief from extreme heat for people behind bars.

Take a look at the commissary at one TX federal prison that charges $30 for personal fans, profiting off incarcerated people's misery: Screenshot of a document that outlines how much items cost at a commissary in a Texas federal prison. A fan cost $30.70 - more than a week's worth of wages.
Read 4 tweets
Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
May 20
🚨NEW: The prison health care system is broken beyond repair. One of the most sinister features is copays – fees that often cost an entire week's pay for incarcerated people

Facilities claim copay "waivers" help, but the reality is they're not enough 🧵

prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/05/1…U.S. map showing that in more than one-third of prison systems, the fee for a single medical visit is more than incarcerated people earn in a week. Learn more here: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/05/15/copay_waivers/
Almost all state prison systems charging copays have exemptions for some services, but they're so limited, ill-defined, and inconsistent that they fail to make the copay system less harmful.

Take a look at how rare waivers are, even for the most basic types of care: Graph showing that copay exemptions are surprisingly rare for some of the most basic types of medical care: Among 40 prison systems charging copays, 1 offers exemptions for menstruation-related healthcare/products, 9 for substance use disorders, 13 for vaccinations, 18 for infirmary/hospitalization, and 18 for pregnancy-related healthcare.
In most states, incarcerated people must pay a fee if they request medical care, but are exempt if it's requested by healthcare staff or correctional staff

This undermines patient privacy and autonomy – another thorn in the cut-rate care system:
prisonpolicy.org/reports/health…
Read 6 tweets
Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
May 5
This Correctional Officers Week is a good time to examine the "staffing crisis" across the US

Prisons & jails are complaining that they can't hire & retain enough staff – why?

The simplest, most obvious answer: There are way too many people locked up🧵
prisonpolicy.org/blog/2024/12/0…
But that's not all.

People have always quit correctional jobs at high rates. Working in a prison or jail is harmful to mental health. It means being surrounded by trauma & suffering.

(Much of the violence behind bars is perpetrated by COs themselves)

prisonpolicy.org/blog/2022/05/0…Graph showing that correctional officers reported that in the month prior 28% felt depressed or hopeless, 48% felt anxious, nervous, or on edge, 34% experienced repeated, disturbing memories, and 11% had suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide
People don't want to work in these deteriorating conditions – and prisons & jails cannot recruit their way around it

Look at wages. The median corrections wage is higher than some of the most demanding jobs in the US, despite not even being a top 10 most dangerous job Graph showing that the median annual wage in 2023 for corrections workers was higher than loggers, roofers, construction workers, and delivery drivers, despite being less fatal.
Read 6 tweets
Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
May 3
The carceral system is inundated with crises – that's why investigative journalism is more important than ever

On #WorldPressFreedomDay, here are 10 stories from 2024 that newsrooms can emulate to shine a light inside the black box of mass incarceration🧵
prisonpolicy.org/blog/2024/12/1…
@IvanaSuzette & @JohnArchibald took a deep dive into Alabama's parole system, which is granting release to fewer people each year

Their series exposes a system that keeps the elderly locked up for decades & demonizes people with minor convictions
al.com/denied/Graph titled: Alamaba Parole Grant Rate 2015-2023
@IvanaSuzette @JohnArchibald @Venuris investigated how one jail delivers medications: by waking up patients in the middle of the night & giving them crushed-up tablets, which is far from the standard treatment recommended by clinicians

publicsource.org/allegheny-coun…
Read 15 tweets

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