As Texas Enters Another Hot Summer, Lawmakers Kill Effort to Cool Sweltering Prisons
Joe Raedle/Newsmakers/Getty Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.In the summer, Texas prisons become hell itself. Most prisons lack air conditioning in housing areas, and temperatures inside can rise above 100 degrees. People confined to their cells…
An Incarcerated Artist Memorializes the “Forgotten” People Killed By COVID in Prison
Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.Elisabeth “EJ” Joyner sat on the floor of her cell at Arrendale State Prison in Georgia, staring at the mugshot. It showed the unsmiling face of Carmelo Herrera, a 56-year-old incarcerated…
Connecticut Just Got One Step Closer to Making Prison Calls Free
Julie Jacobson, File/AP Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.Connecticut’s state Senate voted Thursday to enact first-in-the-nation legislation that would make it free for incarcerated people to place phone calls. If the bill passes in the House and is…
South Carolina Is So Desperate for Executions That Firing Squads Have Become an Option
duncan1890/Getty Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.For 10 years, South Carolina was unable to execute anyone because the state couldn’t secure the drugs used in lethal injections. Initially undeterred, when the drug supply began running low,…
Virginia Just Abolished The Death Penalty
Steve Helber/AP Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.Virginia just became the first Southern state to repeal the death penalty. On Wednesday, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam signed legislation into law, bringing the total number of states to…
“It’s Terrifying, It’s Almost Crippling”: Texas Jails and Prisons Are Freezing Over
The Harris County Jail in 2014Eric Gay/AP Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.On the seventh floor of the Harris County Jail in downtown Houston, Andrew Garamillo wrapped a blanket around his shoulders as he walked around…