Every prison sentence is a life sentence.

Abdullah used to work for Aramark earning between 15 and 20 cents an hour. He remembers seeing labels marking food as, “For Prison Consumption Only.”

“What is ‘For Prison Consumption Only?’” he asked. “You can’t feed it to people in the free world?”

He said while working for Aramark, there was often no soap for the dishes and no chemicals to clean the bathroom. Vermin often found their way into the food he was asked to serve to other incarcerated people.

“It could be a rat, or a mouse, or a roach in the food,” he said. “And you’ll point it out [and say], ‘Well, we got to dump this.’ [They would respond] ‘No, we don’t got to dump this. Scoop that out, serve it.’”

The portions on the trays were often child-size, he said, yet excess food was thrown away every night. Whenever his coworkers fell ill, they were accused of faking it and were instructed to go back to work, sometimes despite noticeable symptoms.

Black women who have experienced having a family member incarcerated have higher levels of stress and depression symptoms.

“AB 2147, authored by Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes, will allow nonviolent offenders, who have logged time in fire camps while incarcerated, an opportunity to have their records expunged upon release, allowing them to become firefighters [and EMTs].”

Family members, lawyers, and advocates have placed calls to prisons to grant early-release to the elderly, and the infirm to prevent more deaths as well as decrease the population. Frustratingly, research shows that out of 668 jails being tracked, 71% of them saw an increase in population from May 1 to June 22, while 84 jails had more people locked away on July 22, then they did in March (Prison Policy Initiative).

Fire fighters “are often on the front line doing dangerous work and making low pay, between $2 and $5 per day and $1 extra per hour when fighting a fire.”

“...in 100 public school districts, children were physically restrained more than 15,000 times between August 2017 and December 2018.”

prisoners are going on strike to protest the horrible filthy living conditions, price gouging, and lack of adequate medical care they're forced to endure.

Inmates are among the most vulnerable populations on our warming planet—and among the most ignored.

Maricopa County jail inmates provide burial services to the unclaimed, unnamed, and indigent people who had the misfortune of dying without a next of kin.

Jail Project is a social art project (last active ~ 2010) to capture the humanity of the people affected by Maricopa County's jail system.

Prisoners bury the dead who are unclaimed or indigent, giving the deceased dignity in death, doing the work that no one else wants to do.