Prison Staffing Crises, Unmarked Jail Graves & More

"When your kid is in a crisis and needs treatment, it can be terrifying to know where to turn."
 
The U.S. is facing a dire shortage of affordable and timely addiction treatment centers for adolescents amidst a worrying uptick in overdose deaths within this age group, according to a study led by Oregon Health & Science University. With nearly half of the facilities requiring upfront costs of about $26,000 for a one-month stay, and wait times averaging nearly a month, vulnerable youth are left without accessible care. The study underscores the urgent need to strengthen addiction care in primary settings rather than building new treatment centers, emphasizing the importance of affordable and reliable treatment options for the most at-risk youth in the population.

"Presumptive field drug test kits are known to produce 'false positive' errors and were never designed or intended to provide conclusive evidence of the presence of drugs."

A new study by the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice reveals that an estimated 30,000 innocent individuals may be wrongfully arrested and jailed each year in the U.S. due to the widespread use of unreliable roadside field tests for drugs. The study, which represents the first comprehensive analysis of presumptive drug field test kits, highlights that approximately 773,000 drug-related arrests annually involve these kits, representing half of the total drug arrests in the country. The inexpensive tests are prone to false positives and have led to innocent people being arrested for substances like bird poop, donut glaze, and sand.
 
"Defendants' outrageous and inexcusable mishandling of the deceased's body amounts to a reprehensible violation of human dignity and common decency."
 
A federal lawsuit alleges that the bodies of two men who died while incarcerated in Alabama's prison system were missing their hearts or other organs when returned to their families. The lawsuit -- which suggests a pattern of outrageous mishandling, describing the situation as "grave robbery and mutilation," -- raises concerns about the treatment of deceased inmates in the Alabama prison system the same week that reports have surfaced about 215 bodies found in unmarked graves behind a jail in Mississippi.
 
"We just had no energy, we didn't have the ability to care. The place was too brutal, too disgusting."
 
The U.S. faces a severe shortage of correctional workers as the number of people working in state prison systems—including prison guards, administrative staff, parole, and probation officers—has dropped by 10% since 2019, reaching its lowest point in over two decades. This week, a new report by the Marshall Project is highlighting the dire consequences of this worker shortage, including increased violence, unsanitary conditions, and overworked, sleep-deprived staff using excessive force. The situation has become so critical that some states have called in National Guard troops for support. The story comes aside another on the crisis facing the federal Bureau of Prisons where staffing levels are both causing and being exacerbated by ongoing challenges.

"I was appalled – a developmentally disabled, mentally ill man, who couldn't afford his low bail amount, was held in solitary confinement for a year."
 
A Newsweek series has exposed the alarming deaths of three Arkansans—Larry Eugene Price Jr., Michelle Caddell, and Marshall Ray Price—in the state prison system. The series highlights several pervasive issues in a state that ranks at the bottom on many justice metrics, and comes amidst an escalating dispute between Governor Sanders and Arkansas’ prison oversight board, who recently fired Sanders’ appointee for Corrections Secretary.