The Marshall Project

"People are constantly asking me: What’s a day in prison like? Is it boring? Or are you busy? So the other day, I toted a pocket-sized notebook with me everywhere I went, scribbling down every single thing I did."

Since March, The Marshall Project has been tracking how many people are being sickened and killed by COVID-19 in prisons and how widely it has spread across the country and within each state. We have the highest number of new deaths reported this week since the start of the pandemic. It's likely some of these new deaths, particularly in Nevada, may have happened weeks or months ago and are only now being reported.

As COVID-19 infections soar, prisoners and corrections officers worry that transferring people between facilities is causing outbreaks.

As COVID-19 spread earlier this year, prison facilities across the country suspended visits from family and lawyers. Nearly a year into the pandemic, some states are easing those restrictions. We’re rounding up the changes as they occur.

New: President Donald Trump has overseen more federal executions than any president in decades, and his Justice Department has asked courts to overturn a decision so it can put two more men to death this week before he leaves office. Justice Department officials were so eager to execute condemned federal prisoners last summer during the pandemic, they spent estimated millions on five executions in Terre Haute, Indiana. Taxpayer money went for food, hotel rooms, and other expenses for witnesses and staff, according to federal records obtained by the ACLU. The Marshall Project has the details on some of those expenseslike nearly $6,500 for potato chips.

New: Amid calls for tougher laws after the Capitol assault, research shows that measures addressing White violence usually fall harder on Black people.

Our latest survey of the incarcerated reveals sharp political differences between people behind bars and the general public, as well as a few areas of consensus. How do your views compare?

As vote-counting continues, we're tracking key state-level ballot initiatives around criminal justice issues such as legalizing marijuana or allowing people on parole to run for office. Here's what we know so far:

A vast majority of people in jail never lost the right to vote, despite believing otherwise. Felony disenfranchisement laws and misinformation lead many people in jail to believe they cannot vote. Read the story: https://bit.ly/3mgjrTI Photo: Nuccio Dinuzzo/Getty Images

Me and my formerly incarcerated brothers are finally going to make a difference. In the past two years alone, more than a dozen states reconsidered their felony disenfranchisement laws, often restoring voting rights to formerly incarcerated people. Read the story: https://bit.ly/325PtKH

Earlier this year, we heard from more than 8,000 incarcerated people about which political party they identify with, which presidential candidate they’d support, and more in a first-of-its-kind political survey of people behind bars.

The majority of people in jail have the right to vote, but few do. Misinformation and fear are potent barriers: Many in jail fear that if they vote they could be violating the law and end up with more jail time. Other barriers are logistical.

All but 12 states and the District of Columbia charge fees to prisoners who ask to see a doctor. Now, states are divided over whether to continue to charge people in prison for medical treatment during the pandemic.

Some states have continued to charge people in prison for medical treatment during the pandemic.

State officials often fail to identify prisoners with developmental disorders, a group that faces overwhelming challenges behind bars, from bright lights to noises to social dynamics.

New data shows that during the Trump administration, child detention times lengthened as the number of kids held at the border soared to almost half a million. Read the full story: https://bit.ly/3kHgR8N

One police dog sent nine people to the hospital in one year. All but one of those mauled were Black. The dog bit people for minor offenses, for running from police, and sometimes for no crime at all. Read the full story: https://bit.ly/35HuI99 Photo: Joe Songer/AL.com

We asked people behind bars what could have kept them out of prison. Therapy, affordable housing and a living wage topped the list. Read the full story: https://bit.ly/3oB2be6

"When I got sick, they put me in the box for five days ... They strip-searched me, did a cavity search, and they took my personal property." The latest COVID-19 surge is happening behind bars, too. Here’s three accounts from a prison hit by the pandemic.

More than six million U.S. citizen children live in households with at least one undocumented family member who is vulnerable to deportation.