The Remedy Project is dedicated to exposing and combatting one of the most pressing human rights crises in the US today: the prison system. This crisis dates back centuries and is rooted in the country’s history of colonialism, racism, and unfettered capitalism. Despite the fact that it is not the world’s largest country, the US currently has the highest incarcerated population: over 2 million people. The percentage of the US population that is incarcerated is also higher than anywhere else on Earth: 716 people for every 100,000 residents. Not shockingly, compared to other high-income countries, the US also struggles uniquely with poverty, mental illness, and substance abuse, all of which contribute to one’s likelihood of being arrested or incarcerated.
Mass incarceration is physically, mentally, financially, interpersonally, and emotionally damaging. Between 39 and 43 percent of people incarcerated have at least one chronic health condition, HIV/AIDS is two to seven times more prevalent in jails and prisons, and tuberculosis is four times more prevalent. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, which manages all of the nation's federal prisons and jails, has issued a program statement for the medical care of incarcerated people under their platform ‘Patient Care’: “Health care will be delivered to inmates in accordance with proven standards of care without compromising public safety concerns inherent to the agency’s overall mission”. However, it has never met, and continues to fail to meet, this promise because of staffing shortages, financial incentives, and general disregard for the health and wellbeing of the incarcerated. This has proven to be especially dangerous during the COVID-19 pandemic: crowded conditions that do not allow for proper social distancing and quarantining and poor access to health care and personal protective equipment caused the virus to ravage prisons across the country. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association from July 2020 shows that incarcerated people are not only five times more likely to be infected with the virus but also 34% more likely to die from it than those on the outside.
Statistics regarding mental and emotional issues within prisons are similarly jarring. Between fifteen to twenty percent of incarcerated people suffer from serious mental illnesses (e.g. schizophrenia), which is drastically higher than the less than one percent rate of the general population, and in all but seven states, jails or prisons house more mentally ill people than mental hospitals do. Because mental health care within the prison system is so inadequate, suicide is the leading cause of death in prisons and jails. However, only 15 states report these deaths to courts or prosecutors, meaning that not only are incarcerated people dying due to negligence and insufficient care, but their deaths are being hidden to maintain an image of prisons as rehabilitative and beneficial. It is not only the inability of incarcerated people to access mental health care that contributes to their demise, but also certain punishments, such as solitary confinement. Nicknamed ‘the hole’, this extreme form of punitive isolation is considered one of the most tortuous aspects of incarceration. Its effects include, but are not limited to, lower tolerance to normal sensory input, hallucination, panic attacks, concentration issues, severe paranoia, memory loss, and delirium. All of the mental and emotional effects of incarceration have been heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic: the incarcerated have been forced to live in fear of contracting the virus due to institutions’ insufficient social distancing and masking protocols. They also have had to watch others die with little to no assistance from staff. Additionally, the pandemic has brought severe restrictions on visits from loved ones, which are often a lifeline for those in prison.
Demonizing incarcerated people, refusing to provide them with the necessary resources to seek treatment or learn trades and skills, and elevating staff to godlike authority figures with great discretion and little accountability is a recipe for more abuse: rape (particularly in women’s prisons), gang violence, medical neglect and abuse (e.g. forced sterilization), and excessive force. A recent study conducted by professors Meghan Novisky and Robert Peralta revealed that prisons are “exposure points” for extreme violence, which “undermines” rehabilitation and destroys incarcerated people’s mental health. By design, violence is “unavoidable” in prisons: there are virtually no places of refuge from either being a victim of or witnessing heinous acts because there is no privacy, and overcrowding and isolation combine paradoxically to put incarcerated people on edge. And, although technically speaking, incarcerated people can formally speak out against dangerous conditions by filing complaints and starting the administrative remedy process, these methods of recourse are inaccessible for a multitude of reasons. The majority of incarcerated people are unsure of how to both start and navigate these processes, and many staff members ignore grievances and make them difficult to file in the first place.
A common societal belief is that prison offers people an opportunity to reflect on their crimes and enter society in a better condition than when they left it, but the long-lasting psychological and physical damage that incarceration wreaks actually reduces the chance of success or healing and increases the chance of recidivism. These harms extend far beyond incarcerated people and often affect entire communities. They damage a formerly incarcerated person’s ability to reintegrate into and function within society, causing them to struggle to maintain or develop relationships, find housing and employment, and possibly lead them to believe that they belong in prison. Additionally, their family and friends suffer from feelings of loss and abandonment while they are in jail or prison, and reconnecting after a lengthy sentence can be difficult, leaving many relationships irreparably broken. In many cases, incarcerated people’s children experience higher likelihoods of being incarcerated themselves, meaning that there may be no one to receive them when they are released, and the cycle will continue.
Mass incarceration and all of its ills (e.g. physical, psychological, emotional, and sexual torture) are a great stain on the nation’s claims of liberty and justice for all. In an institution where these tenets are viewed not as rights, but as privileges that incarcerated people lose the moment they enter it, abuses are either overlooked or explained away as the natural consequence of committing a crime. Stripping incarcerated people of their basic human dignity, isolating them, denying them medical treatment, and subjecting them to traumatizing abuse amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, which is barred by the Eighth Amendment, and hinders their ability to conceive of a fulfilling life for themselves on the outside. One cannot simply go from being raped, beaten, starved, and forced into isolation for months at a time to being a contributing member of society. In many cases, formerly incarcerated people channel their anger into violence, a natural response to experiencing such heinous violence themselves. As a result, the prison system’s conditions render us all less safe from crime. Some argue that the prison system is broken, while others believe that it is functioning as intended: crime fuels mass incarceration, which in turn fuels crime, creating a sickening cycle of profit for all who have a financial stake in the nation’s prisons and jails. In either case, it is a monstrosity that destroys the lives of not only the people directly involved in it, but also their families, neighborhoods, and communities.
The state of the American prison system and its human rights violations may be daunting, but hope for a better future is never lost. We at The Remedy Project vow to address its harms and prevent them from plaguing the future. We understand that outrage is not enough: it must be harnessed and strategically targeted in order to be effective. We demand that drastic changes happen now, and that all in power who claim to care about this crisis abandon the myth that it will solve itself and begin taking meaningful, results-driven steps to put an end to it immediately. Our mission is based on our belief that, first and foremost, incarcerated people are human beings with certain inalienable rights, and that they, as well as their families, deserve healthy communities and relationships. We intend to unite students, formerly incarcerated people, legal advocates, donors, and supporters of justice and human rights to not only drastically reform the American prison system, but also promote healing for all who have been hurt by it. And, most importantly, with the passion, skills, and experience of our myriad members, we will succeed.
The Remedy Project is dedicated to exposing and combatting one of the most pressing human rights crises in the US today: the prison system. This crisis dates back centuries and is rooted in the country’s history of colonialism, racism, and unfettered capitalism. Despite the fact that it is not the world’s largest country, the US currently has the highest incarcerated population: over 2 million people. The percentage of the US population that is incarcerated is also higher than anywhere else on Earth: 716 people for every 100,000 residents. Not shockingly, compared to other high-income countries, the US also struggles uniquely with poverty, mental illness, and substance abuse, all of which contribute to one’s likelihood of being arrested or incarcerated.
Mass incarceration is physically, mentally, financially, interpersonally, and emotionally damaging. Between 39 and 43 percent of people incarcerated have at least one chronic health condition, HIV/AIDS is two to seven times more prevalent in jails and prisons, and tuberculosis is four times more prevalent. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, which manages all of the nation's federal prisons and jails, has issued a program statement for the medical care of incarcerated people under their platform ‘Patient Care’: “Health care will be delivered to inmates in accordance with proven standards of care without compromising public safety concerns inherent to the agency’s overall mission”. However, it has never met, and continues to fail to meet, this promise because of staffing shortages, financial incentives, and general disregard for the health and wellbeing of the incarcerated. This has proven to be especially dangerous during the COVID-19 pandemic: crowded conditions that do not allow for proper social distancing and quarantining and poor access to health care and personal protective equipment caused the virus to ravage prisons across the country. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association from July 2020 shows that incarcerated people are not only five times more likely to be infected with the virus but also 34% more likely to die from it than those on the outside.
Statistics regarding mental and emotional issues within prisons are similarly jarring. Between fifteen to twenty percent of incarcerated people suffer from serious mental illnesses (e.g. schizophrenia), which is drastically higher than the less than one percent rate of the general population, and in all but seven states, jails or prisons house more mentally ill people than mental hospitals do. Because mental health care within the prison system is so inadequate, suicide is the leading cause of death in prisons and jails. However, only 15 states report these deaths to courts or prosecutors, meaning that not only are incarcerated people dying due to negligence and insufficient care, but their deaths are being hidden to maintain an image of prisons as rehabilitative and beneficial. It is not only the inability of incarcerated people to access mental health care that contributes to their demise, but also certain punishments, such as solitary confinement. Nicknamed ‘the hole’, this extreme form of punitive isolation is considered one of the most tortuous aspects of incarceration. Its effects include, but are not limited to, lower tolerance to normal sensory input, hallucination, panic attacks, concentration issues, severe paranoia, memory loss, and delirium. All of the mental and emotional effects of incarceration have been heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic: the incarcerated have been forced to live in fear of contracting the virus due to institutions’ insufficient social distancing and masking protocols. They also have had to watch others die with little to no assistance from staff. Additionally, the pandemic has brought severe restrictions on visits from loved ones, which are often a lifeline for those in prison.
Demonizing incarcerated people, refusing to provide them with the necessary resources to seek treatment or learn trades and skills, and elevating staff to godlike authority figures with great discretion and little accountability is a recipe for more abuse: rape (particularly in women’s prisons), gang violence, medical neglect and abuse (e.g. forced sterilization), and excessive force. A recent study conducted by professors Meghan Novisky and Robert Peralta revealed that prisons are “exposure points” for extreme violence, which “undermines” rehabilitation and destroys incarcerated people’s mental health. By design, violence is “unavoidable” in prisons: there are virtually no places of refuge from either being a victim of or witnessing heinous acts because there is no privacy, and overcrowding and isolation combine paradoxically to put incarcerated people on edge. And, although technically speaking, incarcerated people can formally speak out against dangerous conditions by filing complaints and starting the administrative remedy process, these methods of recourse are inaccessible for a multitude of reasons. The majority of incarcerated people are unsure of how to both start and navigate these processes, and many staff members ignore grievances and make them difficult to file in the first place.
A common societal belief is that prison offers people an opportunity to reflect on their crimes and enter society in a better condition than when they left it, but the long-lasting psychological and physical damage that incarceration wreaks actually reduces the chance of success or healing and increases the chance of recidivism. These harms extend far beyond incarcerated people and often affect entire communities. They damage a formerly incarcerated person’s ability to reintegrate into and function within society, causing them to struggle to maintain or develop relationships, find housing and employment, and possibly lead them to believe that they belong in prison. Additionally, their family and friends suffer from feelings of loss and abandonment while they are in jail or prison, and reconnecting after a lengthy sentence can be difficult, leaving many relationships irreparably broken. In many cases, incarcerated people’s children experience higher likelihoods of being incarcerated themselves, meaning that there may be no one to receive them when they are released, and the cycle will continue.
Mass incarceration and all of its ills (e.g. physical, psychological, emotional, and sexual torture) are a great stain on the nation’s claims of liberty and justice for all. In an institution where these tenets are viewed not as rights, but as privileges that incarcerated people lose the moment they enter it, abuses are either overlooked or explained away as the natural consequence of committing a crime. Stripping incarcerated people of their basic human dignity, isolating them, denying them medical treatment, and subjecting them to traumatizing abuse amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, which is barred by the Eighth Amendment, and hinders their ability to conceive of a fulfilling life for themselves on the outside. One cannot simply go from being raped, beaten, starved, and forced into isolation for months at a time to being a contributing member of society. In many cases, formerly incarcerated people channel their anger into violence, a natural response to experiencing such heinous violence themselves. As a result, the prison system’s conditions render us all less safe from crime. Some argue that the prison system is broken, while others believe that it is functioning as intended: crime fuels mass incarceration, which in turn fuels crime, creating a sickening cycle of profit for all who have a financial stake in the nation’s prisons and jails. In either case, it is a monstrosity that destroys the lives of not only the people directly involved in it, but also their families, neighborhoods, and communities.
The state of the American prison system and its human rights violations may be daunting, but hope for a better future is never lost. We at The Remedy Project vow to address its harms and prevent them from plaguing the future. We understand that outrage is not enough: it must be harnessed and strategically targeted in order to be effective. We demand that drastic changes happen now, and that all in power who claim to care about this crisis abandon the myth that it will solve itself and begin taking meaningful, results-driven steps to put an end to it immediately. Our mission is based on our belief that, first and foremost, incarcerated people are human beings with certain inalienable rights, and that they, as well as their families, deserve healthy communities and relationships. We intend to unite students, formerly incarcerated people, legal advocates, donors, and supporters of justice and human rights to not only drastically reform the American prison system, but also promote healing for all who have been hurt by it. And, most importantly, with the passion, skills, and experience of our myriad members, we will succeed.
