Friday Roundup

Commentary on mass incarceration:

• James Ridgeway and Dan Moshenberg both note the tragic similarities between two recent cases of inmates who died in agony, one of an ectopic pregnancy and the other of a burst spleen, without receiving any medical treatment.
• UPenn’s Marie Gottschalk reviews Robert Perkinson’s new history of the Texas prison system.
• Maryland law professor Sherrilyn Ifill on the ongoing California prison litigation.
• “Can Prison Work?”: The Guardian assembles British experts to discuss the question in a podcast.
• And, a little commentary from yours truly in the Sacramento Bee on Meg Whitman’s prison platform.

Prison news from around the U.S.:

• California: Vice magazine reports on the Stanford Law clinic that appeals Three Strikes cases.
• Louisiana: So-called “squirrel cages” for suicidal inmates focus of an ACLU challenge.
• Ohio: Two supermax inmates go on hunger strike to protest medical treatment.
• Virginia: After two inmate deaths, ACLU calls for investigation of Richmond jail. Sheriff responds that he’s working with an overcrowded, outdated 1960s facility designed without air conditioning.

Prison news from around the world:

• Britain considers comprehensive sentencing reform, from an indeterminate to a determinate system.
• AFP reports on the plight of women prisoners in Haiti.