Wisconsin's prison population is heading toward an all-time high. More than 23,600 people are in state custody. The state's three women's prisons house 18 women for every 10 they were designed for. Robert E. Ellsworth Correctional is now at 219% of its capacity. Taycheedah Correctional Institution, the state's only maximum-security women's prison, is 78% over capacity.

Incarceration is associated with various geriatric health conditions and reduced life expectancy later in life. Three in every four people released from state prisons between 1991 and 2021 would be over 50 by 2026. Formerly incarcerated older adults are more likely to be Black and to report childhood poverty, childhood housing insecurity, lower educational attainment, and poor self-rated health.

Prisoners at Louisiana's Angola prison are forced to pick crops and dig ditches in sweltering heat. They are paid between zero and four cents an hour, far lower than the pay at other jobs at the prison. Prison officials can charge a $6.00 copay if a worker says he is having a medical emergency, equivalent to 300 hours of work for a person making two cents anhour.

Kumla prison in central Sweden is preparing for the arrival of the first child prisoners in the institution’s 60-year history. The parliament has already voted through plans for 15- to 17-year-olds convicted of serious crimes to serve their sentences in prison, which will come into force in July. In June, it is expected to lower the criminal age of responsibility from 15 to 13 for crimes carrying a minimum sentence of four years' imprisonment. The prison population has almost doubled in the past decade and there are plans to expand prison places from 12,000 today to 19,500 by 2035.

Minnesota Department of Corrections restricts which publishers can send books to incarcerated people. The Human Rights Defense Center, a nonprofit publisher and advocacy group, is challenging the policy in federal court. The center claims the policies are unrelated to any legitimate interest and amount to the government "picking and choosing" which speech to allow. The department adopted the approved-vendor policy in October 2024, initially allowing only three publishers.

On October 3, 2012, a trio of unarmed 16- and 17-year-old boys in Elkhart, Indiana, banded together to commit a burglary in their neighborhood. After some dogs scared them off their first target, the teens called two more friends to help them break into another neighbor's house. The homeowner, Rodney Scott, was asleep upstairs, and when he heard the intruders, he thundered down with his handgun and began firing. Danzele Johnson, 21, fell to the floor, dead, shot by Scott. The other four were arrested and charged with felony murder in the perpetration of a burglary, since their crime had resulted in Johnson’

Adrienne Boulware, 47, died in the Central California Women’s Facility in July 2024. Her family is pushing for Adrienne's Act, which would implement relief measures during extreme weather events, including the punishing heat and wildfire smoke that pummels California every year.