Search About Newsletters Donate
An illustration shows silhouettes of a close-up face, a side profile of a person, and an IV bag hanging from a pole. Prison bars are in the foreground.
Feature June 9, 2024
They Were in a Mental Health Crisis at a Hospital. This Is How They Landed in Jail.
Washington, like most states, has a law intended to protect health care workers. Instead, it’s led to prosecutions of people with severe mental illness.
By , Sydney Brownstone and Esmy Jimenez
Caroline Ouko, a Black woman, and Leon Ochieng, and Ben Crump, two Black men, stand before a podium. Ouko and Ochieng have their eyes closed and have emotional expressions on their faces.
Analysis March 24, 2023
What Irvo Otieno’s Killing Tells Us about Mental Healthcare in the U.S.
The system can end up prosecuting patients and relying on police — with sometimes fatal results.
By
A male doctor, wearing a white lab coat and tan slacks, stands in front of a barred hallway.
Closing Argument August 9, 2025
How Trump’s Medicaid Cuts Will Slash Health Coverage for People Leaving Prison
The massive cuts will hit the formerly incarcerated hard — and that could increase crime, experts warn.
By
Susan Horton, a White woman wearing a black tank top and black pants, poses for a portrait inside a greenhouse.
News and Awards May 2, 2025
The Marshall Project Wins National Health Care Journalism Award for Excellence in Audio Reporting
The reporting exposed the impact of widespread drug testing on pregnant people.
By The Marshall Project
Feature July 30, 2024
This Company Promised to Improve Health Care in Jails. Dozens of Its Patients Have Died.
Turn Key Health Clinics has quickly expanded to jails in 10 states. Some of its policies and practices have endangered patients.
By , Brianna Bailey and Sachi Mcclendon
Silhouettes of staff members looking through window blinds to view a parking lot.
Life Inside June 30, 2023
Reproductive Healthcare Behind Bars Was Dismal Even Before Roe Ended
Abortion is just one part of a greater story about how indifferent — and even cruel — reproductive healthcare can be in prisons and jails.
By and
An illustration shows an incarcerated man laid on a hospital bed with one arm covering their face and one leg propped up. The patient's silhouette is colored in brown, and the rest of the room is in grayscale. Orange, white, blue and orange squiggly lines represent a tingling sensation inside the patient's body.
Life Inside August 18, 2023
Prison Healthcare Means Not Knowing What’s Slowly Destroying My Body
For over two years, a mystery illness has made it hard for James Keown to walk, sit up and eat. Now he wonders if he has to die to be diagnosed.
By James Keown
News and Awards February 11, 2025
Missouri Foundation for Health and The Marshall Project Announce New Missouri-Based Health and Justice Newsroom
A team of journalists will produce investigative, data and engagement journalism to serve the people of Missouri, including those affected by its criminal justice system.
By The Marshall Project
An inmate stands at his cell door at the maximum security facility at the Arizona State Prison in Florence, Ariz.
News February 26, 2018
How Bad is Prison Health Care? Depends on Who’s Watching
A federal judge considers $1 million in fines for one state’s “pervasive and intractable failures.”
By
Life Inside January 28, 2022
I’m Having a Cancer Scare. But Prison Healthcare Is So Degrading, I’ve Quit Seeking Answers.
“Not knowing what is going on with my body will catch up to me, but I refuse to be treated inappropriately.”
By
A photo shows Jazmine Mapes, a Native American woman with long dark hair, wearing a white sweater and jeans, walking near a chain link fence. An empty lot is situated behind the fence. In front of the fence is a tent. A woman holding an umbrella walks behind Mapes, and a man talking on a cell phone walks behind her.
Feature November 20, 2025
Homeless Camp Sweeps Can Harm Health. Some Cities Are Trying a New Way.
Some localities are addressing street homelessness with a new approach, which experts say can clear encampments while protecting the health of people who are forced to move.
By Ryan Levi, Tradeoffs
Inside Out July 1, 2021
Prisons Have a Health Care Issue — And It Starts at the Top, Critics Say
When coronavirus hit federal prisons, the top officials had no health care experience.
By
A gray chain-link fence topped with barbed wire outside an Oklahoma jail.
Inside Story October 24, 2024
Effort to Provide Low-Cost Health Care Behind Bars Stirs Controversy
Examining a company providing low-cost health care services at jails across the U.S., and a formerly incarcerated person shares how a mentor behind bars saved his life.
By and
Feature October 31, 2021
Arizona Privatized Prison Health Care to Save Money. But at What Cost?
A landmark class-action lawsuit goes to court this week, featuring grisly testimony about botched medical care in state prisons.
By and Jimmy Jenkins
Feature November 21, 2018
Treatment Denied: The Mental Health Crisis in Federal Prisons
The Bureau of Prisons set higher standards for psychiatric care. But instead of helping more inmates, the agency dropped thousands from its caseload, data shows.
By and Taylor Elizabeth Eldridge
Mental health patients mingle with prison inmates at the Secure Psychiatric Unit at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord, N.H. The cages are used to contain potentially violent individuals during group therapy.
News September 20, 2017
When a Mental Health Emergency Lands You in Jail
Colorado just outlawed jail for people in a psychiatric crisis, but plenty of states still do it.
By
A Black woman, wearing glasses, a blue T-shirt and jeans, leans against a door as she holds a notebook and a walkie talkie. She looks at her colleague, a White man, wearing a blue T-shirt and khaki shorts, as he is talking to a cell phone.
Closing Argument April 18
More Cities Sending Mental Health Workers Instead of Police, But Funding Doubts Remain
More than 40 of the largest U.S. cities have launched some alternative response, but questions remain about how to pay for it.
By
A woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder sings “Mary Had a Little Lamb” to herself in her cell in the women’s acute mental health unit of the Bexar County Jail in San Antonio.
News June 22, 2017
The Mental Health Crisis Facing Women in Prison
A new study shows a striking disparity between incarcerated men and women.
By
Justice Talk May 30, 2016
Join Our Chat On Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System
We’re talking all about mental illness and justice during our next Justice Talk with Digg, on Wednesday, June 1. For context, browse our guide to key reading on the issue.
By
A guard stands watch over the east block of death row at San Quentin State Prison in California in 2016.
News June 14, 2017
For Corrections Officers and Cops, a New Emphasis on Mental Health
An intensive study and new programs to combat stress that often goes overlooked.
By
Three standing police officers surround a sitting passenger in a subway car. The passenger sits hunched over, with their hand on their head.
Closing Argument December 17, 2022
Mental Health Care is Broken. Is Police Hospitalizing More People the Answer?
In New York City and other areas across the country some leaders are pushing to forcefully commit more people.
By
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna wears a black mourning band over his badge during a press conference at the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station on Sept. 18, 2023.
Closing Argument November 18, 2023
Four Suicides in L.A. and the Mental Health Problem in Law Enforcement
Four suspected suicides in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department highlight a problem affecting agencies across the country.
By
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a White man in a navy suit and red tie, speaks into a microphone while standing at a podium with the seal of Florida. Flags of the United States and the state of Florida are in the background.
News December 10, 2024
New Florida Prison Policy on Trans Health Care ‘Like Conversion Therapy’
With new restrictions on gender-affirming care, prisons confiscate underwear from trans people and compel them to cut their hair.
By
A White woman with light blonde hair looks at a photo she is holding in her hands of her daughter in a blue graduation gown.
Feature July 25, 2023
These States Are Using Fetal Personhood to Put Women Behind Bars
Hundreds of women who used drugs while pregnant have faced criminal charges — even when they deliver healthy babies.
By
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a White man, points a finger while giving a speech.
News January 25, 2024
Trans People in Florida Prisons Say Gender-Affirming Care Ban Upended Their Health Care
Nearly two dozen transgender women in prison said their access to treatment suddenly changed following the “anti-woke” law championed by Gov. DeSantis.
By
About
People
Privacy
Sitemap
Funders