Prison

Inside Wire launched to widespread acclaim in the Spring of 2022. This summer, it quietly ceased production after an agreement between the University of Denver and the Department of Corrections expired.

Nearly 75% of Colorado’s prisons are vulnerable to climate-related hazards, but most of these prisons are not prepared for it, according to research from the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Solitary confinement intensifies problems for incarcerated people. It also changes the Colorado therapists who send them there. Loopholes, safety concerns and a lack of alternatives to solitary confinement mean Colorado clinicians in jails and prisons face ethical and moral dilemmas daily.

A new report shows the overrepresentation of Native Americans and Alaska Natives in state prison systems, and some of the greatest disparities, are in the Mountain West.

We caught up with our colleagues at the Colorado Sun this week to find out what stories are crossing their reporting desks. Sun editor Larry Rickman joined KUNC's Beau Baker to talk through some of the news they're following.

Paul Martin, an administrator for the Wyoming Department of Corrections, said it’s challenging for prisons to compete with other jobs that pay more.

Imprisonment rates are markedly higher in communities of color across the U.S., according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit group that advocates for criminal justice reform. And its work to spotlight what it calls "the geography of mass incarceration" has recently focused on parts of the Mountain West.

Incarcerated individuals in Colorado have numerous creative opportunities, including arts education. Over the past several years, inmates have produced plays, written poems and made music together. Their newest creative project sounds a bit different.

A new initiative out of the Attorney General's office aims to lower recidivism rates by forming a network of employers willing to hire formerly incarcerated people.

Today on Colorado Edition, we hear why some Coloradans are returning to the small farming communities they planned to leave behind. And, we learn about a new initiative to increase the hiring rates for formerly incarcerated individuals.