Larry Jordan, 74, served 38 years in an Alabama prison and is in poor health now. One reason the U.S. trails other developed countries in life expectancy, experts say, is that it has more people behind bars and keeps them there far longer. Charity Rachelle/KFF Health News hide caption
People walk outside the U.S. Immigration and Enforcement Processing Center operated by GEO Group Inc. in Adelanto, Calif. The company is facing a lawsuit for the alleged use of hazardous chemicals in the facility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Richard Vogel/AP hide caption
Two of artist Dean Gillespie's miniatures in the traveling visual arts exhibition Marking Time, which examines mass incarceration. Xavier Hadley/Courtesy of Marking Time hide caption
Police walk on the roof of the Litoral Penitentiary on Saturday after riots broke out inside the jail in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Jose Sanchez/AP hide caption
State prisons are grappling with how to deal with an increase in overdoses due to alcohol and drug abuse. David Madison/Getty Images hide caption
Sonia Doe, pictured here, reached a settlement with the New Jersey Department of Corrections that will make it standard for the state to assign prison stays to a person based on their gender identity, not the sex assigned at birth. The ACLU New Jersey hide caption
Steve and Neiva Magaña's baby is now 8 months old. Steve has still not met his son in person. KALW hide caption
The IRS distributed the second round of stimulus money to eligible inmates using debit cards, which state prisons are unable to process. Correctional officials have communicated the problem to the federal agency, but it's unclear what steps the IRS will take to fix it. Win McNamee/Getty Images hide caption
Reggie Nicholson was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,650 years for a non-violent crime, when his daughter Alexis was 8 years old. He was told he'd never even have the chance to get out. But this year, after 17 years behind bars, he got the chance. Courtesy of Alexis Nicholson hide caption
Prison inmates gather in cramped conditions in Manila's Quezon City Jail. Guards and inmates at the notoriously overcrowded Philippine jail tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus, officials said last month, sparking urgent calls for the release of some prisoners. Maria Tan/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Plainfield Correctional Facility, an Indiana state prison southwest of Indianapolis, listed 89 cases of test-confirmed COVID-19 among inmates and four deaths from the illness, as of Thursday. Seth Tackett/WFIU/WTIU hide caption
Inmates point from inside the La Modelo facility in Bogotá, Colombia, on Sunday. Violence broke out in the prison out of inmates' fears that prison guards are not doing enough to prevent coronavirus inside overcrowded prisons. Ivan Valencia/AP hide caption
A picture of a cell at the state prison in Florence, Ariz., where attorneys for the Prison Law Office and ACLU found what they called "squalid" and "filthy" conditions on a recent tour. PACER hide caption