Months Without Sunshine: The Unbearable Darkness of Jail

Why some jail detainees in Missouri can go years without seeing the sun

An illustration shows a grid of different jail cells with small or narrow windows, or no windows at all. (Grace J. Kim/The Marshall Project).Jails are notorious for inhumane conditions. Detainees often complain of violence, inedible food, limited programming and subpar healthcare. Lack of sunlight may be an unexpected addition to the list. But sunlight deprivation causes a myriad of serious issues, including high blood pressure, osteoporosis, an…

Months Without Sunshine: The Unbearable Darkness of Jail

Jails in St. Louis, Cleveland and Jackson, Mississippi, don’t provide direct access to sunlight and fresh air – even when their own policies require it.

The unbearable darkness of the Cuyahoga County Jail – The Land

[Grace J. Kim for The Marshall Project] By Ivy Scott, Brittany Hailer, Daja E. Henry This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their Cleveland newsletter and Facebook Group, and follow them on Instagram, Reddit and YouTube. Jails are notorious for inhumane conditions. Detainees often complain of violence, inedible food, limited program…

The unbearable darkness of the Cuyahoga County jail

The Cuyahoga County jail is housed in a foreboding brutalist structure known as the Justice Center. Built in 1976, the complex is made of concrete and includes the Cleveland Police headquarters and the Cuyahoga County and Cleveland Municipal Courts tower.  When it first opened, the Justice Center was heralded as a new era for humane conditions for the incarcerated. It replaced the “leaky old jail” — compared in the press to a “crumbling coffin” …