LGBTQ prison abolition group Black & Pink began publishing letters from inmates in solitary confinement last month in an effort to shed light on the abuse and harassment they suffer. Black & Pink explained that last summer, their Chicago chapter contacted to over 100 inmates in isolation to ask for their experiences.

GIving credit to Black Lives Matter. A former prisoner recounts 37 days in a jail, terrified of needing to use the jailhouse medical clinic. When your boss is a Hal-9000. Plus other selections from the Shadowproof mailbag.

Raw Story: “At the time of his death, [Michael] Robinson’s blood sugar level had skyrocketed to 2,500. The normal range, depending on when a person has eaten, is between 80 and 180, according to the American Diabetes Association.”

With wildfires blazing throughout the parched Western United States, the state of California has found a novel, though ethically questionable, way to save money on the state’s safety budget: Send state prisoners to work on the frontlines fighting forest fires for $2 per day. About 4,000 low-level felons from California’s state prisons are fighting the fires, operating out of so-called “conservation camps.”

A lawsuit filed in federal court last week alleges guards on Rikers Island brutally beat a man visiting his longtime partner at the Eric M. Taylor Center because he is gay. Thomas Hamm argues he was “denied access to public accommodations and services on the basis of his actual and/or perceived sexual orientation, suffered serious physical injuries, and was deprived of his liberty.”

Welcome to the latest edition of the Shadowproof Mailbag. This installment covers the first part of this, Shadowproof’s second week. I’m taking a little day trip to New York City tomorrow and Brian will be filling in for me, so we’ll have to catch up on Friday’s feedback in the next edition. Here’s some of the best reader comments and feedback we’ve received about our recent articles.

Chelsea Manning is facing indefinite solitary confinement for supposed “crimes” like possessing magazines and an expired tube of toothpaste. Sign this petition to keep her from being tortured!

A local police chief and an officer in Carrollton County, Kentucky, were indicted by a grand jury this week after allegedly placing a 31-year-old mentally ill inmate on a bus to Florida instead of taking him to the hospital for a court-ordered psychological evaluation. Attorney General for the state of Kentucky Jack Conway said in a press release today that officers Ronald Dickow and Michael Willhoite were indicted on charges of kidnapping and official misconduct.

On Monday, the Tampa Bay Times reported that a 42-year-old federal inmate claims he has been denied treatment for AIDS at two different jails in Florida — one of which has been privatized — for the past several months. Kelby McCrillis said he received treatments for AIDS over the past thirteen years, but has had his medications discontinued since his incarceration at the Citrus County Detention Center and the Pinellas County Jail.