Missouri Department of Corrections

There are currently 253 people in Missouri jails, who haven't been convicted of a crime, still waiting to be transferred to a state hospital for mental health treatment.

The policy comes more than a year after the Missouri Department of Corrections banned people from receiving paper mail in prison.

The Prison Policy Initiative put Missouri and Kansas on a list of “famously hot states” that lack universal air conditioning in prisons. During excessively hot summer days, inmates say that it can feel like a "pizza oven" inside — and the state isn't doing enough to fix the issue.

Tommy Williams shot and killed a man in 1990. He has now served 32 years of three life sentences, with no chance of parole. In a long conversation at the Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, Missouri, he talked about his life on the streets, what he sees in the young men who come to prison and his regrets.

Missourians are seeing massive delays in receiving services, ranging from call center wait times to court-ordered mental treatment.

A prison nurse said she felt trapped between two corrections officers as one described plans to kidnap, drug and rape her. Her attorney said there were “daily ‘rape jokes’ from other corrections officers and retaliation by the warden and other jail personnel.”

Barely one month after Kevin Johnson, another St. Louis County defendant is scheduled to be executed.

Under a proposed settlement before a Cole County judge, Missouri corrections officers would get back pay and future payments worth more than $100 million for claims the state underpaid officers.

Washington County Prosecutor Josh Hedgecorth last week filed a motion to vacate conviction in the case of Michael Politte, saying there was "clear and convincing evidence" that Politte was erroneously convicted of killing his mother.

Corrections officials say the move is necessary to stem the flow of drugs into Missouri prisons. But criminal justice reform advocates warn it could violate inmates’ privacy and further isolate them from their families.

The bill directs the Missouri Department of Corrections to establish a nursery within a women’s correctional facility by July 2025, and allow incarcerated women to stay with their newborns for their first 18 months.

About half of all people released from prison in Missouri return within five years. But decades of research has shown prison education programs can help break the cycle.