Reports

“Kettling” Protesters in the Bronx

Systemic Police Brutality and Its Costs in the United States

The 99-page report, “‘Kettling’ Protesters in the Bronx: Systemic Police Brutality and Its Costs in the United States,” provides a detailed account of the police response to the June 4 peaceful protest in Mott Haven, a low-income, majority Black and brown community that has long experienced high levels of police brutality and systemic racism. It describes the city’s ineffectual accountability systems that protect abusive police officers, shows the shortcomings of incremental reforms, and makes the case for structural change.

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  • No Escape: Male Rape in U.S. Prisons

    This ground-breaking new report by Human Rights Watch charges that state authorities are responsible for widespread prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse in U.S. men's prisons. The 378-page report is based on more than three years of research and is the first national survey of prisoner-on-prisoner rape.

  • Beyond Reason

    The Death Penalty and Offenders with Mental Retardation

    Twenty-five U.S. states still permit the execution of offenders with mental retardation and should pass laws to ban the practice without delay. The United States appears to be the only democracy whose laws expressly permit the execution of persons with this severe mental disability.

  • Red Onion State Prison

    Super-Maximum Security Confinement in Virginia

    The treatment of inmates at Red Onion State Prison, Virginia's first super-maximum securityfacility, raises serious human rights concerns.

  • Losing the Vote

    The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States

    The expansion of suffrage to all sectors of the population is one of the United States' most important political triumphs. Today, all mentally competent adults have the right to vote with only one exception: convicted criminal offenders .The racial impact of disenfranchisement laws is particularly egregious.

  • Locked Away

    Immigration Detainees in Jails in the United States

    Human Rights Watch charges that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is now holding more than half of its detainees in jails where they are subjected to punitive treatment and may be mixed with criminal inmates.

  • Cold Storage

    Super-Maximum Security Confinement in Indiana

    In the United States, correctional authorities are relying increasingly on special super-maximum security facilities to confine disruptive or dangerous prisoners. Prolonged confinement in these conditions can be devastating psychologically.

  • Cruel and Usual

    Disproportionate Sentences for New York Drug Offenders

    In the past decade, the U.S. Congress and many state legislatures have established harsh criminal penalties for a wide range of drug offenses, often using the vehicle of mandatory minimum prison sentences.

  • United States: A World Leader in Executing Juveniles

    Human Rights Watch opposes the imposition of the death penalty on all criminal offenders in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty. In addition, Human Rights Watch is concerned that the death penalty is most often carried out in a discriminatory manner on racial, ethnic, religious or political grounds.

  • Breach of Trust

    Physician Participation in Executions in the United States

    This report documents that physicians continue to be involved in executions, in violation of ethical and professional codes of conduct. This involvement is often mandated by state law and specified in departmental regulations about execution procedures.