We love our movies about wiseguys. But what happens when you live and work down the street from them?

Sentencing someone to life in prison without the possibility of parole is "not the solution to problems, but a problem to solve," Pope Francis told Italian prison guards, prison chaplains and officials from the Ministry of Justice.

Deadly riots regularly occur in the third-largest prison system in the world, reports Eduardo Campos Lima, and Brazilian authorities are restricting the practice of religion rather than address overcrowding, gang activity and other problems.

The Church in America Initiative focuses on the future of the Catholic Church in the United States, with particular emphasis on the challenges facing Latino communities in the U.S., especially in the areas of education, immigration and incarceration.

The paramount concern of all prisons is safety. This is understandable, but it still seems unfair when security eclipses the health and well-being of inmates, writes John T. Booth.

Solitary confinement is in widespread use in prisons across the United States and, in New York state alone, more than 3,000 inmates are isolated in 6-by-10 cells for over 23 hours a day.