Criminal Law
The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog 
News, commentary and analysis on prisons: government proposals with the aim of stemming overcrowding and recidivism; inmate living conditions and changing demographics; sentencing issues.
Post Frequency: 4.3/day Last Entry: November 21, 2009 at 11:24:06 Recent Entries: 1285
By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)
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Indiana prison stops serving lunch three days a week Civil rights groups, lawmakers critical of program at Plainfield eliminating midday meal 3 days a week
Posted on November 21, 2009"Plainfield Correctional spokesman Kevin Mulroony said two square meals a day provide the same calories -- 2,500 -- as three meals. Breakfast and lunch are combined into what is being called "brunch" -- but is predominantly breakfast food served at...
NC: Women Prisoners File Class Action Suit Against DOC for Extensive Sexual Violence
Posted on November 21, 2009Prisoners allege sex abuse NC News and Observor Nov. 20, 2009 BY MANDY LOCKE - Staff Writer http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/story/201215.html RALEIGH -- Four female inmates have filed a federal class-action lawsuit accusing North Carolina prison officials of subjecting female prisoners to extensive...
MA: DOC is preparing to layoff prison chaplains
Posted on November 20, 2009The DOC is preparing to layoff Prison Chaplains. The Chaplains are represented by Local 509 SEIU. 1. The Department of Corrections has proposed to layoff 19 of 32 Chaplains now employed by the department in order to balance the department...
Analyst proposes putting corrections projects in Va. on hold
Posted on November 20, 2009Analyst proposes putting corrections projects in Va. on hold By Tyler Whitley Published: November 19, 2009 Virginia and its localities should stop building more prisons and jails because a decade-long building program has led to undercrowding, a state budget analyst...
MT: "No One Should Go Through What I Went Through" ALCU suit on behalf of Bethany Cajune, 4 months pregnant when she was sentenced to jail for traffic violations
Posted on November 19, 2009The following information and video is from Diana Kasdan, Staff Attorney, Reproductive Freedom Project American Civil Liberties Union about information about a lawsuit the ACLU filed today on behalf of Bethany Cajúne, a young mother who was denied medically necessary...
PA: Donna Pfender, Pres., Fight for Lifers West. Senate Judiciary Cmte Hearing on Prison Overcrowding and Sending Prisoners to MI
Posted on November 18, 2009Senate Judiciary Committee Public Hearing on Prison Overcrowding November 16, 2009 Harrisburg, PA Donna Pfender, President ? Fight For Lifers West Good afternoon to the Chairman, Senator Greenleaf; to the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee; to Senator Greenleaf?s aide,...
PRISON LEGAL NEWS SUES VIRGINIA DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS OVER CENSORSHIP OF BOOKS, MAGAZINES SENT TO PRISONERS
Posted on November 18, 2009PLN files censorship suit against Virginia Dept. of Corrections Tue Nov 17, 2009 PRESS RELEASE PUBLISHER SUES VIRGINIA DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS OVER CENSORSHIP OF BOOKS, MAGAZINES SENT TO PRISONERS Richmond, VA ? Prison Legal News (PLN), a non-profit monthly publication...
WI: Why deny used books to prisoners in Wisconsin's state prison system?
Posted on November 17, 2009Keep books flowing to prisons By Camy Matthay ? November 16, 2009 Greenbay Press Gazette Why deny used books to inmates in Wisconsin's state prison system? Wisconsin Books to Prisoners (WBTP), a project of Rainbow Bookstore, is a volunteer nonprofit....
College Ivy Sprouts at a Connecticut Prison
Posted on November 17, 2009College Ivy Sprouts at a Connecticut Prison November 16, 2009 NY Times By ALISON LEIGH COWAN CHESHIRE, Conn. ? In many ways it was just another day, another class of Wesleyan University, one of the more selective colleges in the...
Moms, children stay locked up together in Ohio. Ky. program allows women prisoners to see children monthly
Posted on November 16, 2009Moms, children stay locked up together in Ohio Ky. program allows inmates to see children monthly By Sharon Coolidge and Eileen Kelley - November 13, 2009 Cincinnati Enquirer MARYSVILLE, Ohio - The only thing missing from tiny Takeem Maffett's world....
Op Ed Newsday: Robert Gangi" Ease state budget woes by closing more prisons
Posted on November 14, 2009OPINION: Ease state budget woes by closing more prisons November 12, 2009 By ROBERT GANGI Newsday Robert Gangi is executive director of the Correctional Association of New York. Gov. David A. Paterson has proposed severe spending reductions to close New...
Prison health-care costs rise as prisoners grow older and sicker
Posted on November 14, 2009Prison health-care costs rise as prisoners grow older and sicker CNN-11-13-09 ardwick, Georgia (CNN) -- White fuzz covers his bald head. His sallow skin sags. A wheelchair and cane support limp legs. This is not the typical image of a...
U.S. Identifies 111,000 Immigrants With Criminal Records
Posted on November 13, 2009Among the immigrants identified through the program, known as Secure Communities, more than 11,000 had been charged with or convicted of the most serious crimes, including murder and rape, domestic security officials said Thursday. About 1,900 of those have been...
Sex Worker Outreach Project: December 17, 2009 in Tucson Honoring Marcia Powell, who died in a holding cage in 107 degree heat while serving 27 months for prostitution
Posted on November 12, 2009A Message from the Sex Worker?s Outreach Project - Tucson www.swop-tucson.org Please forward this message. Please Join Us December 17, 2009 for the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers Event in Tucson, Arizona! November 11, 2009 Dear Friends...
Florida leads nation in locking up kids in adult jails
Posted on November 12, 2009"In five of the six counties, burglary was the most common ticket to the adult system." Florida leads nation in locking up kids in adult jails By Colleen Jenkins, St Petersburg Tims Staff Writer Thursday, November 12, 2009 TAMPA ?...
Defense Authorization Act calls on Sentencing Commission to examine the impact of mandatory minimums
Posted on November 12, 2009U.S. Commission to Assess Mandatory Sentences By GARY FIELDS Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2009 WASHINGTON -- Congress has ordered the panel that advises judges on prison terms to conduct a review of mandatory-minimum sentences, a move that could lead...
MA: Gov. shelves plans to build treatment units for seriously mentally prisoners. Mass Correctional Legal Services goes to court to force the state to build alternatives to solitary confinement.
Posted on November 10, 2009Treatment units for mentally ill inmates on hold State cites budget crunch as talks to end suit fail By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | November 10, 2009 The Patrick administration has shelved plans to build special treatment units for hundreds...
Bill would limit needle exchanges to 1000 feet of school, park, library, college, video arcade or any place children might gather
Posted on November 09, 2009?Clearly the intent of this rule is to nullify the lifting of the ban.? Bill Would Limit Needle Exchanges By KATIE ZEZIMA - NY Times Published: November 8, 2009 BANGOR, Me. ? For years, the location of this city?s needle...
UK: Christian charity plans to open private prison in Cornwall
Posted on November 09, 2009Christian charity plans to open private prison in Cornwall Monday, November 09, 2009, 11:27 CORNWALL could get a brand new prison run by the county's Christian community, according to ambitious plans revealed today. The newly-formed Carpenters House project wants to...
KY: Disgusting & inedible food from Aramark was cause of riot at Northpoint
Posted on November 07, 2009Food caused Northpoint riot, guard says By Valarie Honeycutt Spears November 7, 2009 FRANKFORT ? A corrections officer at Northpoint Training Center told lawmakers Friday that an August riot at the prison near Danville was caused by inmate anger over...
Grants NM: Chamber of Commerce and Prison work to keep CCA prison for women open
Posted on November 06, 2009Community works to keep women?s prison open By Donald Jaramillo Beacon publisher/managing editor November 5, 2009 GRANTS - An emergency community relations meeting organized by the New Mexico Women's Correction Facility and supported by the Grants/Cibola County Chamber of Commerce...
What the census will get wrong--gerrymandering prisoners
Posted on November 06, 2009What the census will get wrong By MARY SANCHEZ McClatchy Newspapers Published: Friday, Nov. 6, 2009 - 7:56 am The 2010 U.S. Census will soon be upon us, and by now you may have heard one of the patriotic pitches...
MI: Former Youth Prison Owned by GEO Bids for BOP for immigrants
Posted on November 06, 2009Hearing on Lake County prison set Contract with U.S. could bring 327 jobs to Baldwin Kevin Braciszeski - Daily News Staff Writer Friday, November 6, 2009 BALDWIN ? The closed ? and recently expanded ? prison near Baldwin is being...
NY: Families Rally for Emancipation and Empowerment launches our original Survival Guide
Posted on November 06, 2009Allied Sister and Brothers!! I really hope you can come out and support! And, remember - if you can't attend the event, you can still help us reach our goal of raising $5,000 to distribute this unique Survival Guide! Imagine...
Focus on ?Criminal Aliens? Increases Demand for Private Immigrant Detention Business ? According to New Profit Reports
Posted on November 05, 2009Focus on ?Criminal Aliens? Increases Demand for Private Immigrant Detention Business ? According to New Profit Reports 5 November 2009 From the Business of Detention http://www.businessofdetention.com/ In earnings reports released this week the nation?s two largest private prison operators cited...
Western MA: women arrested in 8 massage parlors by ICE and police
Posted on November 05, 20093 women arrested on prostitution charges as police raid 8 massage parlors in Hampden, Hampshire counties By Patrick Johnson November 04, 2009, 8:10PM Springfield Republican SPRINGFIELD ? State and local police and federal officials Wednesday afternoon arrested three women on...
Corrections Corporation of America Announces Third Quarter 2009 Financials
Posted on November 05, 2009Corrections Corporation of America Announces Third Quarter 2009 Financial Results Marketwire Third Quarter EPS of $0.39, or $0.33 Excluding Special Items November 04, 2009: 04:05 PM ET Corrections Corporation of America (NYSE: CXW) (the "Company" or "CCA"), the nation's largest...
CA to send 1,300 prisoners to CCA Prison in OK
Posted on November 04, 2009California sending inmates to Oklahoma OKLAHOMA CITY, Nov 04, 2009 (Tulsa World - McClatchy-Tribune California officials plan to send more than 1,300 inmates to a private prison in Sayre. Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the North Fork Correctional Facility...
" Missouri Department of Corrections calls prison population boom no problem" and scroll down for a link to the blog National Public Service Council to Abolish Private Prisons
Posted on November 04, 2009Missouri Department of Corrections calls prison population boom no problem Tuesday, November 3, 2009 | 12:01 a.m. CST BY Cheston McGuire JEFFERSON CITY ? An all-time high number of inmates in Missouri prisons has officials searching for the reasons. Corrections...
NYC: Varick Street jail for detained immigrants run by Alaska Native Corporation bills ICE $227.68 for each prisoner
Posted on November 02, 2009Immigrant Jail Tests U.S. View of Legal Access By NINA BERNSTEIN Published: November 1, 2009- NY Times A startling petition arrived at the New York City Bar Association in October 2008, signed by 100 men, all locked up without criminal...
Peter Shellem, Investigative Reporter Who Wrote About Wrongful Convictions, Dies at 49
Posted on November 01, 2009Peter Shellem, Investigative Reporter Who Wrote About Wrongful Convictions, Dies at 49 By DENNIS HEVESI Published: October 31, 2009 New York Times Peter Shellem, whose relentless digging into dusty court records, erroneous crime-lab reports and coerced confessions during his 23...
Standish MI: Prison Being Considered for Guantanamo or PA prisoners to be closed for now
Posted on October 31, 2009Michigan to Close Prison Considered for Gitmo Detainees By ALEX P. KELLOGG Wall Street Journal- Oct 31, 2009 A state prison in Michigan that is being considered as a potential location for holding terror detainees from Guantanamo Bay is expected...
Navajo Reservation: LA Times Story Celebrating Building New Jails with Federal Stimulus Money
Posted on October 31, 2009Navajo hope stimulus cash closes a revolving prison door Criminals at Navajo holding facilities like this one in Kayenta, Ariz., are usually released within a day of being booked. Kayenta and two other towns will get new jails next year,...
IA: Possible layoffs unsettle prison guards and workers
Posted on October 31, 2009Possible layoffs unsettle prison officers, workers Posted By William Petroski On October 30, 2009 Newton, Ia. ? The mood was tense and somber at the Newton Correctional Facility during Thursday?s first shift change, as rank-and-file prison workers await the outcome...
PA Supreme Court Overturns Thousands Convictions By Judge Who Received $2.6 million in Kickbacks Who Sent Teenagers to Private Youth Jails
Posted on October 30, 2009Pennsylvania Overturns Many Youths? Convictions By IAN URBINA - NY Times Published: October 29, 2009 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday overturned thousands of juvenile-offender convictions handed down by a judge now charged in a corruption scandal...
3 part NPR series on CA three-strikes including interview with Sue Reams, time-line and graphs, etc.
Posted on October 29, 2009http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114277240...
CA: Three Private Run Prisons to Close
Posted on October 28, 2009State plans to close two community correctional facilities in Kern BY JAMES BURGER, Californian staff writer Monday, Oct 26 2009 Two privately run prisons in Kern County were issued 60-day closure notices Monday by the California Department of Corrections and...
NJ: In Parish of Slain Pastor, Talk of Forgiveness
Posted on October 27, 2009In Parish of Slain Pastor, Talk of Forgiveness By MICHAEL WILSON and NATE SCHWEBER Published: October 25, 2009 NY Times A popular Roman Catholic priest who was stabbed to death in his rectory in Chatham, N.J., last week ? as...
A sentence too cruel for kids By Alan K. Simpson
Posted on October 27, 2009opinion A sentence too cruel for kids By Alan K. Simpson Special to The Washington Post Posted: 10/24/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT Rather than serving in the U.S. Senate for almost 20 years, or having so many other wonderful life experiences,...
KS: Closed Girls "Reformatory" Closes After 120 Years
Posted on October 26, 2009Shuttered girls reformatory recalls horror, haven By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH (AP) 10-25-09 BELOIT, Kan. ? Many were broken, many were saved here. Beloit's name became synonymous with its girls' reformatory, one of the longest-operating in the country, which for more than...
MA: Franklin County jail strip search unconstitutional
Posted on October 24, 2009Franklin County jail strip search unconstitutional By George Claxton Created 10/24/2009 - 04:00 GREENFIELD - A strip search procedure previously used by the Franklin County jail has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge, just as an earlier one was...
MA: Two suicides by women at Dartmouth House of Correction. One clings to life and the other dies.
Posted on October 24, 2009Pair of suicide attempts raise questions about inmate care By Jay Pateakos Herald News Staff Reporter Last update Oct 22, 2009 @ 11:50 PM DARTMOUTH ? One Dartmouth House of Correction inmate was pronounced dead just before 5 p.m. Thursday...
Arizona May Put State Prisons in Private Hands
Posted on October 24, 2009Arizona May Put State Prisons in Private Hands By JENNIFER STEINHAUER Published: October 23, 2009 The New York Times FLORENCE, Ariz. ? One of the newest residents on Arizona?s death row, a convicted serial killer named Dale Hausner, poked his...
Risks and Returns: Exploiting the Immigrant Detention Industry
Posted on October 23, 2009Risks and Returns: Exploiting the Immigrant Detention Industry In These Times October 23, 2009 By Michelle Chen Last winter, a remote Texas prison convulsed in a cry of outrage, voicing the desperation of the immigration system's silenced captives. Two recent...
New Crack-Cocaine Sentencing Reform Bill Leaves Thousands Behind Bars
Posted on October 23, 2009New Crack-Cocaine Sentencing Reform Bill Leaves Thousands Behind Bars By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, New America Media Posted on October 22, 2009, Printed on October 23, 2009 http://www.alternet.org/story/143428/ New America Media Editor's Note: During the 1980s crack epidemic, Sen...
CT: "DETENTION CENTER FOR GIRLS" Rell Announces Plan For $15 million Juvenile Detention For Girls In Bridgeport
Posted on October 22, 2009DETENTION CENTER FOR GIRLS Rell Announces Plan For Juvenile Detention For Girls In Bridgeport By CHRISTOPHER KEATING and JON LENDER Hartford Courant October 21, 2009 The state will build a $15 million juvenile detention center for girls in Bridgeport so...
Hedge fund manager sees big bucks in CCA
Posted on October 22, 2009Ackman was also quick to brush off any concerns about falling occupancy rates at CCA, arguing that the company's aggressive building of new prisons in recent years boosted its total number of beds, and occupancy will rise as those beds...
Endless Insanity: Judges reject California plan to cut prison crowding The panel threatens to impose its own plan if the state does not submit an acceptable one within three weeks.
Posted on October 22, 2009Judges reject California plan to cut prison crowding The panel threatens to impose its own plan if the state does not submit an acceptable one within three weeks. By Michael Rothfeld October 22, 2009 Reporting from Sacramento LA Times Three...
AZ: Judge rules against Arpaio who demanded $300-$600 of prepayment for transportation for women seeking access to abortion care.
Posted on October 21, 2009From the ACLU: "A victory for incarcerated women against Sheriff Joe Arpaio The judge ordered that it was unconstitutional for Maricopa Jail to require "prepayment" of transportation costs for those women seeking to access abortion care." Judge: No prepayment for...
CA: Kelso and State Agree to Build Prison for 1,733 sick and mentally ill prisoners in Stockton
Posted on October 21, 2009Deal reached for new state prison October 20, 2009 | 7:23 pm LA Times State corrections officials and a court-appointed overseer of prison healthcare have agreed to build a new 1,733-bed facility for sick and mentally ill inmates at an...
NJ -consultant recommends closing Camden jail and building a new private jail
Posted on October 21, 20092 articles below. ______________ http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20091020_Consultant_recommends_privatizing_Camden_jail.html Philadelphia Inquirer Posted on Tue, Oct. 20, 2009 Consultant recommends privatizing Camden jail By James Osborne Inquirer Staff Writer A report commissioned by Camden County recommends closing the jail in downtown Camden and privatizing the...
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Reports on Prisons Around the World
Posted on October 21, 2009U.N. investigator tells of horrors of world prisons By Louis Charbonneau Reuters Washington Post Tuesday, October 20, 2009 UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Inmates at a prison in Uruguay can spend years in "tin cans" -- small metal boxes where temperatures...
?Criminalizing? Poverty, How Public Policies Result in the Over-Incarceration of Low-Income Communities in America"
Posted on October 20, 2009?Criminalizing? Poverty, How Public Policies Result in the Over-Incarceration of Low-Income Communities in America" By Tracy Velázquez, Executive Director, Justice Policy Institute October 13, 2009: One of the early lessons in school civics is that ?justice is blind??that is, all...
SF: Gavin Newsom's policy of contacting ICE for juveniles arrested of crimes voted down by council
Posted on October 20, 2009San Francisco to Vote on Immigration Reporting Policy By JESSE McKINLEY Published: NY Times October 20, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO ? The San Francisco board of supervisors voted Tuesday to overturn a city policy that has been at the center of...
NY: overbuilt rural county jail opened in 2007 is half empty now must count on federal prisoners for revenue
Posted on October 20, 2009Essex Co. received $1M for boarding inmates By NATHAN BROWN, Enterprise Staff Writer POSTED: October 14, 2009 ELIZABETHTOWN - Essex County has taken in a little over $1 million for boarding inmates from elsewhere so far this year, the large...
TX: How a private prison pushed immigrant inmates to the brink.
Posted on October 20, 2009How a private prison pushed immigrant inmates to the brink. Forrest Wilder | October 2, 2009 | Features Texas Observer http://www.texasobserver.org/features/the-pecos-insurrection Last Dec. 12, on the outskirts of Pecos, Texas, the immigrants doing time in the world?s largest privately run...
Boston Globe: The Long Shadow of Willie Horton. More than two decades ago, a governor showed a prisoner leniency, with horrifying results. Our justice system hasn?t been the same since.
Posted on October 19, 2009"That safety valve (of commutations), however, has all but vanished in Massachusetts, even while other states have been going in the opposite direction to trim costs. States like California, Colorado, Kentucky, Oregon, Michigan, and Texas are either considering proposals to...
Months to Live- Fellow Inmates Ease the Pain of Dying in Jail
Posted on October 18, 2009Months to Live- Fellow Inmates Ease the Pain of Dying in Jail By JOHN LELAND Published NY TimesOctober 17, 2009 COXSACKIE, N.Y. ? Allen Jacobs lived hard for his 50 years, and when his liver finally shut down he faced...
The California Fix: As 40% of money for rehab programs are cut, prisons do less to keep prisoners from returning
Posted on October 17, 2009THE CALIFORNIA FIX As rehab programs are cut, prisons do less to keep inmates from returning By Michael Rothfeld October 17, 2009 Reporting from Sacramento - Gina Tatum spends her days in a compound surrounded by electrified fence in the...
WA: Prison for the old and infirm may close
Posted on October 15, 2009State may close Ahtanum View, prison for the old and infirm Ahtanum View Corrections Center, the state's prison for the elderly, disabled or critically ill, is being studied for potential closure. The governor's Office of Financial Management is expected to...
William Wayne Justice, Noted Judge, Dies at 89
Posted on October 15, 2009William Wayne Justice, Noted Judge, Dies at 89 By DOUGLAS MARTIN - NY Times Published: October 14, 2009 Judge William Wayne Justice of Federal District Court, who ruled on ground-breaking class-action suits that compelled Texas to integrate schools, reform prisons,...
KS: Gov. moves for outside review of prison system following allegations of widespread illegal sex among staff and prisoners at the state's prison for women
Posted on October 15, 2009Kan. gov. seeks outside review of state prisons Eds: UPDATES with additional allegations about allegations; details about governor's request; governor's statement; quotes from governor's spokeswoman, corrections secretary, legislative leader. By JOHN HANNA 10-14-09 Associated Press Writer TOPEKA, Kan...
NY Times Editorial: One Protection for Women Prisoners In Labor. Now states and other courts must act.
Posted on October 14, 2009NY Times Editorial: One Protection for Prisoners Published: October 13, 2009 The practice of keeping female prisoners in shackles while they give birth is barbaric. But it remains legal in more than 40 states, and advocates of prisoners? rights say...
Two former state employees accused of raping three women prisoners as they worked on OK governor's grounds
Posted on October 13, 2009Prisoners Say They Were Raped on Job Detail By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: October 12, 2009 NY Times OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ? Prosecutors are investigating accusations that two former state employees at the Oklahoma governor?s mansion raped three female prison...
Hardin MT: Behind Montana Jail Fiasco: How Private Prison Developers Prey On Desperate Towns
Posted on October 12, 2009TPMMuckraker Behind Montana Jail Fiasco: How Private Prison Developers Prey On Desperate Towns Justin Elliott | October 12, 2009 (For an unbelievably pathetic picture of the Two Rivers Authority parade float, 6/27/09, go to the URL below.) With the unraveling...
The High Cost of Empty Prisons by Robert Gangi
Posted on October 12, 2009Op-Ed Contributor: The High Cost of Empty Prisons By ROBERT GANGI New York Times: October 11, 2009 LAST Wednesday, changes to New York?s notorious Rockefeller drug laws went into effect, allowing judges to shorten the prison terms of some nonviolent....
Stanidsh MI begs for prisoners from PA DOC Commissoner Beard
Posted on October 11, 2009MDOC's letter to Pennsylvania regarding PA inmates in Standish Max Following is the Michigan Department of Corrections' letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections in its entirety. Standish max is mentioned in paragraph three. Secretary Jeffrey A...
Angola 3: Herman Wallace's Appeal Denied After 37 Years in Solitary Confinement
Posted on October 11, 2009Appeal Denied After 37 Years in Solitary Confinement by James Ridgeway. The Unsilent Generation Posted: 10 Oct 2009 The Louisiana State Supreme Court Friday denied an appeal from Herman Wallace, who has been held in solitary confinement for more than...
Study Finds High Rate of Imprisonment Among High School Dropouts: including jail or juvenile detention for 1 in 4 African American young men who drop out of school.
Posted on October 09, 2009"The report puts the collective cost to the nation over the working life of each high school dropout at $292,000. Mr. Sum said that figure took into account lost tax revenues, since dropouts earn less and therefore pay less in...
MT: Hardin officials nix deal with "American Police Force"
Posted on October 08, 2009'Red flags' cause Mt. officials to nix 'American Police Force' deal Montana city's jail deal delayed amid controversy Montana jail plan on hold after revelations about lead figure's past MATTHEW BROWN AP News Oct 05, 2009 20:22 EST Plans for...
TX: Mineral Wells rejects buidling an immigrant "detention" center on spec
Posted on October 08, 2009Mineral Wells rejects Emerald detention center financing deal Wed, 10/07/2009 From the Mineral Wells Index ("Council declines Emerald finance proposal," October 7), Mineral Wells City Council on Tuesday declined to second a motion to finance a proposed Immigrations and Customs...
MA: State floats idea of another prison in Framingham
Posted on October 08, 2009State floats idea of another prison in Framingham By Dan McDonald/Daily News staff The MetroWest Daily News Posted Oct 07, 2009 FRAMINGHAM ? Already home to MCI-Framingham, the town might be host to another 500-bed prison facility. The state has...
The Secret World of Deaf Prisoners By James Ridgeway
Posted on September 30, 2009The Secret World of Deaf Prisoners By James Ridgeway Monday, September 28th, 2009 9:47 pm SPECIAL REPORT In the 1970s, an antiwar demonstrator found himself at New York City?s Rikers Island jail facility for a couple of months on a...
MT: Still more strange goings on in Hardin with "American Police Force"
Posted on September 30, 2009Reports: Mysterious, unregistered security firm policing Montana town The Raw Story A mysterious, reportedly unregistered and almost entirely unknown private security firm by the name "American Police Force" is causing a stir in a small Montana town for apparently impersonating...
NAACP's president returns to Maine for voter drive in prisons
Posted on September 30, 2009NAACP's president returns to Maine for voter drive in prisons BY TREVOR MAXWELL Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 09/30/2009 Less than a year after he came to Maine to lobby for prison reform and ensure that inmates have an opportunity...
Supreme Court to consider life without parole for juveniles sentenced for non-murder convictions?
Posted on September 28, 2009Supreme Court to consider juvenile 'lifers' Does life without parole for minors who didn't kill constitute cruel and unusual punishment? By David G. Savage September 28, 2009 Reporting from Washington - Joe Sullivan was 13 years old when he and...
Interview with Young Women's Empowerment Project on their research "Girls Do What they Do In Order to Survive"
Posted on September 28, 2009An interview with the Young Women's Empowerment Project on their research study of girls involved in the sex trade. Participatory Action Research emphasizes the involvement of those being studied in the actual research process. It?s a technique the Young Women's...
Cuts Ravage California Domestic Abuse Program
Posted on September 26, 2009Cuts Ravage California Domestic Abuse Program By JESSE McKINLEY Published: September 25, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO ? The Riley Center does not advertise its location, in a three-story Victorian in San Francisco?s core. The center?s address is confidential to protect its...
CA: Editorial: Time to get real on prison crowding
Posted on September 26, 2009Editorial: Time to get real on prison crowding Friday, Sep. 25, 2009 | Page 16A Sacramento Bee Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his team continue to suffer from multiple-policy disorder on prison overcrowding. On one side, the governor declares a state...
Prison report: Who are the bad people? and Canadian Conservatives try to model a system based on the U.S.
Posted on September 26, 2009Prison report: Who are the bad people? By Just A Guy Editors note: Just A Guy is an inmate in a California state prison. His dispatches appear twice a week. Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner was recently quoted in the...
NY Times Editorial: Prisoners' Rights ---"Prisoner lawsuits are a way of reining in the worst abuses, which contribute to prison riots and other violence."
Posted on September 24, 2009September 24, 2009 Editorial :Prisoners? Rights NY Times In 1996, Congress passed a law that made it much harder for inmates to challenge abusive treatment. It has contributed significantly to the bad conditions ? including the desperate overcrowding ? that...
FL: Pinellas County Jail drops $8 co-pay for prisoners doctor visits
Posted on September 24, 2009Pinellas County Jail drops $8 co-pay for inmates' doctor visits By Drew Harwell, Times Staff Writer In Print: Sunday, September 20, 2009 LARGO ? The Pinellas County Jail will no longer charge an $8 co-payment to inmates seeking medical care,...
"Restoring the Rights of Persons with Felony Convictions" by Lillie Branch-Kennedy, RIHD, VA
Posted on September 23, 2009The Virginia Defender July - September 2009 Restoring the Rights of Persons with Felony Convictions http://defendersfje.tripod.com/id3.html By Lillie Branch-Kennedy In 2008, we Americans headed to the polls in record numbers to vote for our president...
VA: Lorton prison turned into an arts center
Posted on September 23, 2009?We really are just beginning? By Janet Rems The Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton has already accomplished so much that people think this vibrant, rapidly growing arts community has been around longer than one year. ?We really are just beginning,?...
AZ: Prison guards punished in Marcia Powell's Death: 3 fired, two leave, 10 receive suspensions ranging form 40 to 80 hours, one demoted
Posted on September 23, 2009Workers Punished In Inmate's Death Marcia Powell Left In Outdoor Holding Cell For 4 Hours In Triple-Digit Heat September 22, 2009 PHOENIX -- Sixteen Arizona prison workers have been disciplined or fired for the death of an inmate left in...
Illinois DOC Press Release Outlining Plan for Reforms Including Tamms Prison Review
Posted on September 22, 2009Illinois Department of Corrections Director Outlines New Vision for State Prisons, Completes Tamms Prison Review, Announces Reforms Released September 21, 2009 Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) Director Michael P. Randle today outlined his plan for reforming the state?s prison system...
Connecticut's Budget Requires Correction Department Cuts, But No One Seems To Know Where To Make Them
Posted on September 22, 2009CORRECTIONS Connecticut's Budget Requires Correction Department Cuts, But No One Seems To Know Where To Make Them By CHRISTOPHER KEATING The Hartford Courant September 21, 2009 Just save the money. That's what the state's prisons are being told by the...
NY State Commission of Correction files a lawsuit against Erie Co Sheriff compelling him to operate jail in a safe & humane manner
Posted on September 22, 2009Posted: Tuesday, 22 September 2009 State Sues Sheriff Howard (It is hard to understand who is speaking in this...but the report is from a radio station). Steve Cichon Reporting scichon@entercom.com Albany, NY (Commission of Correction/WBEN)- Today, the New York State...
Adelanto CA: GEO plans to build private prison for 2,200 immigrants
Posted on September 22, 2009Private company plans illegal-immigrant prison in Adelanto 2,200-bed facility hinges on winning federal contract September 21, 2009 NATASHA LINDSTROM Staff Writer ADELANTO ? A private prison operator has plans to build a 2,200-bed detention center that holds illegal immigrants on...
OK: Prisons can inflate districts' influence
Posted on September 20, 2009Prisons can inflate districts' influence by: MICHAEL OVERALL World Staff Writer Sunday, September 20, 2009 For maps to to: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=14&articleid=20090920_ 11_A1_Onamap449564 On a map of county commissioner districts in Osage County, the border of District 1 zig-zags along rather predictably...
MT: Empty Hardin Prison Pins Its Hopes on Mystery Security Company-American Private Police Force Organization
Posted on September 20, 2009Hardin still pins hopes on private jail, mystery security company By BECKY SHAY of the Billings Gazette | September 20, 2009 HARDIN - Al Peterson won't say the name of the company that wants to fill the empty jail in...
NV: Pahrump: fight continues against detention center
Posted on September 20, 2009"At the time, there was no group like Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community, no anti-prison privatization consultants like Frank Smith of the Private Corrections Institute, and only a couple residents who attended the relevant meetings and spoke up...
Schwarzenegger's prison reduction plan falls short of court order
Posted on September 19, 2009Schwarzenegger's prison reduction plan falls short of court order By Howard Mintz and Denis C. Theriault Mercury News Posted: 09/18/2009 Facing a midnight deadline, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and top prison officials Friday released a plan that falls far short of...
VA: Prison Officials Reverse Ban on Book Program
Posted on September 18, 2009VIRGINIA Prison Officials Reverse Ban on Book Program By Maria Glod Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 17, 2009 Virginia inmates will once again be able to receive free Bibles, dictionaries and other books from a nonprofit group, after state...
CO: Officials in 3 counties ask Gov not to close 3 CCA prisoners to protect jobs in communities
Posted on September 18, 2009Prison Cutbacks Face Opposition Bent, Crowley and Huerfano officials ask governor to reconsider early release program. By ANTHONY A. MESTAS THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN September 17, 2009 Officials in three Southern Colorado counties said Wednesday that Gov. Bill Ritter's decision to...
IL: DOC head visits Tamms and unveils some reforms
Posted on September 18, 2009Illinois"Members of Tamms Year Ten, an activist group, praised parts of Randle's plan, but said it doesn't go far enough, particularly when it comes to mentally ill inmates. "It sounds like the Illinois Department of Corrections is really moving into...
PETA Suggests Renting Prison For Chicken Empathy Museum
Posted on September 16, 2009PETA Suggests Renting Prison For Chicken Empathy Museum http://mystateline.com/content/fulltext/?cid=99621 Tuesday, Sep 15, 2009 (Roanoke, VA) -- PETA's executive vice president sent a letter to Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine on Monday offering to rent a state prison facility and turn it...
IL: Allegations of Human Rights Abuses at Tamms super max during Senate hearing on mental health in prisons
Posted on September 16, 2009?Mental illness has been criminalized in our country over the last 30 years,? Durbin said. ?By allowing our prisons and jails to become a primary provider of mental health services, we have taken a step backward in the effort to...
VA: Issues That Matter to You: Prison Jobs and Funding
Posted on September 15, 2009Issues That Matter to You: Prison Jobs and Funding By Amy Gardner Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 13, 2009 Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's decision last week to shutter two state prisons and a juvenile detention center to help...
Crime Report Shows Violent Crime Fell in 2008 as Incarceration Rates Continue to Decrease
Posted on September 15, 2009Crime Report Shows Violent Crime Fell in 2008 as Incarceration Rates Continue to Decrease Justice Policy Institute September 15, 2008 WASHINGTON, D.C.-Violent crime in the United States fell by 1.9 percent and property crimes by 0.8 percent in 2008, according...
Medical Inattention in New York Prisons
Posted on September 15, 2009Editorial Medical Inattention in New York Prisons NY Times Published: September 15, 2009 Prison inmates are the sickest people in society, with infection rates for blood-borne viruses like H.I.V. and hepatitis C far higher than the general population...
Prison Comix by Jim Ridgeway
Posted on September 12, 2009Prison Comix September 5, 2009 With more and more older people going to prison there is a growing demand for educational materials to keep their minds alive and well amid the deadening atmosphere of the American correctional system?created in large...
MA: Supreme Judicial Court Rules All Prison/Jail Calls are Not Private
Posted on September 12, 2009?Under today?s decision, prosecutors, for the first time, can listen to every telephone conversation a prisoner has with all family members, doctors, social workers, or priests,?? Garin said. ?This allows prosecutors to get any of those recordings for any reason...
Dallas PA: State to investigate allegations about Dallas prison guards
Posted on September 11, 2009Friday, September 11, 2009 10:27 am State to investigate allegations about Dallas prison guards Fed Up! says prisoners claim guards facilitated suicide of convicted murderer Matthew Bullock. By Steve Mocarsky ? Times Leader Staff Writer The state Department of Corrections...
Bridgewater: The men in Mass. who need our help
Posted on September 11, 2009The focus of this is Bridgewater but doesn't mention the suicide and suicide attempts at Framingham. The men in Mass. who need our help By Mark S. Coven The Boston Globe September 10, 2009 THE THREE men sat in court,...
MA: Possible closing of 4 prisons....although reality of it very doubtful
Posted on September 11, 2009The Boston Globe Prisons facing $100m in cuts :Fiscal scenario may prompt closings, layoffs By Jonathan Saltzman and Peter Schworm Globe Staff / September 11, 2009 Under increasing financial pressure, the state?s prison system is weighing close to $100 million...
Pippin Ross, former reporter at WFCR talks about her years at Framingham Prison
Posted on September 11, 2009Former reporter released from MCI-Framingham By Dan McDonald/Daily News staff Posted Sep 06, 2009 FRAMINGHAM ? Doing time in MCI-Framingham may have landed Pippin Ross, who once ran a public radio station in western Massachusetts before she was jailed for...
Dora Schriro to leave ICE to run NY Dept of Correction
Posted on September 10, 2009Immigration Official to Run New York?s Jails By NINA BERNSTEIN Published: September 8, 2009 The corrections expert appointed just a month ago to direct an overhaul of the nation?s troubled immigration detention system is leaving the Obama administration to be...
UK:
Posted on September 10, 2009A fair day's prison work? By Eric Allison -Wednesday 9 September 2009 The Guardian UK When work - however lousy - is preferable to staying in a cell, prisoners can easily be exploited, writes Eric Allison When a radical prisoner...
Dee Hubbard: Fighter Against Corruption and Private Prisons
Posted on September 10, 2009One for the little people By Krestia DeGeorge Anchorage Press September 2, 2009 According to the story, written by Rich Mauer, Hubbard bears no small responsibility for the start of what would eventually become the federal government?s investigation into government...
VA Ban on Prison Book Program Prompts Protests
Posted on September 10, 2009A Title Wave of Controversy Va. Ban on Prison Book Program Prompts Protests By Maria Glod Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 10, 2009 A Virginia inmate studying for his GED asked for a dictionary, explaining that "there's a lot...
The Tragedy of Our 'Disappeared' Veterans
Posted on September 09, 2009The Tragedy of Our 'Disappeared' Veterans By Penny Coleman, AlterNet Posted on August 12, 2009, Printed on September 9, 2009 http://www.alternet.org/story/140828/ Wayne McMahon was busted on gun charges six months after he got out of the Marines. He was jumped...
VA: Plan to close 3 prisons
Posted on September 09, 2009Va. to Cut 929 Jobs To Ease Shortfall Kaine Plan Includes Trims in College Aid, Closure of 3 Prisons By Anita Kumar Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, September 9, 2009 RICHMOND, Sept. 8 -- Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced...
CA: Audit Faults CDC with Huge Systemic Problems Including the Cost of 3 Strikes
Posted on September 09, 2009"Aside from the questions of inefficiency and fattened paychecks, the auditor noted that California's "three strikes" sentencing law adds billions to the state's corrections costs. Because that law imposes longer-than-usual sentences on inmates who commit a third felony after two...
KY: KY: Bill would cancel Aramark Contract Where as Many as 300 Prisoners Became Ill and Might Have Provoked "Riot"
Posted on September 09, 2009"State corrections officials say the contract with Aramark saves $5 million each year and allowed them to give corrections officers a nearly 7 percent raise in 2008." Bill would cancel prison food contract By Valarie Honeycutt Spears Complaints about the...
PA: Tyrone Werts and William Fultz First to Go Before Board of Parole After Federal Judge Ruling But Now Must Wait Again
Posted on September 09, 2009This was sent to me Gale Muhammad of Women Who Never Give Up!. Please send letters in support of Werts and Fultz can be sent to the Pennsylvania Board of pardons 333 Market St. 15th floor, Harrisburg PA 17126-0333. Below...
Study Finds Only Half of All Federal and State Prisons offer Methadone and Buprenorphine and Only In Very Limited Circumstances
Posted on September 09, 2009Study finds US prison system falls short in treating drug addiction PROVIDENCE, RI ? Almost a quarter of a million individuals addicted to heroin are incarcerated in the United States each year. However, many prison systems across the country still...
PA to build four new prisons
Posted on September 08, 2009Pa. grapples with growing prison needs By Mario F. Cattabiani Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania is preparing to embark on a major prison-construction blitz that will cost more than $800 million. But the four new prisons can't be completed...
"The Recession Behind Bars"
Posted on September 06, 2009Op-Ed Contributor The Recession Behind Bars By KENNETH E. HARTMAN Published: September 5, 2009 New York Times Lancaster, Calif. EVERY weekday morning the prison?s not on lockdown, the yard holds its collective breath waiting for the pale-orange package cart to...
VA: Some prisoners elibible for parole held longer than guidelines suggest
Posted on September 04, 2009Some inmates eligible for parole held longer than guidelines suggest By Frank Green September 3, 2009 Richmond Times Dispatch Some 706 parole-eligible inmates are being been held longer in Virginia prisons, at $24,332 each per year, than recommended under the...
Dee Hubbard: Organizer, Researcher, Activist Against Private Prison Movement
Posted on September 02, 2009From Frank Smith, Organizer, Private Corrections Institute on Dee Hubbard: It hasn't ever been publicized, but Dee and I were largely responsible for initiating and "following the money" that resulted in the successful prosecution of a dozen Alaska legislators, lobbyists...
SILENT TORTURE: Dog Days Turn Deadly in America?s Prisons
Posted on September 02, 2009SILENT TORTURE: Dog Days Turn Deadly in America?s Prisons by James Ridgeway First published in his blog Unsilent Generation on 1 September 2009 http://baltimorechronicle.com/2009/090109Ridgeway.shtml The U.S. government made a point of building new air-conditioned facilities for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay...
MA: Time to Pass a Law in MA Banning the Use of Shackles for Women in Labor, Delivery and Post-Partum
Posted on September 02, 2009Published in the September 2, 2009 Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA To the editor: Unlike New York ("6th State will curb shackling - N.Y. set to ban use on pregnant women"), Massachusetts has no law banning the shackling of women...
AZ: Prison Legal News, ACLU of AZ Sue CCA Over Sensorship of Books Sent to Prisoners
Posted on September 02, 2009SOURCE: PRISON LEGAL NEWS, ACLU OF ARIZONA Publisher Sues Corrections Corporation of America Over Censorship of Books Sent to Prisoners September 2, 2009 Phoenix, AZ ? Prison Legal News (PLN), a non-profit monthly publication that reports on criminal justice-related issues,...
ColorLines Review: The Real Cost of Prisons Comix: Vivid comics show the impacts of mass incarceration on communities of color
Posted on September 02, 2009Issue #52, Sept/Oct 2009 The Real Cost of Prisons Comix By Jenna M. Lloyd Vivid comics show the impacts of mass incarceration on communities of color. September 2, 2009 Locking 2.3 million people behind bars is a vast social project....
NJ Professor asks: Why were books banned at state prisons?
Posted on September 02, 2009Millburn professor asks : Why were books banned at state prisons? by Patricia C. Kelley/Independent Press Monday August 24, 2009, 6:25 PM (Editor of "Inside Out: Voices from New Jersey State Prison" Kal Wagenheim wants to know where his self-published...
Study shows that denying prisoners parole does little to reduce crime
Posted on September 01, 2009August 26, 2009 Study: Late parole is no deterrent Karen Bouffard / Detroit News Lansing Bureau Lansing -- Keeping inmates in prison past their earliest parole dates does little to reduce crime, according to a study released today by a...
Op-Ed: Bob Herbert- "Innocent But Dead"
Posted on September 01, 2009Op-Ed Columnist Innocent but Dead By BOB HERBERT Published: August 31, 2009 There is a long and remarkable article in the current New Yorker about a man who was executed in Texas in 2004 for deliberately setting a fire that...
NC: Closing prisons only temporary as prison population booms
Posted on August 31, 2009Cuts mean fewer prisons and programs Stricter guidelines result in more prisoners and longer sentences, but North Carolina's resources are strained. By Michael Biesecker Aug. 30, 2009 RALEIGH As a result of tough-on-crime sentencing laws approved by legislators 15 years...
Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter now can be found on the Real Cost of Prisons website
Posted on August 29, 2009As many of you know, the C.P.R. newsletter was published for 34 years. In June 2009, they mailed an announcement to their 9,100 subscribers ... almost all of whom are prisoners saying the could no longer afford to keep printing...
CA to close largest youth prison at Chino and convert it into an prison for men
Posted on August 28, 2009California to close its largest juvenile prison The Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino will be converted into an adult prison. The move is part of a plan to 'right-size' staff at the Division of Juvenile Justice. By...
Vt. Prison Health Care Questioned by Guards
Posted on August 28, 2009Vt. Prison Health Care Questioned Montpelier, Vermont - August 27, 2009 Vermont's state employees union claims the Corrections Department is providing inadequate training and care for mentally ill prisoners. Prison officials say the facts prove otherwise...
Homeless and Struggling In New Orleans On the Fourth Anniversary of Katrina, New Orleans is Still Far From Recovery
Posted on August 28, 2009Homeless and Struggling In New Orleans On the Fourth Anniversary of Katrina, New Orleans is Still Far From Recovery by Jordan Flaherty August 25th, 2009 http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/homeless-and-struggling-in-new-orleans/ Crawling through a hole in a fence and walking through an open doorway, Shamus...
Editorial NY Times: California Is Failing the Prison Test
Posted on August 27, 2009Editorial California Is Failing the Prison Test Published: August 26, 2009- NY Times The California Legislature has failed several times to change backward sentencing and parole policies that keep the state?s prisons dangerously overcrowded with too many minor offenders sent...
NY largely bans use of shackles during childbirth
Posted on August 27, 2009NY largely bans use of shackles during childbirth By CRISTIAN SALAZAR Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press Aug. 26, 2009 NEW YORK ? Gov. David Paterson on Wednesday signed into law a bill that largely bans the use...
3,900 stimus checks went to prisoners...1,700 by mistake
Posted on August 27, 20093,900 stimulus checks went to prison inmates By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER (AP) ?8-26-09 WASHINGTON ? The federal government sent about 3,900 economic stimulus payments of $250 each this spring to people who were in no position to use the money to...
Fed court says excluding people convicted of violent crimes from early release programs not valid
Posted on August 26, 2009Exclusion policy on early prison release ruled invalid An appeals panel says the Federal Bureau of Prisons has not adequately explained why inmates who have committed murder, rape and other violent crimes can't participate in the program. By Carol J....
PA: The number of prisoners increased by 40% in 9 years
Posted on August 25, 2009Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Number of inmates in Pa. prisons increases by 40 percent in nine years By Debra Erdley Sunday, August 23, 2009 Pennsylvania's prison population explosion is forcing officials to look hundreds of miles away for solutions. While the general...
DOJ publishes a report condemning treatment of youth at four of the New York's Juvenile Prisons
Posted on August 24, 2009Report Cites Abuse at State Juvenile Prison Centers By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE Published: August 24, 2009- NY Times ALBANY ? Children at four juvenile detention centers in New York were so severely abused by workers that it constituted a violation of...
MA: MA: (8-17) Metro-West Article: Two More Women Prisoners Attempt Suicide at Framingham
Posted on August 22, 2009Two more MCI-Framingham inmates attempt suicide By Dan McDonald/Daily News staff The MetroWest Daily News Posted Aug 17, 2009 FRAMINGHAM ? Two more MCI-Framingham inmates tried to kill themselves this month, bringing the count for attempted suicides inside the Loring...
NY Times Editorial: "Protecting Mother and Child" and links to Rebecca Project Info on State by State Shackling Policies
Posted on August 22, 2009Editorial NY Times Protecting Mother and Child Published: August 21, 2009 Obstetricians and other medical professionals have long called for an end to the barbaric and medically risky practice of shackling pregnant prisoners ? by their legs, wrists and even...
Study Backs Heroin to Treat Some Addicted to Heroin
Posted on August 22, 2009Study Backs Heroin to Treat Addiction By BENEDICT CAREY Published: August 19, 2009 New York Times The safest and most effective treatment for hard-core heroin addicts who fail to control their habit using methadone or other treatments may be their...
"The Unforgiven"
Posted on August 21, 2009The Unforgiven By Curtis Cartier Santa Cruz News Aug 20, 2009 It?s a sweltering day in Tracy. July behind bars at Deuel Vocational Institution smells like sweat, bleach and old orange peels. Clifford Bair, a white-haired, goateed first-degree murderer?a lifer?perches...
MI: 400 more women claim payouts fro $100 settlement for prison rapes and other assaults
Posted on August 21, 2009400 more women claim payouts from $100 million in prison attacks Aug. 20, 2009 By DAVID EGGERT Detroit Free Press- Associated Press Another 400 current or former female inmates filed claims for part of a $100 million settlement for those...
KY: Supreme Court Announces Pilot Project Allowing for People Charged with 600 Different Offenses Not To Spend Time in Jail
Posted on August 20, 2009Nonviolent offenders could avoid jail in Kentucky High court reveals pilot plan to save $12 million each month By Stephenie Steitzer August 17, 2009 The Kentucky Supreme Court announced a pilot project Monday that could save counties an estimated $12...
Hawaii/KY: 128 women from Hawaii now at CCA- Otter Creek will return to HI after guards accused of sexually assaulting 23 women including seven from Hawaii
Posted on August 20, 2009Female inmates to return to isles By Kaylee Noborikawa Aug 19, 2009 The majority of 128 female inmates from Hawaii housed at a private Kentucky correctional facility will return to the islands within a month, Public Safety Director Clayton Frank...
NY: Governor Paterson Promises Women Demonstrating in Front of His Office He Will Sign Anti-Shackling Bill
Posted on August 20, 2009Governor to Save Jailed Mothers From Shackling During Labor By Helena Zhu Epoch Times Staff Aug 18, 2009 NEW YORK?Making a surprise appearance at a protest held outside his mansion, New York Governor David Paterson promised a group of activists...
Nicholas Kristoff: Priority Test: Health Care or Prisons?
Posted on August 20, 2009Op-Ed Columnist : Priority Test: Health Care or Prisons? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/opinion/20kristof.html?_r=1 By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: August 19, 2009- NY Times At a time when we Americans may abandon health care reform because it supposedly is ?too expensive,? how is it...
Maine: New Law Allows Some Terminally Ill Inmates to Leave Prison Early
Posted on August 19, 2009New Law Allows Some Terminally Ill Inmates to Leave Prison Early August 14, 2009 Reported By: Anne Ravana Today Gov. John Baldacci signed into law a bill that amends a few correctional programs. LD 1224, "An Act Regarding the Operation...
Colloquy for Prison Health Amendments
Posted on August 18, 2009From Charlie Sullivan of CURE: Dear friends, on July 31st, Cong. Robby Rush (D-IL) by unanimous consent placed a colloquy (a conversation with Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) in the record of H.R. 3200, the comprehensive universal health care bill. This...
California might act to jail more drug offenders A move to increase funding to anti-drug units could result in increasing the state's prison population at a time when it's under order to reduce overcrowding.
Posted on August 18, 2009California might act to jail more drug offenders A move to increase funding to anti-drug units could result in increasing the state's prison population at a time when it's under order to reduce overcrowding. By Eric Bailey August 18, 2009...
Second Chance Act- a total of $100 million proposed by House and Senate Bill half that amount
Posted on August 18, 2009U.S. House of Representatives recommends mark of $100 million for the Second Chance Act in FY2010. An infinitesimal sum for the 700,000 men and women expected to be released from federal and state prisons this year and over 9 million...
KY: CCA Otter Creek Women's Prison Plagued by Allegations of Sexual Assaults by Guards--State Does Imposes No Fine and Extends Contract
Posted on August 17, 2009At the state women's prison "starting pay there is $18.18 an hour for workers with no corrections experience, and $19.17 an hour for those with experience. Starting pay at Otter Creek is $8.25 an hour." 81% of co's are male....
Detroit Free Press Editorial: "For Jobs' Sake Bring in Out-of-State Prisoners"
Posted on August 16, 2009"A bigger concern is whether the federal government would retain local correctional officers. For that reason, inmates from other state correctional systems are probably preferable, as Michigan could determine who works at the prison." Posted: Aug. 15, 2009 EDITORIAL- Detroit...
LA Times Op-Ed: The disaster before the disater at Chino
Posted on August 16, 2009Opinion: The disaster before the disaster at Chino The prison was once a model for a new era of enlightened criminal justice, but Californians' refusal to meet their fiscal and social responsibilities ruined that vision. By Volker Janssen August 15,....
States going to great lengths to squeeze money from pirsoners
Posted on August 16, 2009Some states are charging inmates fees for prison stay Daily charges help ease prison costs amid budget cuts By Deborah Hastings Associated Press / August 16, 2009 A one-night stay? Ninety dollars. Need to see a doctor? Ten bucks. Want...
Folsom Embodies California's Prison Blues
Posted on August 15, 2009Folsom Embodies California's Prison Blues by Laura Sullivan August 13, 2009 In January 1968, Johnny Cash set up his band on a makeshift stage in the cafeteria at Folsom State Prison in California. "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash," he said in...
MA: 6 women at Framingham attempt suicide in 4 months. DOC blames cuts in budget.
Posted on August 15, 2009Female inmate suicide bids top 6 By O?Ryan Johnson Friday, August 14, 2009 Boston Herald Two suicide attempts by female prisoners this month at MCI-Framingham brings the total to six attempts at the prison since May, one of which was...
CCA loses open-records case brought by Alex Friendman of Prison Legal News
Posted on August 14, 2009Private prison company loses open-records case By The Associated Press 08.14.09 NASHVILLE ? The Tennessee Court of Appeals has ruled that private prison company Corrections Corporation of America is subject to the state's open-records law. The Nashville-based company falls under...
PA considers sending prisoners to MI
Posted on August 13, 2009State Department of Corrections officials confirmed Tuesday that Pennsylvania has approached Michigan about off-loading(!!!!) some of its prison population, which has grown from 48,000 to 51,000 since December. Wednesday, August 12, 2009 Pa. considers sending inmates to Mich...
Vera Institute: At least 23 states spend less on prisons
Posted on August 12, 2009Tuesday, August 11, 2009 At least 23 states spend less on prisons By John Gramlich, Stateline.org Staff Writer http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=418338 A survey of 33 states by the Vera Institute of Justice found that 23 have slashed funding for corrections this year:...
MA: County Sheriffs Reform Law
Posted on August 12, 2009From Senator Stan Rosenberg's email report: August 12, 2009 County Sheriffs Reform Law On Aug. 6th, the governor signed a bill that completes a set of reforms that I initiated when I chaired the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The...
Review: "When a Heart Turns Rock Solid" probes Lives of 3 Springfield MA brothers
Posted on August 12, 2009Review: 'Rock' probes the lives of three Springfield brothers By THE DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE Wednesday, August 12, 2009 "When a Heart Turns Rock Solid" (Pantheon Books), a window into the lives of three Puerto Rican brothers in Springfield slides open...
States Can't Afford Prison System Boom
Posted on August 12, 2009NEAL PEIRCE States Can't Afford Prison System Boom August 12, 2009 In a season of deep deficits and alarming program cuts, why aren't states more seriously focused on reducing their swelling prison populations? The Vera Institute of Justice reports unusual...
IL: Cook county Commissioners pass ordinance to decriminalize 10 grams of marijuana
Posted on August 11, 2009Posted in the Unshackle List serve by: Catherine Christeller Executive Director Chicago Women's AIDS Project Here is some good news about changes in the marijuana policy in Cook County, Illinois. Evidently this was inspired by a drug policy conference...
NY Times Editorial: The Chino Prison Riot
Posted on August 11, 2009Editorial: The Chino Prison Riot The New York Times Published: August 10, 2009 Around 200 inmates were injured, 55 seriously, over the weekend in an 11-hour prison riot in California that appears to have had strong racial overtones. Officials are...
PA: Unions Favored On Prison Projects
Posted on August 11, 2009Unions Favored On Prison Projects By BRADLEY?VASOLI, The Bulletin Monday, August 10, 2009 The state expects to build two new prisons in place of Graterford in Skippack Township, Montgomery County, and is prepared to allow only union labor in the...
Iowa Spends Second Least Per Capita On Prisons
Posted on August 11, 2009Iowa Spends Second Least Per Capita On Prisons Posted: 10 Aug 2009 02:47 PM PDT Iowa taxpayers are getting a bargain on spending for state prisons and community corrections programs, a state official said Friday, as reported by the Des...
Prisoners and Workers Poisoned by Prison Reycling at UNICOR are suing
Posted on August 11, 2009Prisoners Exposed to Toxic Dust at UNICOR Recycling Factories by Brandon Sample Prison Legal News https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/20750_displayArticle.aspx Federal Prison Industries (FPI), the largest legal sweatshop in America, has jeopardized the lives and safety of untold numbers of prisoners and staff working...
Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor? By BARBARA EHRENREICH
Posted on August 10, 2009August 9, 2009 OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor? By BARBARA EHRENREICH IT'S too bad so many people are falling into poverty at a time when it's almost illegal to be poor. You won't be arrested...
Hundreds Hurt at Riot in Chino (CA)
Posted on August 10, 2009Hundreds Hurt in California Prison Riot By SOLOMON MOORE Published: August 9, 2009 NY Times LOS ANGELES ? Rioting inmates smashed and burned a large California prison on Saturday night and Sunday morning, injuring 250 prisoners and hospitalizing 55. The...
Mentally Ill Youth Strain Juvenile System
Posted on August 10, 2009Mentally Ill Offenders Strain Juvenile System By SOLOMON MOORE Published: August 9, 2009 NY Times FRANKLIN FURNACE, Ohio ? The teenager in the padded smock sat in his solitary confinement cell here in this state?s most secure juvenile prison and...
Opinion--Prisons bursting at the seams, destroying our future By Rev. Al Sharpton
Posted on August 08, 2009"In order for us to truly amend our incarceration culture where one in four prisoners in the entire world are in the United States, we have to take a look at the root causes of the dilemma. Why is it...
CA: Free 40,000 California prisoners? Not so fast. A federal judicial panel orders the state to come up with a plan to cut prison populations. But any such plan would be carried out over two years ? and any actual release order challenged.
Posted on August 08, 2009Free 40,000 California inmates? Not so fast. A federal judicial panel orders the state to come up with a plan to cut prison populations. But any such plan would be carried out over two years ? and any actual release...
Time Magazine: Reforming Crack-Cocaine Laws, but Leaving Injustice Intact?
Posted on August 07, 2009Reforming Crack-Cocaine Laws, but Leaving Injustice Intact? By Theo Emery / Washington Friday, Aug. 07, 2009 In early 2006, a young man named DeJarion Echols stood in a federal courtroom in Waco, Texas, and pleaded for leniency. After police found...
44 years after landmark act, voting rights still needed. 5.3 Americans still disenfranchised due to felony convictions
Posted on August 07, 200944 years after landmark act, voting rights still needed By Erika Wood 08/06/2009 Today marks the 44th anniversary of the landmark Voting Rights Act. It was passed to reverse Jim Crow laws, which effectively denied African Americans the right to...
ICE will revamp prisons for holding immigrant families
Posted on August 07, 2009"Barbara Hines, an attorney who oversees the University of Texas immigration law clinic and was one of the first nonprofit attorneys to visit the Hutto facility, praised ICE's addition of monitors to oversee daily operations at larger immigration facilities...
Overhaul of detention centers could include new "centers" built and run by the government
Posted on August 07, 2009"Asked if his vision could include building new civil detention centers, he said yes. The current 32,000-bed network costs $2.4 billion a year, but the agency is not ready to calculate the cost of a revamped system." U.S. to Reform...
Video: Children Given One Strike: A Lifetime Without Redemption
Posted on August 07, 2009Link to a documentary about Juvenile Life Without Parole produced by a group of University of Pennsylvania Law Students which featured interviews with Anita Colon and Bradley Bridges from the Defender's Association. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsZ1gpPZEIU...
TX: After 15 years, waiting list ends for prison drug treatment programs
Posted on August 05, 2009After 15 years, waiting list ends for prison drug treatment programs New facilities helped curtail backlog. By Mike Ward AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Wednesday, August 05, 2009 For the first time since the Texas prison system's substance-abuse treatment programs began nearly 15...
Non-union contractors organize against Project Labor Agreements for the building of the new Graterford in PA
Posted on August 05, 2009http://www.thetruthaboutplas.com/2009/08/04/graterford-prison-pla-confirmed/ from the website.... August 4, 2009 ? 5:19 pm The Bulletin is reporting and www.thetruthaboutPLAs.com sources confirmed that the Pennsylvania Department of General Services (DGS) will require a wasteful and discriminatory union-only PLA on the Graterford prison reconstruction project...
Report is critical of immigration detention centers
Posted on August 05, 2009Report is critical of immigration detention centers Gainesville FL Times August 5, 2009 BY STEPHEN GURR Link to report below. Attorney David Kennedy says clients of his who have been held in immigration detention centers in South Georgia and eastern....
CA: Federal judges call conditions in the prisons 'appalling' and unconstitutional. A reduction plan is due by mid-September.
Posted on August 05, 2009Federal judges call conditions in the prisons 'appalling' and unconstitutional. A reduction plan is due by mid-September. By Carol J. Williams- LA Times August 5, 2009 California must shrink the population of its teeming prisons by nearly 43,000 inmates over...
Marilyn Clement: June 30, 1935 to August 3, 2009
Posted on August 05, 2009Marilyn Clement: June 30, 1935 to August 3, 2009 From Healthcare-NOW! "...working for the common good is a wonderful way to live a wonderful way to spend a lifetime." - Marilyn Clement, June 7, 2003 Marilyn Clement Marilyn Clement, founder...
NY: Justice Department Finds That Erie County Jails Abuse of Prisoners Violates Their Constitutional Rights
Posted on August 04, 2009U.S. probe finds abuses at Erie County jails By Matthew Spina Buffalo NEWS STAFF REPORTER July 29, 2009 A pregnant inmate thrown to the floor while being booked. Guards looking the other way when inmates fight. Jail deputies beating inmates...
Prisons not the answer to crime problems: Attorney General
Posted on August 04, 2009Prisons not the answer to crime problems: Attorney General August 3, 2009 BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter- Chicago Sun Times More prisons are not the answer to America?s crime problems, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told the nation?s lawyers...
CA: Panel of Federal Judges Orders CA to reduce prison population by 44,000 prisoners
Posted on August 04, 2009State ordered to shrink prison population by 44,000 inmates dwalsh@sacbee.com PUBLISHED TUESDAY, AUG. 04, 2009 Sacramento Bee In a historic move, a panel of three federal judges today ordered the state of California to reduce its prison population by more...
CT: Prison Life 'After Cheshire' Suspicions increase, parole opportunities decrease and understanding is stalled
Posted on August 03, 2009Prison Life 'After Cheshire' Suspicions increase, parole opportunities decrease and understanding is stalled Published on 8/2/2009 in The Day By Chandra A. Bozelko Cheshire changed us. The July 23, 2007, murders of Jennifer, Hayley and Michaela Petit in Cheshire, allegedly...
Part 2 of series on Tamms: Trapped in Tamms: Inmates in Illinois' only supermax prison face battle proving mistreatment
Posted on August 03, 2009Monday, Aug. 03, 2009 Trapped in Tamms: Inmates in Illinois' only supermax prison face battle proving mistreatment BY BETH HUNDSDORFER AND GEORGE PAWLACZYK - News-Democrat Anthony Gay always fought back. Even in first grade he was quick with his fists,...
Story and Editorial: Trapped in Tamms: In Illinois' only supermax facility, inmates are in cells 23 hours a day
Posted on August 02, 2009Opinion: Why Tamms Matters to All Sunday, Aug. 02, 2009 Many people who read today's front-page story about the Tamms supermax prison probably won't have much empathy for Faygie Fields, Chris Marcum and the other inmates discussed. So what if...
"The Real Murder Mystery? It?s the Low Crime Rate"
Posted on August 02, 2009The Real Murder Mystery? It?s the Low Crime Rate By SHAILA DEWAN Published: August 1, 2009 NY Times Week in Review MAYBE it is time to call in one of those clairvoyants who help detectives solve the case. Because no...
CA: Editorial- No more options in state prisons' future
Posted on August 02, 2009Editorial- No more options in state prisons' future San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, August 2, 2009 When it comes to California's broken prison system, the budget crisis may have finally left us with no option other than to do the right...
Bob Herbert Op-Ed " Anger Has Its Place"
Posted on August 01, 2009Op-Ed Columnist Anger Has Its Place By BOB HERBERT Published: July 31, 2009- New York Times No more than five or six minutes elapsed from the time the police were alerted to the possibility of a break-in at a home...
Washington state may release more seriously ill prisoners to save money.
Posted on August 01, 2009Washington state may release more seriously ill prisoners to save money RACHEL LA CORTE Associated Press Writer July 30, 2009 OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) ? About two dozen seriously ill prisoners in Washington state could soon be released from prison ?...
IL: County to charge inmates for jail time Sheriff also plans to put prisoners to work on area roads
Posted on August 01, 2009County to charge inmates for jail time Sheriff also plans to put prisoners to work on area roads By ERIC TIMMONS The Register-Mail Posted Jul 30, 2009 GALESBURG,IL Prisoners at the Knox County jail soon will have to pay for...
The Democracy Restoration Act of 2009
Posted on July 31, 2009The Democracy Restoration Act of 2009 was introduced last week, a measure that would restore voting rights to millions of Americans with felony convictions. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution...
New law allows Oklahoma private prisons to import maximum-security inmates from other states
Posted on July 31, 2009New law allows Oklahoma private prisons to import maximum-security inmates from other states By Associated Press July 29, 2009 OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ? Private prisons in Oklahoma soon could be housing maximum security inmates from other states under a new...
Rhode Island: Rhode Island Study Shows Probation/Parolee Electoral Participation
Posted on July 31, 2009Rhode Island: Rhode Island Study Shows Probation/Parolee Electoral Participation A new analysis released by the Family Life Center of Rhode Island demonstrates a high level of interest in the electoral process by persons on probation or parole. Following a 2006...
CA: Cuts for schools and health care but money for a new death row
Posted on July 30, 2009Governor approves new San Quentin Death Row Bob Egelko, SF Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, July 30, 2009 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has given the go-ahead for construction of a new Death Row at San Quentin State Prison by vetoing legislative restrictions,...
Prisons ban prisoners from having pen pal ads
Posted on July 30, 2009Prisons ban inmates from having pen pal ads By JESSICA GRESKO (AP) July 29, 2009 MIAMI ? In her online profile, Paula Jones says she is 42, "nonjudgmental" and likes fishing, gardening and cuddling. There's a catch, though. Jones' picture...
NY Times Editorial: 12 and in Prison
Posted on July 28, 2009Editorial 12 and in Prison Published: July 27, 2009- NY Times The Supreme Court sent an important message when it ruled in Roper v. Simmons in 2005 that children under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed were...
MA: Lawmakers say it's unlikely mental health cuts a factor in prison suicide of one woman and the attempted suicide of two others
Posted on July 28, 2009Lawmakers say it's unlikely mental health cuts a factor in prison suicide By Michael Morton/Daily News staff The MetroWest Daily News Posted Jul 28, 2009 FRAMINGHAM ? Area lawmakers who visited MCI-Framingham after an inmate's suicide said yesterday that mental...
Watch Ryan King on CSPAN discuss ?No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America.?
Posted on July 26, 2009Ryan King, The Sentencing Project, Policy Analyst-Saturday, July 25n on CSPAN. Mr. King talked about the Sentencing Project's new study ?No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America.? According to the Sentencing Project, the study shows the...
Prisons Becoming Warehouses for the Old
Posted on July 26, 2009Prisons Becoming Warehouses for the Old By James Ridgeway July 25, 2009 Prisons Becoming Warehouses for the Old July 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment AGING BEHIND BARS SERIES I have written hefore about the aging population in American prisons...
VA: Restoring the Rights of Persons with Felony Conviction. History and Restoration Procedures from RIHD
Posted on July 26, 2009Restoring the Rights of Persons with Felony Conviction In 2008, we Americans headed to the polls in record numbers to vote for our president. Nationally, this included many first-time voters with prior felony convictions. On Nov. 3, 2009, Virginians will...
House of Representatives on Ending the Syringe Exchange Federal Funding Ban
Posted on July 25, 2009Good news and not such good news: ?One concern that we have is today?s vote left intact a provision in the bill that seeks to restrict federal funding to syringe exchange programs (SEPs) that operate at least 1,000 ft. away...
Better Late than Never--Henry Louis Gates Says Scholar Says Arrest Will Lead Him To Explore Race in Criminal Justice
Posted on July 24, 2009Scholar Says Arrest Will Lead Him To Explore Race in Criminal Justice By Krissah Thompson Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 22, 2009 Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has spent much of his life studying the complex history of...
When an ID is not ID
Posted on July 24, 2009When an ID is not ID by Mecke Nagel Professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested at his own home in Cambridge, MA, after producing an ID to the police that asked him to show that he was lawfully at his...
Number of Life Terms Hits Record
Posted on July 23, 2009Number of Life Terms Hits Record California has the largest prison system in the United States, with 170,000 inmates and the most serving life terms, 34,164. By SOLOMON MOORE Published: July 22, 2009 NY Times CORONA, Calif. ? Mary Thompson,...
New Report: --"No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America "
Posted on July 22, 2009A new report released by The Sentencing Project finds a record 140,610 individuals are now serving life sentences in state and federal prisons, 6,807 of whom were juveniles at the time of the crime. In addition, 29% of persons serving...
MA: 22 year old woman commits suicide in Framingham 2 others attempt suicide with her
Posted on July 21, 2009MetroWest Daily News (MA) July 21, 2009 Christina Morando, 22, was pronounced dead on July 19, 2009 at 11:32pm at Metrowest Hospital. She had been an inmate at MCI Framingham. Ms. Morando was found with a ligature around her neck...
Book Review: Beyond Attica: The Untold Story of Women's Resistance Behind Bars
Posted on July 21, 2009Beyond Attica: The Untold Story of Women's Resistance Behind Bars By Hans Bennett, AlterNet. Posted July 21, 2009. As the incarceration rate of U.S. women skyrockets, an important book shines new light on the struggles of women prisoners. "When I...
CA: State budget deal reduces prison inmates by 27,000
Posted on July 21, 2009State budget deal reduces prison inmates by 27,000 The plan accomplishes this with a combination of measures, including having some prisoners complete sentences at home and shortening terms for those who finish rehabilitation programs. By Michael Rothfeld LA Times July...
Editorial NY Times: Childbirth in Chains
Posted on July 21, 2009If you haven't called Governor Paterson's office, please do. He still hasn't signed the Bill! You do not need to live in NY. The number is 518-474-8390. Please forward widely. Editorial- New York Times Childbirth in Chains Published: July 20,...
Old Prisoners Denied Their Social Security by James Ridgeway
Posted on July 21, 2009Old Prisoners Denied Their Social Security by James Ridgeway from his blog Unsilent Generation July 21, 2009 Not long ago I described in the briefest of terms, the plight of the growing numbers of older prisoners now filling up the...
Pentagon Seeks to Overhaul Prisons in Afghanistan
Posted on July 20, 2009Pentagon Seeks to Overhaul Prisons in Afghanistan By ERIC SCHMITT Published: July 19, 2009 NY Times BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan ? A sweeping United States military review calls for overhauling the troubled American-run prison here as well as the entire...
OK: The Board of Juvenile Affairs began initial discussions Friday about a possible private prison for juveniles in the state.
Posted on July 19, 2009By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau Published: 7/18/2009 OKLAHOMA CITY ? The Board of Juvenile Affairs began initial discussions Friday about a possible private prison for juveniles in the state. The board is expected to vote in September on whether...
IL: Gov. Pat Quinn says 'no final decisions' yet on prisoner releases Plan to lay off 1,000 prison workers is 'reckless,' union spokesman says
Posted on July 19, 2009Gov. Pat Quinn says 'no final decisions' yet on prisoner releases Plan to lay off 1,000 prison workers is 'reckless,' union spokesman says By Monique Garcia and Ray Long | Tribune reporters July 10, 2009 Gov. Pat Quinn tried Thursday...
Many states considering early release of prisoners
Posted on July 19, 2009Many states considering early release of prisoners By BRUCE RUSHTON THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER Jul 12, 2009 Experts agree: Freeing inmates early doesn?t necessarily increase crime rates, nor does it affect recidivism. It does save money. As a result, as many...
IL: Joliet takes first steps to rehabilitate prison as a park
Posted on July 19, 2009Tourist trap? Joliet takes first steps to rehabilitate prison as a park By Steve Schmadeke | Tribune reporter July 18, 2009 For more than a century, the Joliet Correctional Center was known as one of the nation's toughest prisons, a...
MA: An Act to Reform CORI, Restore Economic Opportunity and Improve Public Safety H. #3523, S. #1608
Posted on July 17, 2009From Boston Workers Alliance An Act to Reform CORI, Restore Economic Opportunity and Improve Public Safety H. #3523, S. #1608 Background Growing access to criminal background information prevents hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents from obtaining work, housing and educational...
Jacqueline Berrien, of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Chosen to Head E.E.O.C.
Posted on July 17, 2009Obama Chooses an E.E.O.C. Leader Published: July 16, 2009 NY Times President Obama picked Jacqueline A. Berrien, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, to head the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The White House made the announcement...
NAACP CALLS FOR END TO PRISON-BASED GERRYMANDERING AT NATIONAL CONVENTION
Posted on July 17, 2009NAACP CALLS FOR END TO PRISON-BASED GERRYMANDERING AT NATIONAL CONVENTION by Peter Wagner, July 17, 2009 [URL: http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/news/2009/07/17/naacp/ ] On Tuesday, the delegates to the NAACP's 100th annual convention approved a resolution calling for an end to prison-based gerrymandering: THEREFORE,...
LA: Tallulah: closed male prison re-opens as women's prison run by parish sheriff
Posted on July 17, 2009DOC moves 75 females to facility in Tallulah By Matthew Hamilton ? July 16, 2009 Tallulah's prison has a new name to go along with its new purpose. Formerly known as the Steve Hoyle Rehabilitation Center, the prison is now...
Sotomayor for the Prosecution
Posted on July 16, 2009Sotomayor for the Prosecution ? By James Ridgeway | Wed July 15, 2009 Mother Jones Sonia Sotomayor's all-but-certain confirmation will be a notable victory for the Democrats, and a long-overdue victory for diversity on the nation's highest court. Whether it...
Brief Review in Rethinking Schools: *The Real Cost of Prisons Comix
Posted on July 14, 2009*The Real Cost of Prisons Comix Edited by Lois Ahrens Comix by Kevin Pyle, Sabrina Jones and Susan Willmarth (PM Press, 2008) $12.95, unpaginated Between the 1920s and 1960s, about one out of every one thousand people in the United...
WA: DOC receives $185 in Federal Stimulus Funds
Posted on July 14, 2009STATE OF WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 13, 2009 DOC to Receive Nearly $185 Million in Federal Stimulus Funds OLYMPIA ? The Department of Corrections will receive nearly $185 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds...
America's Jail Crisis: Budget-strapped counties are being crushed by the costs of incarceration. But there are solutions.
Posted on July 14, 2009America's Jail Crisis Jesse Bogan, 07.13.09 Budget-strapped counties are being crushed by the costs of incarceration. But there are solutions. Forbes.com HOUSTON -- Out the 20th floor window of the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, the sprawl and elevation of...
OK: Republicans Push for More Prisoners to Go to Private Prisons. 3,000 "beds' in private prisons empty.
Posted on July 13, 2009Private prisons in Oklahoma The state has six private prisons that hold about 19 percent of the prison population or 4,343 offenders. The average cost for a medium-security bed in a private prison is $17,611 a year and $23,725 for...
Barbara Margolis, Prisoners? Advocate, Dies at 79
Posted on July 13, 2009Barbara Margolis, Prisoners? Advocate, Dies at 79 By MARGALIT FOX Published: July 12, 2009 NY Times Barbara Margolis, a longtime volunteer in New York City jails who 20 years ago founded Fresh Start, a widely praised training program that brings...
Opinion: To get more, they need Gitmo Don't be surprised if distressed Small Town U.S.A. rolls out the welcome mat for Guantanamo prisoners.
Posted on July 13, 2009Opinion: To get more, they need Gitmo Don't be surprised if distressed Small Town U.S.A. rolls out the welcome mat for Guantanamo prisoners. By Eric J. Williams June 29, 2009 LA Times When Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other Republicans...
NY Times: About New York: Giving Life, Wearing Shackles and Chains,SEEKING CHANGE A protest in Manhattan over shackling of women in labor.
Posted on July 12, 2009Congratulations to Tina Reynolds and Stacey Thompson and all of the other women on their excellent organizing work. Remember to call Gov. Paterson's office to say you want him to sign the bill! Lois About New York: Giving Life, Wearing...
NV: Mental Illness Keeps Many Clycling Through Jail
Posted on July 12, 2009Illness keeps many on cycle through jail Committing crimes gets them treatment which ends with their release By Timothy Pratt Sunday, July 12, 2009 | 2 a.m. CASE STUDIES: HIGH COSTS, POOR OUTCOMES If Nevada was willing to invest in...
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Attorney General Eric Holder at the Vera Institute of Justice?s Third Annual Justice Address
Posted on July 11, 2009Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Attorney General Eric Holder at the Vera Institute of Justice?s Third Annual Justice Address Thursday, July 9, 2009...
Review of The Real Cost of Prisons Comix in Feminist Review
Posted on July 10, 2009Thursday, July 9, 2009 The Real Cost of Prisons Comix Edited by Lois Ahrens PM Press As activists know all too well, crafting a political message and effectively mobilizing an audience is an elusive task. In The Real Cost Of...
Once Again, Guilty of Having HIV
Posted on July 10, 2009Once Again, Guilty of Having HIV posted 2009-07-09 by Cynthia Fernandez CHLP Intern Last week, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported a case of a young woman arrested for prostitution in Knoxville, Tennessee, who faces a three-to-fifteen-year prison term for ?aggravated...
PA Report: Census Prisoner Count Dilutes Urban Political Clout
Posted on July 10, 2009PA Report: Census Prisoner Count Dilutes Urban Political Clout The Legal Intelligencer By Amaris Elliott-Engel June 26, 2009 The voting power of Philadelphians is diluted on the state level because state and federal prisoners are counted by the U.S. Census...
MI/CA: Guards hope for prisoners from CA
Posted on July 09, 2009He's blunter about Michigan's plan to release thousands of inmates earlier than would once have been the case. "Lock your door and load your guns -- you're going to need it," Tylutki said. Corrections officers conducted "informational picketing" Tuesday outside...
WI: Both Dems and GOP irked as govenor vetoes key prison release terms. Some changes made.
Posted on July 09, 2009All but people convicted of the most violent offenses will be eligible for "earned release." "While the final decision over who gets out early will be up to a newly created Earned Release Review Commission appointed by the governor, which...
MA: Letters to the Editor of the Boston Globe on jail "riot"
Posted on July 09, 2009OVERCROWDED INMATES Middlesex Jail prisoners reached a breaking point July 9, 2009 RE ?PRISONERS force evacuation of jail: Vandalism was cause of flooding, sheriff reports?? (Metro, July 6): The conditions under which we hold prisoners awaiting trial at Cambridge?s Middlesex...
California grants early release of some parole violators
Posted on July 09, 2009From the Los Angeles Times California grants early release of parole violators Dealing with overcrowding and fiscal constraints, officials have set free some inmates and approved early release for others. By Michael Rothfeld July 9, 2009 Reporting from Sacramento ?...
Middlesex Jail in Cambridge MA: Prisoner crowding is cited after riot. Population is up fivefold since 1980
Posted on July 07, 2009Prisoner crowding is cited after riot Population is up fivefold since 1980 By Jonathan Saltzman The Boston Globe / July 7, 2009 The weekend riot at the Middlesex Jail in Cambridge has put a spotlight on overcrowding at Massachusetts jails,...
PA: No parole for people convicted of violent offences...not so fast critics warn.
Posted on July 07, 2009No parole for repeat violent offenders? Not so fast, critics warn By DANA DiFILIPPO Philadelphia Daily News WITH EVERY violent crime committed by a repeat offender, get-tough politicians and police bemoan crime's incalculable cost to society - the lost victims,...
Giving Birth in Chains: The Shackling of Incarcerated Women During Labor and Delivery
Posted on July 06, 2009Giving Birth in Chains: The Shackling of Incarcerated Women During Labor and Delivery By Anna Clark Created Jul 6 2009 - 7:00am As birthing choices are increasingly prominent in the public conversation, pregnant women are more and more empowered to...
Bus with NY prison visitors tips over, killing 1.
Posted on July 06, 2009Bus with NY prison visitors tips over, killing 1. 7-4-09 LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. (AP) ? A bus transporting visitors to upstate prisons rolled onto its side and plowed into a rock ledge on a highway in the Adirondack mountains early...
Editorial: Justice Ignored. The detention of immigrants under Obama continues to be neglectful and abusive
Posted on July 06, 2009Editorial: Justice Ignored NY Times Published: July 5, 2009 In January 2007, two immigrant advocacy groups and two former immigration detainees petitioned the Department of Homeland Security to take a simple but important step. They asked it to establish legally...
Jim Webb?s attack on American Gulag
Posted on July 06, 2009Jim Webb?s attack on American Gulag By Alexander Cockburn Published: Monday, July 6, 2009 Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia introduced his bill to set up a bipartisan National Criminal Justice Commission. "We find ourselves as a nation," Webb declared, "in...
Prison Visits Go ?Pay-Per-View?
Posted on July 06, 2009July 6, 2009 Prison Visits Go ?Pay-Per-View? MIAMI (CBS/AP) There?s still no place like home, but for the prison population, "being there" on the Web is becoming the next best thing. And prison officials say "video-conference visitation" offers benefits for...
NY Times: article on the effects of mass incarceration on the families of people who have been incarcerated
Posted on July 05, 2009This is an extremely narrow view...still I thought you might want to read it and check out the graph. And, of course, comments can be made on the NY Times website and letters to the editor. Lois In Prisoners? Wake,...
OR: Tepid Reception for Racial Impacts Proposal. Sponsor finds unease when 'race' enters fray.
Posted on July 04, 2009Tepid Reception for Racial Impacts Proposal By Jake Thomas /The Portland Observer Sponsor finds unease when 'race' enters fray When Oregon voters jumped on the "get tough on crime" bandwagon in the 1990s by approving Measure 11, they might not...
Especially awful editorial on proposal by Michigan's govenror to cage CA prisoners
Posted on July 04, 2009Editorial: Win-win: Sending felons to Michigan Wednesday, Jul. 1, 2009 Sacramento Bee In the depths of the worst recession since World War II, California may be giving birth to a new export industry. It's an export in which California appears...
Methland The Death and Life of an American Small Town
Posted on July 04, 2009Wasted Land Methland The Death and Life of an American Small Town By Nick Reding 255 pp. Bloomsbury. $25 Reviewed By WALTER KIRN Published: NY Times Book Review July 1, 2009 Think globally, suffer locally. This could be the moral...
Study Finds Gaps in Aid for Non-English Speakers in State Civil Courts
Posted on July 04, 2009Study Finds Gaps in Aid for Non-English Speakers in State Civil Courts By JOHN SCHWARTZ Published: July 3, 2009 NY Times When Maythe Ramirez went to Superior Court in Contra Costa, Calif., for a child custody hearing in 2006, she...
"Racism's Hidden Toll"
Posted on July 02, 2009Racism's Hidden Toll by: Ryan Blitstein Does the stress of living in a white-dominated society make African Americans get sick and die younger than their white counterparts? Apparently, yes. more at.... http://www.miller-mccune.com/health/racisms-hidden-toll-1268...
MA: Organizations and Officials Call for Reform of CORI
Posted on July 01, 2009Changes urged to state criminal records law June 30, 2009 By Vivian Nereim, Globe Correspondent Legislators, government officials, and community organizers called today for changes to the state's criminal records law that they said would help ex-offenders reenter society, including...
Alex Sanchez's Arrest by Tom Hayden
Posted on July 01, 2009THE NATION LAW & JUSTICE Alex Sanchez's Arrest by TOM HAYDEN June 29, 2009 As a state legislator Hayden was a leading proponent of gang peace efforts, including Homies Unidos, and testified for asylum in the Alex Sanchez case. The...
CA: Program for parolees ends
Posted on June 30, 2009Parolee re-entry program to end By Lanz Christian Bańes Contra-Costa Times-Herald Posted: 06/28/2009 Solano County's parolee re-entry program will cease operations Wednesday. "It's completely over with," said Tony Pearsall, executive director of Fighting Back Partnership, which runs the program...
Editorial: Two Meals and Not Always Square
Posted on June 29, 2009Editorial: Two Meals and Not Always Square Published: Sunday June 28, 2009 NY Times With budgets tight, states and local governments have been looking at prisons ? and prison food ? as a place to save money. Three days a...
MI-CA: Gov. Granholm offers to cage some of California's prisoners
Posted on June 29, 2009State may take Calif. inmates By Dawson Bell ? Free Press Lansing Bureau ? June 29, 2009 LANSING ? Gov. Jennifer Granholm offered empty beds in Michigan prisons to house inmates from California today as the Golden State seeks solutions...
Mass. prison system overcrowded; Patrick aims to fix it
Posted on June 29, 2009"The presence of inmates in the system taxes an already stretched prison system at a higher cost to the taxpayer. It costs $2,500 to supervise a person through parole, while it costs about $43,000 annually to incarcerate someone. And unsupervised...
An invisible woman is laid to rest
Posted on June 28, 2009An invisible woman is laid to rest E.J. Montini Arizona Republic For most of her adult life, 48-year-old Marcia Powell was invisible. Then she died, and slowly came into view. If you were required in school to read H.G. Wells'...
MS: Free labor and $29.74 per day from the state...communities clamor for regional jails
Posted on June 28, 2009Sunday, Jun. 28, 2009 Miss. communities clamor for regional jails By JACK ELLIOTT JR. - Associated Press Writer JACKSON, Miss. -- There are 11 county/regional jails scattered around Mississippi. With them, the Mississippi Department of Corrections has created its own...
Jena 6' beating case wraps up with plea deal?
Posted on June 27, 2009JENA, La. ? Five members of the Jena Six pleaded no contest Friday to misdemeanor simple battery and won't serve jail time, ending a case that thrust a small Louisiana town into the national spotlight and sparked a massive civil...
MI: Prson Backers Pray to Keep Prison Open
Posted on June 27, 2009Prison backers turn to prayer to save closing facility By Kathryn Lynch-Morin Bay City Times 6-26-09 STANDISH ? About 350 people attended a candlelight vigil Monday at Resurrection of the Lord Catholic Church in Standish to pray for a meeting...
AZ: Right-wing vigilantes kills a woman's child and her husband in their house in a border town
Posted on June 27, 2009New Border Fear: Violence by a Rogue Militia By JESSE McKINLEY and MALIA WOLLAN NY Times Published: June 26, 2009 ARIVACA, Ariz. ? ?Somebody just came in and shot my daughter and my husband!? the woman shouted to the 911...
CT: HOUSE PASSES BUDGET : Rell Opposes Democrats' Budget Item That Would Close 2 Prisons
Posted on June 27, 2009HOUSE PASSES BUDGET : Rell Opposes Democrats' Budget Item That Would Close 2 Prisons By CHRISTOPHER KEATING The Hartford Courant June 27, 2009 The state has fewer prison inmates than it did on the day of the tragic Cheshire killings...
Ruling could aid Pennsylvania prison lifers seeking release
Posted on June 27, 2009The big word in the headline is COULD. Lois Posted on Fri, Jun. 26, 2009 Ruling could aid Pa. prison lifers seeking release PETER JACKSON The Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. - A federal judge has reaffirmed a ruling that could...
CA: Governor dumps plan to build prison hospitals
Posted on June 26, 2009Governor dumps plan to build prison hospitals Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, June 26, 2009 (06-25) PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger disowned a tentative agreement Thursday to build prison hospitals to settle lawsuits over shoddy health care...
Editorial: Rape in Prison
Posted on June 25, 2009Editorial Rape in Prison Published: June 23, 2009 NY Times Rape accompanied by savage violence has long been part of prison life. Congress finally confronted this horrendous problem by passing the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003. In addition to...
FL: Powerful business lobby calls for a halt to prison construction & change in sentencing policies
Posted on June 25, 2009Change sought in Florida prison system A movement among powerful Florida leaders to overhaul the state's prison system is gaining steam as lawmakers grapple with shrinking resources. BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER Miami Herald 06.24.09 A call by Florida's most powerful...
Panel to Issue Standards To Reduce Prison Rapes
Posted on June 23, 2009Panel to Issue Standards To Reduce Prison Rapes By SOLOMON MOORE- NY Times June 22, 2009 A Congressional commission plans to issue recommendations on Tuesday for standards to reduce sexual assaults in the nation?s jails and prisons. The commission cited...
MI: A new low? A candlelight vigil and prayers to keep a max security prison open
Posted on June 23, 2009Standish Prison Candlelight Vigil Planned Residents Continue Fight To Keep Prison Open June 22, 2009 Standish Prison Candlelight Vigil Planned STANDISH, Mich. -- Resurrection of the Lord is organizing a vigil with Standish area leaders over Gov. Jennifer Granholm?s plans...
CO: Independent Ideas: Prison spending still shackles state budget Until sentencing laws change, not much can be done
Posted on June 22, 2009Independent Ideas: Prison spending still shackles state budget Until sentencing laws change, not much can be done By By Mike Krause, For the Colorado Daily Sunday, June 21, 2009 On June 3, Gov. Bill Ritter signed Senate Bill 228, repealing...
The War Against the 'War on Drugs'---by Sasha Abramky
Posted on June 21, 2009"America isn't about to abandon all of its "tough on crime" tenets. Nor should it in all instances. The three-strikes law will likely remain in place for violent offenders, as will the growing body of laws limiting where sex offenders...
ACLU sues over 'secretly created' fed prison unit for Muslim and other prisoners with "disciplinary cases"
Posted on June 19, 2009ACLU sues over 'secretly created' fed prison unit June 19, 2009 TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) ? The American Civil Liberties Union sued the government Thursday over the creation of a special unit at the federal prison in Terre Haute, claiming...
MA Bar Association Drug Policy Task Force report on The Failure of the War on Drugs"
Posted on June 19, 2009Massachusetts Bar Association's Drug Policy Task Force issued a major report, "The Failure of the War on Drugs: Charting a New Course for the Commonwealth." The report urges the Legislature to reform the state's approach to drug prevention, treatment and...
Racism's Hidden Toll
Posted on June 18, 2009Racism's Hidden Toll By: Ryan Blitstein June 15, 2009 In the fall of 1976, Arline Geronimus began living in two separate, unequal worlds. At Princeton University, the political theory major became a research assistant to Charles Westoff, a professor who...
France: "Tour de France Penitentiaire" (thanfully everywhere isn't like it is here)
Posted on June 18, 2009REHABILITATIVE RIDE This Tour tries to break down criminal cycle Scott Sayare, Associated Press Sunday, June 14, 2009 From behind prison bars, the view never changes. From behind the handlebars of racing bikes, dozens of French inmates are seeing the...
N.M. ACLU sues private prison company GEO Group for ?cruel and unusual punishment?
Posted on June 18, 2009N.M. ACLU sues private prison company GEO Group for ?cruel and unusual punishment? By Gwyneth Doland 6/17/09 3:31 PM The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico is suing a privately-run prison in Clayton for imposing cruel and unusual punishment,...
FL: 3rd new juvenile prison to open in one county--privately run
Posted on June 17, 20093rd juvie prison to open Old detention center to become facility for high-risk youth By CHAD SMITH Thursday, June 11, 2009 ; Updated: 5:59 AM on Thursday, June 11, 2009 St. Augustine's juvenile detention center will close at the end...
AZ: Public vs. Private prisons in economy budget
Posted on June 16, 2009Legislators want private firms to run prisons By Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services PublishedMay 20, 2009 - 02:15:48 am MST PHOENIX ? Republican legislative leaders are crafting a plan to farm out operation of three state prisons to private companies...
Luke Cole: Early Leader of Environmental Justice Movement
Posted on June 16, 2009Luke Cole, Court Advocate for Minorities, Dies at 46 By DENNIS HEVESI Published: June 10, 2009 Luke Cole, an early leader of the environmental justice movement, which holds that many minority neighborhoods have become toxic dumping grounds because their residents...
Alan Berkman, 63, Activist Doctor, Dies
Posted on June 16, 2009Alan Berkman, 63, Activist Doctor, Dies By DENNIS HEVESI- Tne New York Times Published: June 14, 2009 Physician, fugitive, federal prisoner, clinician to the homeless, advocate for AIDS patients. epidemiologist: That was the arc of Alan Berkman?s career...
OK: DOC keep food costs low: $2.42 a day for 3 meals
Posted on June 16, 2009DOC able to keep feeding costs low By The Associated Press Saturday, June 13, 2009 OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ? The cash-strapped Oklahoma Department of Corrections has been able to offset the cost of feeding nearly 18,500 inmates daily because of...
Bail granted for imprisoned HIV-positive pregnant woman in Maine
Posted on June 16, 2009Bail granted for imprisoned HIV-positive pregnant woman in Maine This morning, National Advocates for Pregnant Women and Center for HIV Law and Policy, and Elizabeth Frankel and Valerie Wright of the Maine law firm Verrill Dana, LLP, filed an emergency...
Architecture: "Behind Bars ... Sort Of"
Posted on June 14, 2009Behind Bars ... Sort Of By JIM LEWIS Published: June 10, 2009 NY Times Pictures at this URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/magazine/14prisons-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine Go ahead and say it; everyone does. Certainly I did. Here?s a striking building, perched on a slope outside the small...
Testimony at Senate Hearing on national prison reform Commission introduced by Jim Webb
Posted on June 14, 2009Testimony at Senate Hearing on national prison reform June 13,2009 The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs convened a hearing on proposed national prison reform legislation. Virginia Senator Jim Webb introduced bill S...
LETTER TO EDITOR: Sonia Sotomayor v. Jim Crow concerning Hayden v. Pataki
Posted on June 12, 2009LETTER TO EDITOR: Sonia Sotomayor v. Jim Crow By | Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Washington Times Your editorial, "The franchise for felons" (Opinion, Friday), fails to grasp the powerful point Judge Sonia Sotomayor made in her dissent in Hayden v....
CO: CO: Woman Prisoner Awarded $1.35 Million After Repeated Sexual Assaults by Guard
Posted on June 12, 2009National Briefing | Rockies Colorado: Inmate Awarded $1.35. Million By DAN FROSCH Published: June 11, 2009 NY Times A female inmate who was raped by a sergeant at the Denver Women?s Correctional Facility was awarded more than $1.35 million by...
FL: Legislature gives OK to send prisoners out of state
Posted on June 12, 2009FLORIDA PRISONS Florida Legislature gives OK to ship inmates out of state Sending criminals to out-of-state prisons is a 'safety valve' for BY STEVE BOUSQUET 06.08.09 Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau TALLAHASSEE -- Florida, famous for shipping orange juice all over the...
Please act in support of the Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter which is about to stop publication after 34 years due to $25,000 debt!
Posted on June 10, 2009Friends, Many of you know of the Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter. I found out about it when I started hearing from prisoners and many wrote how important it was for them to receive it. When the Real Cost of...
NC: Education and Prison/Jail Spending
Posted on June 09, 2009Education budgets outweigh prisons Catherine Pritchard Fayetteville Observer Q: With the state so strapped for cash for the schools, I would like to know how much do we actually pay for our prison systems as compared to what we pay...
Prisons Saving Money By Serving Less Food
Posted on June 09, 2009Prisons Saving Money By Serving Less Food June 5, 2009 | Prisons in some American states are taking advice to tighten their belts literally by slimming down the amount of food they serve to inmates. Prisoners in Georgia are now...
NH: Prison Recuiting by BOP
Posted on June 09, 2009Going to prison the hard way By: By CORIN HIRSCH, Staff Writer 6/5/2009 BERLIN -- Stay off drugs. Take a few more classes. Gain technology experience. Pay your bills. It isn't advice from parents, a guidance counselor or even a...
MI: Closing 8 prisons by executive order of Gov.
Posted on June 09, 2009"I'm just not that comfortable letting this many convicted felons out into a poor economy," said Senate Minority Leader Mike Prusi, an Ishpeming Democrat who is "furious" prison facilities in his Upper Peninsula district will be closed." "Mel Grieshaber, executive...
Why shouldn't prisoners receive their social security?
Posted on June 09, 2009David Hinman, a prisoner in Iowa, wrote today and posed this question. He is 65 and when he was in the "free-world" contributed to social security. He is not eligible for parole for a number years. This is what he...
AZ: Imgine the fury if Marcia Powell had died in Arpaio's jail
Posted on June 09, 2009Imagine fury if inmate had died while on Arpaio's watch by E. J. Montini - Jun. 9, 2009 The Arizona Republic The gruesome passing of inmate Marcia Powell a few weeks back has proved that in Arizona it doesn't matter...
In Politics, Fact, Fancy Can Blur in Keystroke,Bogus Claim Linking Jail, School Raised Election After Election: "third grade talking point debunked."
Posted on June 05, 2009In Politics, Fact, Fancy Can Blur in Keystroke Bogus Claim Linking Jail, School Raised Election After Election 'Third-grade' Talking Point Debunked By Maria Glod and Rosalind S. Helderman Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, June 4, 2009 "Imagine if your entire...
Foes of Rockefeller Drug Law Reform Attack Recent Changes By False Charges of Threats to Public Safety by Judges Sealing Records
Posted on June 04, 2009From the Center for Community Alternatives (NY) Those opposed to the recently enacted Rockefeller Drug Law Reform have seized upon a small, but important aspect of the legislation - conditional sealing - as a way to attack the recent reforms...
AZ: Following death of Marcia Powell from exposure DOC will discontinue the use of outdoor cages until they figure out an alternative
Posted on June 04, 2009Ariz. prisons discontinue use of outdoor cells Associated Press - June 2, 2009 8:54 PM ET PHOENIX (AP) - The Arizona Department of Corrections has discontinued the use of outdoor holding cells following the death of an inmate in triple-digit...
Life on Permanent Lockdown By James Ridgeway and Jean Casella---(The Angola 3)
Posted on June 04, 2009""The use of so-called extended lockdown has grown exponentially since the 1980s and is now an almost routine part of the American criminal justice system. The practice has been denounced by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations...
AZ: Support for mentally ill is essential to help prevent more people from jail and the streets
Posted on June 03, 2009Support for mentally ill is essential by Ann Rider - Jun. 2, 2009 12:00 AM Special for the Arizona Republic The tragic death of Marcia Powell, a mentally ill woman who died in an outdoor holding pen at Arizona State...
Project UNSHACKLE is building a powerful community-based movement at the complex intersection of HIV and mass imprisonment.
Posted on June 02, 2009Welcome to Project UNSHACKLE! Confronting HIV and Mass Imprisonment Project UNSHACKLE is building a powerful community-based movement at the complex intersection of HIV and mass imprisonment. We are uniting people who are formerly imprisoned, HIV policy advocates, researchers, AIDS service...
New Poll Shows the Public Largely in Favor of Alternatives to Prison and Jail as a Response to Nonserious Offenses
Posted on June 02, 2009FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) Oakland, CA, June 2, 2009 New Poll Shows the Public Largely in Favor of Alternatives to Prison and Jail as a Response to Nonserious Offenses The National Council on...
Despite Bleak Economy, Crime Numbers Take Positive Turn
Posted on June 02, 2009Despite Bleak Economy, Crime Numbers Take Positive Turn By SOLOMON MOORE Published: June 1, 2009- NY Times Most types of crime declined nationally last year, despite the economic downturn, according to new data released by the Department of Justice on...
MA: Representative Gloria L. Fox?s statement regarding visit to Old Colony Correctional Center
Posted on June 02, 2009Representative Gloria L. Fox?s statement regarding visit to Old Colony Correctional Center By Herald staff | Monday, June 1, 2009 | Saturday , May 30, 2009 REPRESENTATIVE GLORIA L. FOX "Those who know my work in the communities I serve...
Jerry Rosenberg, Jailhouse Lawyer, Dies at 72
Posted on June 02, 2009Jerry Rosenberg, Jailhouse Lawyer, Dies at 72 By SEWELL CHAN Published: June 1, 2009 Jerry Rosenberg, who was spared the death penalty for the 1962 murders of two New York City police detectives, and who became a pioneering jailhouse lawyer...
NC: Small prison stubbornly survives through prison labor and poltical clout
Posted on June 01, 2009Small prison stubbornly survives The governor wants to close the 94-inmate facility to save money; it just won't go away. May 31, 2009 BY ROB CHRISTENSEN AND BENJAMIN NIOLET, Staff Writers RALEIGH - Union Correctional Center in Monroe is a...
AZ: Acting Director of AZ DOC attends Marcia Powell's Memorial Service---organizing continues
Posted on June 01, 2009Charles Ryan Attends Marcia Powell's Memorial Service, Says He Didn't Know Powell Had Guardian By Stephen Lemons in Feathered Bastard Saturday, May. 30 2009 @ 3:05PM About 200 people packed the pews at Encanto Community Church today at noon for...
The parallel world of Europe's anti-terror regimen
Posted on May 31, 2009The parallel world of Europe's anti-terror regimen By Liz Fekete 28 May 2009, 5:00pm Below we reproduce the introduction to the latest edition of the European Race Bulletin. In the eighteen months since the European Race Bulletin carried out its...
The Rev. Gérard Jean-Juste, Champion of Haitian Rights in U.S., Dies at 62
Posted on May 31, 2009The Rev. Gérard Jean-Juste, Champion of Haitian Rights in U.S., Dies at 62 By WILLIAM GRIMES Published: May 28, 2009- NY Times The Rev. Gérard Jean-Juste, a Roman Catholic priest who championed the rights of Haitians in the United States...
Ariz. halts use of outdoor prison holding cells
Posted on May 30, 2009Ariz. halts use of outdoor prison holding cells By JONATHAN J. COOPER 5-30-09 PHOENIX (AP) ? The director of Arizona state prisons has suspended the use of unshaded outdoor holding cells in the wake of an inmate's death. Authorities said...
States and cities attempt to charge prisoners to stay
Posted on May 29, 2009Debt to society costs some criminals $60 a night By Tracy Loew, USA TODAY May 28, 2009 Get arrested in Springfield, Ore., this fall, and you might spend the night in jail ? then get a bill for your stay....
Ohio to release some very sick prisoners to nursing homes
Posted on May 29, 2009Some ailing Ohio inmates going to nursing homes The Associated Press May 28, 2009 COLUMBUS, Ohio ? Officials say Ohio plans to send as many as 40 ailinginmates to nursing homes to ease prison overcrowding and save money. Prisons system...
AZ: Opponents Stop Federal Detention Center
Posted on May 29, 2009SAN XAVIER DISTRICT NO LONGER CONSIDERING NOGALES HWY SITE FOR FEDERAL DETENTION CENTER May 21, 2009 Tohono O?odham Nation and District Leaders Working Together to Identify Alternative Location SELLS, AZ --- The San Xavier District of the Tohono O?odham Nation...
Netherlands to close 8 prisons due to lack of prisoners
Posted on May 29, 2009Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals by NRC International 20-05-2009 The Dutch justice ministry has announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty....
Stealing their right to vote
Posted on May 29, 2009Stealing their right to vote Lee Wengraf examines a hidden scandal of American "democracy"--the disenfranchisement of millions of people for no other reason that that they were convicted of a crime. May 28, 2009 IN NOVEMBER, American voters made history...
NY: Prosecutors fight rule in new state drug laws that lets records be sealed
Posted on May 29, 2009Prosecutors fight rule in new state drug laws that lets records be sealed By Joseph Spector ? Albany Bureau ? May 28, 2009 District attorneys across New York are criticizing a little-known provision in the state's new drug laws that...
What addiction really costs your state: detailed state by state expenditures
Posted on May 29, 2009A message from Join Together at CASA* ==================================== May 28, 2009 Dear Colleague, According to a report CASA issued this morning, federal, state and local governments spend almost half a trillion dollars every year -- almost 11 percent of their...
Santa Barbara CA: Officials Mull Privatizing Mental Health Services by signing contract with Prison Health Services
Posted on May 29, 2009Prison System for Sale Officials Mull Privatized Jail Mental Health Services Thursday, May 28, 2009 By Benjamin Gottlieb Santa Barbara County?s jail mental health system officially is for sale. The prospective buyer???a private Tennessee-based prison health company???is already lined up...
Judge Sotomayor's dissent on Hayden v. Pataki
Posted on May 29, 2009* ProgressiveSouth's diary-- Voting experts point to two areas where Judge Sotomayor's rulings have stood out: FELON DISENFRANCHISEMENT: Judge Sotomayor's biggest voting rights case has likely been Hayden v Pataki. In this 2006 case in the 2nd Circuit, ex-felon...
Interfaith group seeks second chance for youths sentenced to life The coalition delivers a message of redemption in sermons at some 200 California churches, synagogues and mosques.
Posted on May 29, 2009Interfaith group seeks second chance for youths sentenced to life The coalition delivers a message of redemption in sermons at some 200 California churches, synagogues and mosques. By Dana Parsons May 25, 2009 The major faith traditions teach that the...
CA: CCA to build prison for illegal immigrants in San Diego Co.
Posted on May 28, 2009San Diego County approves immigrant prison SAN DIEGO, May 26, 2009 (UPI) -- Local officials in the San Diego area have approved a private company's plans for a prison to house more than 2,000 illegal immigrants. The 40-acre site on...
NY: Solar "farmer" is top bidder on closed prison farms
Posted on May 28, 2009Mid-Hudson region's prison farms may harvest sun Solar panels could provide 9 megawatts By Adam Bosch Times Herald-Record Posted: May 27, 2009 A fashion designer from New Paltz wants to install solar energy panels at three prison farms that were...
CA: Valley is the best place for Gitmo prison
Posted on May 28, 2009Valley is the best place for Gitmo prison Wednesday, May. 27, 2009 By Bill McEwen / The Fresno Bee President Barack Obama has a problem, and I've got a solution. He wants to close the Guantánamo Bay detention center, but...
Texas Dept of CJ begins screening immigrant prisoners in trial run of nationwide Department of Homeland Security program
Posted on May 26, 2009Inmate screening put to test in Texas By STEWART M. POWELL WASHINGTON BUREAU May 25, 2009 WASHINGTON ? Texas prisons are test-driving the Obama administration?s planned nationwide immigration screening and are relaying for the first time the digital fingerprints of...
More calls for California to shut down its youth prison system
Posted on May 26, 2009More calls for California to shut down its youth prison system By Karen de Sá Mercury News Posted: 05/25/2009 With California mired in near-catastrophic budget woes, a growing number of researchers are calling for the state to shut down its...
Budget crisis could curtail Oregon's prison boom
Posted on May 26, 2009Budget crisis could curtail Oregon's prison boom by Susan Goldsmith, The Oregonian Monday May 25, 2009, 9:20 PM With nearly 14,000 people locked up in state prisons and another 35,000 under supervision from the Department of Corrections, criminal justice has...
Reps. Kenyatta Johnson and Ronald Waters Call for Review of Criminal Justice System in PA
Posted on May 26, 2009Pa. lawmakers want to examine criminal-justice from all angles By DANA DiFILIPPO Philadelphia Daily News May 23, 2009 Two months after federal lawmakers announced plans for a top-to-bottom study of the nation's criminal-justice system, two state lawmakers from Philadelphia yesterday...
Bid to divert California prisoners to county jails denounced
Posted on May 23, 2009From the Los Angeles Times Bid to divert California prisoners to county jails denounced Local officials say they don't have the room or the funding to house the low-level felons that the governor wants to send them. By Molly Hennessy-Fiske...
PA: Gary Tucker, a prisoner held in control unit found not-guilty of assault on a guard
Posted on May 22, 2009~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HRC-FedUp! Courthouse Update Tucker Found Innocent! Prisoner beats false charges with HRC help ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gary Tucker Found Non-guilty! HRC and Family Support the Deciding Factor Torture survivor Gary Tucker, a state prisoner currently confined in 23-hour control unit...
Fingerprinting Plan Will Dramatically Increase Deportations 'Secure Communities' Would Ensnare People with Minor and More Serious Convictions
Posted on May 22, 2009Fingerprinting Plan Will Dramatically Increase Deportations 'Secure Communities' Would Ensnare Minor as well as Serious Offenders Washington Independent By Daphne Eviatar 5/22/09 The idea of deporting illegal immigrants who are also hardened criminals wouldn?t seem like a controversial idea...
OK: Bill passes that would send immigrant prisoners to federal prisons for deportation.
Posted on May 22, 2009Oklahoma bill would deport imprisoned aliens By The Associated Press Published: May 22, 2009 Legislation that authorizes state prisons to send illegal alien inmates to federal immigration officials for deportation has passed the state House. The bill would also prevent...
WA: Gov moves to deport illegal immigrants in prisons. Will not take part in ICE "rapid removal"
Posted on May 22, 2009"The governor made it clear that the state would not join in ICE's rapid removal program. For immigrant advocates, the shift in policy was welcome news. From the beginning, the main concern for immigration groups was protecting due process. Deportation...
Supermax prisons not super enough?
Posted on May 22, 2009Supermax Prisons in U.S. Already Hold Terrorists By Carrie Johnson and Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, May 22, 2009 In news conferences, speeches and debates this week, lawmakers from both parties, as well as the director of the...
Phoenix: Prisoners at Maricopa County Jail on Hunger Strike
Posted on May 21, 2009"In the past four days, the number of inmates refusing to eat has grown. On Thursday, 1,504 refused the evening meals. On Friday, 1,800 refused to eat. On Saturday 1,219 did not eat and on Sunday night, 1,080 inmates turned...
AZ: Women serving a 27 month sentence for prostitution dies in holding cell after four hours in 103 degree heat.
Posted on May 21, 2009Ariz. inmate dies after hours in outdoor cell By JONATHAN J. COOPER-5-22-09 PHOENIX (AP) ? An Arizona inmate who died after spending nearly four hours in the desert heat was left in an outdoor holding cell for twice as long...
Key Findings from America's Invisible Children: Latino Youth and the Failure of Justice
Posted on May 20, 2009Key Findings from America's Invisible Children: Latino Youth and the Failure of Justice: On any given day, close to 18,000 Latino youth are incarcerated in America. The majority of these youth are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses. Most Latino youth are...
Tamms: Scrutiny Promised For Illinois' Supermax Prison
Posted on May 19, 2009Scrutiny Promised For Illinois' Supermax Prison 05-16-09 07:22 PM Huffington Post ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Tamms Correctional Center's first warden made no apologies for christening the tough southwest Illinois prison a home for a "very unhappy inmate population...
AZ: Community activists, immigrant-rights advocates, tribal critics and local elected officials don't want to see a federal detention center
Posted on May 19, 2009Tucson Region Prison plan opposition grows County's help sought to fight US facility slated for O'odham land near Sahuarita By Erica Meltzer Arizona Daily Star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.18.2009 Community activists, immigrant-rights advocates, tribal critics and local elected officials...
NY: Prison play canceled in NY over fight with unions
Posted on May 19, 2009Prison play canceled in NY over fight with unions May 17, 2009 WOODBOURNE, N.Y. - The show won't go on after all. A troupe of 18 inmates at the Woodbourne Correctional Facility were scheduled to perform an original play Wednesday....
U.S. to Expand Immigration Checks to All Local Jails Obama Administration's Enforcement Push Could Lead to Sharp Increase in Deportation Cases
Posted on May 19, 2009U.S. to Expand Immigration Checks to All Local Jails Obama Administration's Enforcement Push Could Lead to Sharp Increase in Deportation Cases By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 19, 2009 The Obama administration is expanding a program...
Minnesota Becomes First State to "Ban the Box", Narrows Employer Liability for Criminal Records
Posted on May 19, 2009Minnesota Becomes First State to "Ban the Box", Narrows Employer Liability for Criminal Records On May 11th Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty signed into law a public safety policy omnibus bill (House File 1301) which includes two provisions that begin to...
MI: Several More Prisons to Close & More Parole
Posted on May 19, 2009Monday, May 18, 2009 Michigan inmates fall to seven-year low Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau Lansing -- Michigan's prison population is at a seven-year low and for the first time a limited number of maximum security prisoners are...
UK: Our prisons are failing women Using punitive male models of imprisonment for vulnerable women results in tragedy ? and does nothing to tackle crime
Posted on May 18, 2009Our prisons are failing women Using punitive male models of imprisonment for vulnerable women results in tragedy ? and does nothing to tackle crime o Frances Crook o guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 13 May 2009 In pay, pensions, politics and promotion, the....
Review of new books on Christian moral practice/punishment/imprisonment
Posted on May 18, 2009"...both Logan and Redekop think that the underlying problem is our captivation with the idea of retributive punishment. Punishment, says Redekop, is "a historical artifact passed from one generation to the next without much thought and supported by force of...
My Return to Prison: Views on the Failed Drug War from Inside Sing Sing
Posted on May 16, 2009May 15, 2009 My Return to Prison: Views on the Failed Drug War from Inside Sing Sing By Wayne Kramer Huffington Post On Saturday, May 2nd 2009, I returned to prison. Again. Tom Morello, Jerry Cantrell, Billy Bragg, Perry Farrell...
Radio interview with Tina Reynolds of WORTH and Chandra Villanueva of Women's Prison Assoc. on WPA report on prison nusuries
Posted on May 14, 2009Chandra Villanueva, the author of the Women?s Prison Association (WPA) talks about a new report on prison nursery programs and Tina Reynolds, founder of Women on the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH), who spoke about her thoughts on the report and...
Black prison population in Iowa could grow--now 2% of population and 24 % of prisoners
Posted on May 14, 2009Black prison population in Iowa could grow By MIKE GLOVER | Associated Press Writer May 14, 2009 Chicago Tribune DES MOINES, Iowa - Blacks continue to be incarcerated in Iowa prisons at a number far out of proporation to their...
Justice Policy Institute: 2010 Department of Justice Budget Likely to Increase Incarceration in U.S.
Posted on May 13, 20092010 Department of Justice Budget Likely to Increase Incarceration in U.S. Overspending in law enforcement, prisons and under-spending in prevention, treatment and communities won?t yield long term improvements, will cause increased costs for states May 13, 2009 WASHINGTON?The President?s Department...
NJ: New state initiative seeks to reduce prison overcrowding
Posted on May 13, 2009New state initiative seeks to reduce prison overcrowding by Chris Megerian/The Star-Ledger May 10, 2009 After five months in prison for dealing drugs, Nashon James was going straight. He cut hair at his mother's barbershop, tried making money on eBay...
Congressional Black Caucus Justice and Civil Rights Taskforce and Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School presents Rethinking Federal Sentencing Policy: 25th Anniversary of the Sentencing Reform Act.
Posted on May 13, 2009Congressional Black Caucus Justice and Civil Rights Taskforce and Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School presents Rethinking Federal Sentencing Policy: 25th Anniversary of the Sentencing Reform Act. Start: 2009/06/24 - 4:00pm End: 2009/06/24 -...
MI: Robert Scott Women's Prison to Close
Posted on May 12, 2009Women's prison to close Sunday to save state money BY CECIL ANGEL ? FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER ? May 10, 2009 The Robert Scott Correctional Facility, a women's prison in Northville Township, is to close May 17 as part of...
Florida prison becomes faith-based penitentiary
Posted on May 12, 2009Florida prison becomes faith-based penitentiary By Lois K. Solomon | South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 11, 2009 Belle Glade - Glades Correctional Institution's 1,390 inmates have faith. State prison officials hope to tap into that faith to boost morale, improve prisoner...
IA: New Maximum Security Prison--A new vision" ?
Posted on May 12, 2009Penitentiary will express Iowa's vision for its prisons ROX LAIRD May 10, 2009 Des Moines Register One of Iowa's largest building projects was authorized with a single sentence in a legislative spending bill last year: "For the costs associated with....
CA: Obama's Budget includes $105 million to finish two federal prisons including one in Mendota
Posted on May 12, 2009May7, 2009: The $17 billion worth of cuts proposed Thursday accompanied the administration's overall budget package, which expands on a budget outline released in February. For instance, the overall budget includes $105 million to finish two new federal prisons, including...
NY: AFTER 'ROCK' REFORM: WHAT HAPPENS TO REHAB?
Posted on May 12, 2009AFTER 'ROCK' REFORM: WHAT HAPPENS TO REHAB? Expanded drug courts and holistic re-entry planning are under discussion, along with up to 3,000 more slots for addiction treatment. By Casey Samulski City Limits WEEKLY #686 May 11, 2009 Now that New...
U.K.: Prison Radio Shines
Posted on May 12, 2009Media Prison Radio Shines Parmy Olson, 05.11.09, 12:35 PM ET LONDON--Johnny Cash made a mint when he recorded part of his 1968 album At Folsom Prison amidst the whoops and shouts of a roomful of inmates. Today's entertainment for prisoners...
States expand videoconferencing in prisons
Posted on May 12, 2009"Relying on technology to keep inmates behind bars makes them ?disappear more and more from the public consciousness, and I think there?s a (negative) long-term consequence of that,? said Nancy Stoller, a professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz and...
Life Sentence for Juveniles?
Posted on May 12, 2009May 12, 2009 Letter to the Editor, NY Times Life Sentence for Juveniles? To the Editor: Re ?Justices Agree to Take Up Life-Without-Parole Sentences for Young Offenders? (news article, May 5): There are currently almost 2,500 people serving sentences of...
OH: Plans for prison labor at Capitol on hold
Posted on May 10, 2009Plans for prison labor at Capitol on hold Saturday, May 9, 2009 3:04 AM By Alan Johnson THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Concerns from lawmakers and union leaders have prompted the Strickland administration to temporarily halt a plan to have prisoners do...
MA: Editorial: Reform sentencing to save money, reduce crime
Posted on May 10, 2009Editorial: Reform sentencing to save money, reduce crime GateHouse News Service Posted May 08, 2009 The case for reforming criminal sentencing in Massachusetts has been evident for years. Mandatory minimum sentences handcuff judges, denying them the flexibility they need to...
"Aging Behind Bars" by James Ridgeway
Posted on May 10, 2009Aging Behind Bars April 21, 2009 · By James Ridgeway Among the grotesque realities of modern American life is the exponential rise of geriatric prisoners?men and women in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and even 90s, who committed crimes decades ago,...
VT: Legislature using budget bill to keep St Johnsbury prison for the jobs
Posted on May 09, 2009Legislature using budget bill to save St Johnsbury prison Fri May 8 2009 The Legislature has included in the state budget language intended to keep open the prison in St Johnsbury. Among the Douglas Administration's budget reduction proposals was closing...
LA: Free From Prison At Last: For an Aging Angola Inmate, Death Is the Only Release
Posted on May 08, 2009Free From Prison At Last: For an Aging Angola Inmate, Death Is the Only Release May 8, 2009 By James Ridgeway As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the growth in harsh sentencing and parole restrictions are filling the...
WA: Voting Rights Restored to people with felony convictions
Posted on May 08, 2009Voting rights restored to former felons in Washington state by Elizabeth Hovde, Oregonian columnist Tuesday May 05, 2009 Cheers to Washington state lawmakers for following Oregon and numerous other states in allowing former felons to vote. Washington state Governor Chris...
Stitch by Stitch: Unraveling the Crazy Quilt of Laws that Locks Millions of Americans out of the Electoral System
Posted on May 08, 2009Stitch by Stitch: Unraveling the Crazy Quilt of Laws that Locks Millions of Americans out of the Electoral System May 6th, 2009 By Erika Wood- Brennan Center for Justice The Hill On Monday, Washington Governor Chris Gregoire signed into law...
Mothers in Crisis Turn to Temporary ?Parents?
Posted on May 07, 2009Mothers in Crisis Turn to Temporary ?Parents? By ERIK ECKHOLM Published: May 6, 2009- NY Times INDIANAPOLIS ? After resolving to leave her longtime but violent partner in March, Janai Parahams, 25 and jobless, wanted to make a fresh start....
Girls on Our Streets
Posted on May 07, 2009Op-Ed Columnist Girls on Our Streets By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: May 6, 2009- NY Times Jasmine Caldwell was 14 and selling sex on the streets when an opportunity arose to escape her pimp: an undercover policeman picked her up....
MA: Boston Globe Editorial: Better sense in sentencing
Posted on May 07, 2009Better sense in sentencing May 7, 2009 Boston Globe Editorial MANDATORY MINIMUM sentences for nonviolent drug crimes don't prompt offenders to clean up their acts. But they do pick the pockets of taxpayers, who cover the $47,000 annual cost of...
CA: Yolo City Supervisors Vote No On Rural "Re-Entry" Prison
Posted on May 06, 2009Doors closed on county rural prison idea By CRYSTAL LEE Created: 05/06/2009 The Yolo County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to kill construction of a proposed rural state re-entry prison. Supervisors decided that with a looming $24 million budget deficit...
OR: Business Group Says Suspend Measure 57 for Two Years
Posted on May 05, 2009Oregon lawmakers might curb prison spending 5/2/2009, 3:41 p.m. PT BRAD CAIN The Associated Press (AP) ? SALEM, Ore. - A business group floated a plan this week aimed at protecting school funding by suspending implementation of a get-tough-on-crime measure...
NV: Another "heart-warming" story about the value of exploited priosner labor
Posted on May 05, 2009When things get tough in Tonopah, residents call on inmates to help fix roofs and fight wildfires. Now state budget cuts threaten to close the prison. By Ashley Powers May 5, 2009 Tonopah, Nev. -- Diane Perchetti couldn't pull off...
Justices Agree to Take Up Life Without Parole for Youth
Posted on May 05, 2009Justices Agree to Take Up Sentencing for Young Offenders By ADAM LIPTAK Published: May 4, 2009- NY Times WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to consider whether the reasoning that led it to strike down the death penalty...
CT: Criminal Defense Attorney Suggests a Different Kind of Background for Supreme Court Justice
Posted on May 04, 2009Pattis Helps Out Senators New Haven Independent by Melinda Tuhus | May 4, 2009 A New Haven criminal defense attorney posed the first question for the potential next U.S. Supreme Court justice. Norm Pattis posed the question not at a...
Wesleyan University (CT): Students Push for Prison Classes
Posted on May 02, 2009Students Push for Prison Classes Jan. 30th, 2009 ? Vol. CXLV, No. 1 Wesleyan Argus By Jae Aron, Features Editor Students are asking the school to award prisoners academic credit. STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER / CHARLOTTE ROBERTSON Students are asking the school...
Federal prisoners travel unescorted from prison to prison by bus
Posted on May 02, 2009Federal convicts travel unescorted from prison to prison Monday, April 27, 2009 By JASON WHITELY / WFAA-TV DALLAS ? Among the hundreds of bus passengers arriving everyday in downtown Dallas, there are some the government doesn't want the public to...
The Montana Town That Wanted to Be Gitmo
Posted on April 30, 2009The Montana Town That Wanted to Be Gitmo By PAT DAWSON Hardin Thu Apr 30, 2009 The coils of razor wire glint in the prairie sun like silver tumbleweeds piled against the tall chain-link perimeter fences of the forlorn Two...
NV: Senators Vote to Reverse Governor's Recommendation to Close NSP
Posted on April 30, 2009Nevada Lawmakers order state prison to remain open By Geoff Dornan Lake Tahoe Bonanza News Service CARSON CITY, Nev. ? Lawmakers Tuesday voted to reverse the governor?s budget recommendation and keep Nevada State Prison open for the next two years....
"The Real Cost of Prisons Comix"
Posted on April 29, 2009"The Real Cost of Prisons Comix" Lois Ahrens, editor PM Press of Oakland, Calif. Book Bag, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA This book is a collection of three comic books, including accompanying essays, that explore the social, emotional and financial...
Obama Administration Calls for End to Crack-Powder Sentencing Disparity
Posted on April 29, 2009Obama Administration Calls for End to Crack-Powder Sentencing Disparity by Jasmine Tyler, Anthony Papa Huffington Post April 29, 2009 On President Obama's 100th day in office the White House asked Congress to address the issue of disparity in penalties for...
NACDL: "Minor Crimes, Massive Waste: The Terrible Toll of America?s Broken Misdemeanor Courts"
Posted on April 28, 2009Washington, DC (Apr. 28, 2009) ? Nationwide, state and local governments are wasting millions of tax dollars to prosecute petty offenses, creating huge deficits in their budgets and violating the constitutional rights of citizens haled into court. That is the...
ACLU files suit about double-bunking in Mass. prisons
Posted on April 28, 2009ACLU files suit about double-bunking in Mass. prisons By Associated Press Monday, April 27, 2009 Boston Herald BOSTON ? A lawsuit is demanding answers about Massachusetts inmates doubled up in cells originally used for one person in a maximum-security prison...
Time to decriminalize drugs? The Portuguese experiment
Posted on April 27, 2009"...the Portuguese government decided to create a high-level commission, dominated by health care professionals, to recommend a solution. The commission's surprise recommendation: Don't officially legalize all drugs. Instead, decriminalize them, take away all criminal penalties...
Before Census, a Debate Over Prisoners Critics Say Current Method of Counting Inmates Distorts Rural, Urban Tallies
Posted on April 27, 2009Before Census, a Debate Over Prisoners Critics Say Current Method of Counting Inmates Distorts Rural, Urban Tallies By Keith B. Richburg Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, April 26, 2009 NEW YORK -- Elizabeth O'C. Little, a Republican state senator, represents...
CA: State prisons chief proposes $400 million in cuts
Posted on April 25, 2009State prisons chief proposes $400 million in cuts afurillo@sacbee.com Published Friday, Apr. 24, 2009 California corrections officials today unveiled $400 million in cost-cutting proposals that would reduce the state prison population by 8,000 inmates by next summer...
Judge orders changes in medication distribution at women's prison
Posted on April 25, 2009Judge orders changes in medication distribution at women's prison By John Diedrich of the Journal Sentinel Apr. 24, 2009 A federal judge ruled Friday that the Wisconsin Department of Corrections must make changes to its inmate prescription system at Taycheedah...
The phone rip-off for Massachusetts prison inmates, families
Posted on April 24, 2009The phone rip-off for Massachusetts prison inmates, families By Daily Hampshire Gazette- Northampton, MA Created 04/24/2009 Prison inmates who use the telephone to maintain strong family ties will be better prepared to rebuild their lives upon returning home...
MT: ACLU says CCA discriminates against Native American Prisoners
Posted on April 24, 2009ACLU says private Montana prison discriminates By LEN IWANSKI --AP April 23, 2009 A spokesman for the Montana Corrections Department says they're investigating allegations that Native American inmates were mistreated and discriminated against at the Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby...
Another War America Cannot Afford
Posted on April 24, 2009Another War America Cannot Afford By Bill Haney Huffington Post April 23, 2009 Senator Obama swept into national prominence with his prescient view that an American war in Iraq was one we should not start and could not win. By...
MT: Jail Desperate for Prisoners Tries for Prisoners at Guantanamo
Posted on April 24, 2009Hardin jail tries for detainees from Gitmo By BECKY SHAY Of The Gazette Staff Economic development officials in Hardin are looking at the soon-to-close detention facility in Guantanamo Bay as a possible fix for the jail sitting empty in Hardin....
Prison population, corrections budget spike during truth in sentencing
Posted on April 23, 2009"If a crime policy is gauged by its ability to lower crime rates and rehabilitate inmates to prevent return trips to prison, then truth in sentencing has failed." Prison population, corrections budget spike during truth in sentencing Jessica VanEgeren April...
TX: Expand program to divert mentally ill from prisons
Posted on April 23, 2009Commentary Expand program to divert mentally ill from prisons By MARC A. LEVIN April 22, 2009 Mental illness is a key factor in driving up correctional costs in Texas. There are 42,556 offenders with a mental health diagnosis in prison,...
After Losing Freedom, Some Immigrants Face Loss of Custody of Their Children
Posted on April 23, 2009After Losing Freedom, Some Immigrants Face Loss of Custody of Their Children By GINGER THOMPSON- NY Times Published: April 22, 2009 CARTHAGE, Mo. ? When immigration agents raided a poultry processing plant near here two years ago, they had no...
Supreme Court Cuts Back Officers? Searches of Vehicles
Posted on April 23, 2009Supreme Court Cuts Back Officers? Searches of Vehicles By ADAM LIPTAK- NY Times Published: April 21, 2009 WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court on Tuesday significantly cut back the ability of the police to search the cars of people they arrest....
Lauderdale County Mississippi can now use a portion of the money collected from inmate telephone service for the local jail ministry program.
Posted on April 23, 2009Lauderdale County Mississippi can now use a portion of the money collected from inmate telephone service for the local jail ministry program. April 22, 2009 Gov. Haley Barbour signed a bill earlier this month that authorized use of the money....
Western MA: Rep. Neal's Opposition to Needle Exchange Continues including no support for lifting HR 179 lifting bad on suport for federal needle exchange funds
Posted on April 22, 2009New Hope for Needle Exchange A new bill may lift a 1988 ban on using federal funds to support needle exchange programs. Tuesday, April 21, 2009 By Maureen Turner Valley Advocate Tim Purington got some bad news last week: the...
MN: Senate bill aims to cut prison sentences to save state funds
Posted on April 21, 2009Senate bill aims to cut prison sentences to save state funds by Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio April 16, 2009 A bill introduced in the Minnesota Senate this week would cut prison sentences across the board and lower penalties for...
Florida lawmakers weigh overhauling system for mentally ill prionsers
Posted on April 21, 2009THE LEGISLATURE Florida lawmakers weigh overhauling system for mentally ill criminals Florida lawmakers, pushed by a Miami judge, are considering an overhaul of the system for handling mentally ill criminals. BY SHANNON COLAVECCHIO Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau TALLAHASSEE -- The current...
Philadelphia: Cost of prisons: it's criminal
Posted on April 21, 2009Cost of prisons: it's criminal Philadelphia Daily News April 20, 2009 OUR APPROACH TO CRIMINAL justice has become so criminally dysfunctional that it may no longer shock to learn that in Philadelphia, we spend twice as much housing each prisoner...
N.J. prisons confiscate collection of prisoner poems and stories
Posted on April 21, 2009N.J. prisons confiscate collection of prisoner poems and stories April 20, 2009 21:02PM by Chris Megerian/Statehouse Bureau In one New Jersey prison, a published collection of poems and prose penned by prisoners is in a lockup of its own while...
TX: UNICOR continues to use prisoners to recycle electornics
Posted on April 20, 2009Prison inmates dismantle Ark. recycled electronics © 2009 The Associated Press April 19, 2009, 7:41PM FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. ? Some federal prison inmates spend their days tearing apart cellular phones and dismantling computers recycled in Arkansas. The prisoners, working as part...
CO: Governor Runs From Issue He Ran On
Posted on April 20, 2009Greene: Ritter runs from issue he ran on By Susan Greene Denver Post Columnist 04/19/2009 You should be scared, very scared. That's what DAs hope as the legislature contemplates a bill to reform sentencing laws. Notably silent, at least publicly,...
Three book reviews: Abolishing The Prison Industrial Complex and Freeing All Political Prisoners
Posted on April 20, 2009Abolishing The Prison Industrial Complex and Freeing All Political Prisoners Sunday, April 19 2009 By Hans Bennett Prisons Above all, these three highly-recommended books (available online at www.akpress.org) argue that prison-related issues are inseparable from racism, classism, sexism, and all...
F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases
Posted on April 19, 2009"As in Britain, expanding genetic sampling in the United States could exacerbate racial disparities in the criminal justice system, according to Hank Greely, a Stanford University Law School professor who studies the intersection of genetics, policing and race...
Bryne Grants and another conscequence featured in new film: "American Violet"
Posted on April 18, 2009Taking Drug Task Forces to Task By: Lewis Beale April 17, 2009 In November 2000, a drug task force arrested 28 residents of Hearne, Texas, almost all of them African-American, and charged them with distributing crack cocaine. Pressed to plead...
Senators Support Access To Mental Health Treatment For Children And Adolescents In Juvenile Justice System
Posted on April 18, 2009Senators Support Access To Mental Health Treatment For Children And Adolescents In Juvenile Justice System 14 Apr 2009 The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) commends Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-PA), and...
CT: Raise the Age supporters cheer Democrats' alternative budget
Posted on April 18, 2009Raise the Age supporters cheer Democrats' alternative budget Hour Staff Writer Supporters of the Raise the Age campaign and other youth-focused legislation announced their support of the Democrats alternative proposed budget Monday, saying it preserves Connecticut's "commitments to children and...
Orleans prison in bad shape, feds say. Fiscal, staff, security problems 'daunting'
Posted on April 18, 2009Orleans prison in bad shape, feds say Fiscal, staff, security problems 'daunting' Saturday, April 18, 2009 By Bruce Nolan Staff writer Orleans Parish Prison faces a huge burden of financial, staffing, security and other problems -- the worst of them....
Seattle: Need for new jail questioned as the number of prisoners decreases
Posted on April 17, 2009Wednesday, April 15, 2009 Need for new jail questioned as inmate numbers drop By SCOTT GUTIERREZ SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF A shrinking number of inmates in the King County Jail is bucking prior forecasts and raising new questions about whether Seattle and....
African American Prison Disparity Grows in Iowa
Posted on April 17, 2009Blacks' prison disparity grows in Iowa Des Moines Register By LEE ROOD ? April 15, 2009 African-Americans currently account for quarter of admissions, data show The proportion of blacks being admitted to Iowa prisons has reached its highest point in....
PA: State begins construction on 1st of 3 new prisons
Posted on April 16, 2009State begins construction on 1st of 3 new prisons Tuesday, April 14, 2009 By Tom Barnes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette HARRISBURG -- A lot of businesses and industries have been hard hit by the ailing economy, but in Pennsylvania there's still one...
A Racial Shift in Drug-Crime Prisoners Fewer Blacks and More Whites, Says Sentencing Project
Posted on April 15, 2009A Racial Shift in Drug-Crime Prisoners Fewer Blacks and More Whites, Says Sentencing Project By Darryl Fears Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, April 15, 2009; Page A04 For the first time since crack cocaine sparked a war on drugs 20...
NV: "Centers" proposed for parole violaters and people with drug & alcohol convictions
Posted on April 14, 2009Centers proposed for low-risk offenders By RACHELLE GINES Associated Press Writer 04/13/2009 CARSON CITY, Nev.?The Nevada Senate's top Democrat told lawmakers Monday that a new program for low-risk parole violators and drug and alcohol offenders would reduce the state's prison...
ID: Getting smart on crime does not mean more prisons beds
Posted on April 13, 2009Monica Hopkins: Getting smart on crime does not mean more prisons beds BY MONICA HOPKINS - Idaho Statesman 04/12/09 Idaho's current budget deficit poses a crisis for decision makers. While prison spending increases, vital public services like Medicaid and education...
NY Times Editorial: Addiction Behind Bars
Posted on April 13, 2009NY Times Editorial Addiction Behind Bars Published: April 12, 2009 The United States must do more to curb the spread of diseases like AIDS and hepatitis C in prison, where infection rates are high and inmates can easily spread disease...
WA: Plan to close McNeil Island prison has many critics Closing McNeil Island prison might save the state millions.
Posted on April 13, 2009Plan to close McNeil Island prison has many critics Closing McNeil Island prison might save the state millions. It definitely would cost jobs in Pierce County and hurt businesses in Steilacoom. IAN DEMSKY Published: 04/11/09 Fourteen years before Washington became...
Twenty Years of Drug Courts -- Results and Misgivings from Drug War Chronicle
Posted on April 12, 2009Feature: Twenty Years of Drug Courts -- Results and Misgivings from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #580, 4/10/09 The drug court phenomenon celebrates its 20th birthday this year. The first drug court, designed to find a more effective way for the...
NV: CCA Proposal for Building 6,000 cages
Posted on April 12, 2009Board of Prison Commissioners hearing April 14th: Question of for-profit prison plans to build 6,000 beds in Nevada 4-10-09 *I'm with the non-profit Private Corrections Institute and have been a researcher in the field of for-profit prisons for a dozen...
National support sought for Sign-on to support NY's Anti-Shackling Bill
Posted on April 12, 2009Sign-on to support NY's Anti-Shackling Bill Letter of Support for A.3373-A National support is sought for this Bill. You can sign-on individually or as an organization by contacting Tina Reynolds. Contact info at the bottom of this email....
WA: Closing prisons, slashing sentences eyed to balance budget
Posted on April 10, 2009Closing prisons, slashing sentences eyed to balance budget By Jennifer Sullivan Seattle Times staff reporter April 9, 2009 OLYMPIA ? Tough-on-crime legislation that has long filled courtrooms, prisons and parole offices across the country has apparently met its match ?...
Delinquency and Prevention
Posted on April 10, 2009Delinquency and Prevention Editorial- New York Times Published: April 9, 2009 The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency and Prevention Act of 1974, now up for Congressional reauthorization, provided states and localities with money, training and technical assistance for badly needed delinquency...
NC: 3 of 7 prisons saved by Senate for closure. Schools cut.
Posted on April 10, 2009Senate budget targets schools Haywood prison spared in plan Jordan Schrader April 7, 2009 Citizen Times RALEIGH ? State Senate budget writers released a spending plan Monday that would save money by boosting class sizes, giving fewer tests and prodding...
WV: Sen. Rockefeller tours site of new federal prison says it is a perfect fit for moutaintwop location
Posted on April 10, 2009Senator tours site of federal prison in McDowell County Mary Catherine Brooks Register-Herald Reporter April 09, 2009 Bringing attention to the nearly 350 jobs to be created by the federal prison now under construction in the McDowell County industrial park,...
CA: Coalinga state prison still falls short, grand jury reports
Posted on April 10, 2009Coalinga state prison still falls short, jury reports Thursday, Apr. 09, 2009 By Eddie Jimenez / The Fresno Bee Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga is still plagued with crowding, inadequate medical care and concerns that inmates could be exposed...
OH: Prison employees escape layoffs due to $59 million to prisons from stimulus bill
Posted on April 07, 2009Prison employees escape layoffs Monday, April 6, 2009 11:00 PM By Alan Johnson THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH In today's eroding economy, this is news: The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction will not lay off 500 employees. The agency that runs...
AL: First Federal Prison for Women Touted as Boost for Economy
Posted on April 07, 2009Groundbreaking set for Alabama's first federal women's prison Posted by Tom Gordon -- Birmingham News April 06, 2009 Groundbreaking is scheduled Wednesday at the west Alabama site of what will be the state's first all-female federal prison. The facility will...
SF: Poverty Court Opens
Posted on April 07, 2009NEWSOM IGNORES VOTERS: $2.7 MILLION POVERTY COURT OPENS IN SAN FRANCISCO BRINGING THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX TO A NEIGHBORHOOD NEAR YOU! Notwithstanding a blistering defeat at the polls and strong opposition by the SF Board of Supervisors Newsom's Community Justice...
OH: Mental health care burdens prisons
Posted on April 06, 2009Mental health care burdens prisons By Lou Grieco Staff Writer Monday, April 06, 2009 DAYTON ? Ohio prisons projected spending $64 million on inmates' mental health care in 2006 ? or $8.7 million more than prison officials planned to spend...
The New Debtors? Prisons
Posted on April 06, 2009Editorial The New Debtors? Prisons NY Times Published: April 5, 2009 Here is a tale that sounds like it comes right from the pages of ?Little Dorrit,? Charles Dickens?s scathing indictment of Victorian England?s debtors? prisons. Unfortunately, it is happening...
TX: Phone system for prisoners begins - last state to bar routine phone access for prisoners
Posted on April 06, 2009Texas inmate phone system begins By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press April 3, 2009, 12:10PM AUSTIN, Texas ? Texas prison inmates are making routine phone calls for the first time. The Texas prison board was...
WA: Debt shouldn?t prevent restoration of voting rights
Posted on April 06, 2009Debt shouldn?t prevent restoration of voting rights THE NEWS TRIBUNE Editorial Published: 03/24/09 Buying the right to vote is so contrary to the idea of democracy that many Washingtonians would be surprised to find out that it?s happening in their...
NY: Rockefeller Drug Laws: A Welcome Change But Not Far Enough Say NY Activists and Organizers
Posted on April 05, 2009"The new law eliminates the mandatory minimum of a year in prison for first offenders charged with Class B felonies (sale of up to 1/2 ounce of cocaine or heroin, or possession with intent to sell) and first or second...
IL: Guards and Police Want Prison Open: "Enough is Enough" "We already have the melons, now bring us the felons."
Posted on April 05, 2009Organizer Kathy Newstrand even came up with a motto for their efforts: "We Thomson prison workers are saying 'enough is enough' Barb Ickes | Posted: Saturday, April 4, 2009 THOMSON, Ill. - Squad cars lined the shoulder of the highway...
California prepares to expand 3 prisons! They won't stop!
Posted on April 04, 2009California prepares to expand 3 prisons By DON THOMPSON Associated Press Writer Published: Wednesday, Apr. 1, 2009 SACRAMENTO -- The head of California's prison system said Wednesday that he will soon ask state legislators to approve expanding three prisons to...
Immigrant Detainee Dies in a NJ jail, and a Life Is Buried, Too
Posted on April 04, 2009Immigrant Detainee Dies, and a Life Is Buried, Too By NINA BERNSTEIN Published: April 2, 2009 NY Times The hand-scrawled letter from a New Jersey jail was urgent. An immigration detainee had died that day, Sept. 9, 2005, a fellow...
WA: Guards protest possible closing of prison.
Posted on April 03, 2009Prison cuts would free hundreds of felons, critics contend March 31, 2009 By LEVI PULKKINEN SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF Proposed cuts to the Department of Corrections budget could see hundreds of felons released into the community early, corrections officers and victim advocates...
NJ: Guards protest closing of prison. Community wants it gone.
Posted on April 03, 2009"The residents of this community believe in their hearts...they do not want the prison to be on that location," he said. "They view it as the way that their community can turn things around and they can't get it done...
MS: CCA Opening New Federal Prison: 2,500 cages---400 jobs
Posted on April 03, 2009Thursday, April 2, 2009, 8:43am CDT Corrections Corp. opens Mississippi prison Nashville Business Journal Corrections Corporation of America is opening a new prison in Natchez, Miss., that will house more than 2,500 federal prisoners and create some 400 jobs...
Prisons, Drugs in America: A Turning Point?
Posted on April 03, 2009Prisons, Drugs in America: A Turning Point? Neal Peirce / Apr 02 2009 For Release Sunday, April 5, 2009 © 2009 Washington Post Writers Group An historic turning point in criminal justice and drug policy in America? The fourth week...
FL: Bill would assess $3,300 fee for people using GPS monitors
Posted on April 02, 2009Mar. 31, 2009 Fla. bill would make monitors pricey for offenders By JESSICA GRESKO Miami Herald Offenders sentenced to wear ankle bracelets would have to pay for their own monitoring, up to about $3,300 a year, under a bill Florida...
Lock 'Em Up Jailing kids is a proud American tradition.
Posted on April 01, 2009Lock 'Em Up Jailing kids is a proud American tradition. By THOMAS FRANK Wall Street Journal On-line April 1, 2009 At first glance, the news from Luzerne County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, is not good. In what is known locally as...
Reversing Rockefeller: New York is set to repeal some of its harsh drug-offense-sentencing laws. But do the reforms go far enough?
Posted on April 01, 2009"Prior to the just-passed modification, the Rockefeller Drug laws removed all judicial discretion from matters of sentencing. Possession of a certain amount of drugs automatically triggered a harsh sentence. Now, only those convicted of the sale of 2 ounces or...
16 States Report Declines in the Number Of Prisoners. 34 states report increases. Federal prisons and jails grow . Incarceration of women increases.
Posted on April 01, 2009Growth in Prison and Jail Populations Slowing: 16 States Report Declines in the Number Of Prisoners WASHINGTON, March 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As of June 30, 2008, state and federal correctional authorities had jurisdiction or legal authority over 1,610,584 prisoners...
Mexico announces 'super-max' prisons
Posted on March 31, 2009Mexico announces 'super-max' prisons 3-31-09 MEXICO CITY (AP) ? Mexican and U.S. military commanders on Monday were analyzing how to combat drug trafficking amid related violence that has claimed nearly 9,000 lives in Mexico since 2006, at a meeting near...
"How PersonhoodUSA Will Hurt All Pregnant Women" and Do People Who Support "Traditional Values" Value Pregnant Women? by Lynn Paltrow of Nationa Advocates for Pregnant Women
Posted on March 31, 2009Please read Lynn's articles on Personhood and watch Dr. Deborah Frank debunk the mythology of "crack babies" "How PersonhoodUSA Will Hurt All Pregnant Women" by Lynn Paltrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lynn-m-paltrow/how-personhoodusa-and-the_b_176530...
Jail a Child, Get a Job: America Hates Kids
Posted on March 31, 2009Jail a Child, Get a Job: America Hates Kids Chris Norwood Huffington Post, March 30, 2009 Two judges in Western Pennsylvania, recently sentenced to seven years in prison for purposely inflating the sentences of juvenile offenders to benefit the income...
NY budget deal calls for closing 3 prison camps
Posted on March 31, 2009NY budget deal calls for closing 3 prison camps By MICHAEL VIRTANEN | Associated Press Writer March 30, 2009 Newsday ALBANY, N.Y. - The state budget negotiated by New York's Democratic leaders would close three minimum-security prison camps upstate and...
MT: Stimulus funds to build juvenile jail
Posted on March 30, 2009"Freudenthal recently toured the existing juvenile facility. He said in a news conference Friday that using stimulus funding to build a juvenile center would be justified because it's a clearly identifiable need and would put people to work." Published on...
Getting the Juvenile-Justice System to Grow Up
Posted on March 30, 2009Tuesday, Mar. 24, 2009 Getting the Juvenile-Justice System to Grow Up By Ken Stier Time Magazine If it's not the biggest scandal in American legal history, many are calling it at least the darkest day for the country's troubled juvenile-justice...
NH To Create Department-Level Agency For Parolees
Posted on March 30, 2009NH To Create Department-Level Agency For Parolees March 29th, 2009 New Hampshire Corrections Commissioner William Wrenn, with the support of Gov. John Lynch, is creating a new state division to help keep parolees free even after they have violated their...
Real Cost of Prisons Comix wins National Council on Crime and Delinquency PASS Award
Posted on March 30, 2009FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The National Council on Crime and Delinquency Announces The 2008 PASS Award Winners Oakland, CA, March 20, 2009 The National Council on Crime and Delinquency is pleased to announce the 2008 Winners of its respected PASS Awards...
MA: Freedom watch: Jailhouse bloc The real reason law-and-order types love mandatory-minimum sentencing? It's money in their pockets.
Posted on March 29, 2009News Features, The Boston Phoenix Freedom watch: Jailhouse bloc The real reason law-and-order types love mandatory-minimum sentencing? It's money in their pockets. By HARVEY SILVERGLATE AND KYLE SMEALLIE | December 9, 2008 With aromatic puffs of change, Bay State stoners...
"Jim Webb's courage v. the "pragmatism" excuse for politicians" by Glenn Greenwald
Posted on March 29, 2009Glenn Greenwald Saturday March 28, 2009 Jim Webb's courage v. the "pragmatism" excuse for politicians Salon.com There are few things rarer than a major politician doing something that is genuinely courageous and principled, but Jim Webb's impassioned commitment to fundamental...
Amnesty International: USA: Conditions must be improved at Tamms Correctional Center in Illinois
Posted on March 28, 2009Document - USA: Conditions must be improved at Tamms Correctional Center in Illinois AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT AI index: AMR 51/042/2009 25 March 2009 USA: Conditions must be improved at Tamms Correctional Center in Illinois According to Amnesty International?s information,...
MO: System Treats Juvenile Offenders With Lighter Hand
Posted on March 28, 2009Missouri System Treats Juvenile Offenders With Lighter Hand By SOLOMON MOORE Published: March 26, 2009 NY Times ST. LOUIS, Mo. ? VonErrick celebrated his 14th birthday last year by committing a daylight carjacking, beating the driver to the ground. With...
PA: Despite Red Flags, Judges? Kickback Scheme Thrived and PA Supreme CT Orders Records Of Youth Fraudulently Sentenced to be Expunged
Posted on March 28, 2009Clean Slates for Youths Sentenced Fraudulently By JOHN SCHWARTZ March 26, 2009- NY Times The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on Thursday ordered the slate cleaned for hundreds of youths who had been sentenced by a corrupt judge. The young people...
FL:Woman joins sex-offender group living under Julia Tuttle Causeway
Posted on March 28, 2009Mar. 23, 2009 Woman joins sex-offender group living under Julia Tuttle Causeway By FRED GRIMM. Miami Herald It's as if Voncel Johnson has been thrust into a bizarre social experiment. Forcing so many men to live like post-apocalyptic trolls beneath...
SF: EVENT TO SHED LIGHT ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVORS IN CALIFORNIA'S PRISONS
Posted on March 28, 2009SF: EVENT TO SHED LIGHT ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVORS IN CALIFORNIA'S PRISONS March 27, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) A group of formerly incarcerated battered women will gather Saturday in San Francisco to call for more survivors of domestic violence to...
OR: Prison Communities: Representation is Not Created Equal Bill would end gerrymandering in sparsely populated communities
Posted on March 28, 2009Prison Communities: Representation is Not Created Equal Bill would end gerrymandering in sparsely populated communities By Brian Stimson of The Skanner Rep. Chip Shields hopes to bring fairness to the way prisoners are counted in Oregon. Currently, prisoners are counted...
NY: Camp Gabriels Hopes to Become a "Treatment Center" in response to changes in Rockeffer Drug Laws
Posted on March 28, 2009They never give up thinking about how to lock people up! Senator pushes plan to turn Camp Gabriels into a treatment center By EMILY HUNKLER, Enterprise Staff Writer March 6, 2009 GABRIELS - Local institutions and politicians have come together...
NY: Press Release from Gov. Paterson on Major Changes to Rockefeller Drug Laws!!
Posted on March 28, 2009(Scroll down for specific reforms.) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 27, 2009 GOVERNOR PATERSON AND LEGISLATIVE LEADERS ANNOUNCE THREE-WAY AGREEMENT TO REFORM NEW YORK STATE?S ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS Sweeping Reform Ends Harsh Sentences for Non-violent Addicts Focuses on Treatment Rather than...
"The Jim Crow Laws of the 21st Century": Will New York Change?
Posted on March 27, 2009March 27, 2009 "The Jim Crow Laws of the 21st Century": Will New York Change? Odile Weissenborn Posted March 26, 2009 Huffington Post Our new president came in on a platform of change, and just a few months after his...
SC: Prisons would close without stimulus
Posted on March 26, 200925 March 2009 Harrell: Prisons would close without stimulus House Speaker Bobby Harrell said Wednesday the Senate should write a budget that leaves out $350 million in federal stimulus money as Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman suggested Tuesday...
The National Criminal Justice Act of 2009- will undertake a top-to bottom review of our entire criminal justice system and offer recommendations for reform"
Posted on March 26, 2009Senator Jim Webb of VA has introduced The National Criminal Justice Act of 2009 today. I encourage you to take a few minutes and read the full-bill http://webb.senate.gov/email/incardocs/CriminalJusticeReform_Legislation.pdf Here is a fact sheet on the Bill (http://webb...
MD: Parole Fee Burdens People Trying to Rebuild Their Lives
Posted on March 26, 2009Parole fee burdens ex-offenders Average $750 debt hinders efforts to rebuild life after prison, study says Baltimore Sun By Julie Scharper March 23, 2009 Andrea Brinkley, a mother of three, says she did not realize that she owed a parole...
OT: Legislative Bureau Audit Finds Treatment of Mentally Ill Prisoners Inadequate for Women Especially
Posted on March 26, 2009Audit finds problems with mentally ill inmates By SCOTT BAUER | Associated Press Writer March 25, 2009 Chicago Tribune MADISON, Wis. - At a time when Wisconsin is taking steps to avoid a federal lawsuit over its handling of mentally...
Washington Governor Proposes Early Release Of Some Women Prisoners
Posted on March 25, 2009Washington Governor Proposes Early Release Of Some Inmates BY AUSTIN JENKINS Olympia, WA March 23, 2009 3:28 p.m. Washington Governor Chris Gregoire is proposing the early release of some inmates to help balance the state budget. Specifically, the Governor floated...
"Resistance Behind Bars- The Struggles of Incercerated Women" by Vikki Law
Posted on March 25, 2009I just finished reading "Resistance Behind Bars" written by Vikki Law. In case you don't know about it or haven't had the chance to I recommend you buy a copy and read it. I will quote a little from the...
NY: Letting Judges Have a Say in Sentencing
Posted on March 25, 2009About New York- NY Times Letting Judges Have a Say in Sentencing By JIM DWYER Published: March 24, 2009 It is a cold spring morning, and a woman in her 30s, who has spent most of her adult life working...
OH: Prosecutors seek elimination of mandatory prison for some drug offenders
Posted on March 25, 2009Prosecutors seek elimination of mandatory prison for some drug offenders Tuesday, March 24, 2009 3:08 AM By Alan Johnson THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Ohio's county prosecutors are recommending major changes to state drug laws, including the elimination of mandatory prison sentences...
KS: Johnson County's prison avoidance operation could lose more than $868,500 from the state
Posted on March 25, 2009Johnson County's prison avoidance operation could lose more than $868,500 from the state Posted:03/21/2009 Mark Winton?s handshake was firm and his voice strong when he said he was a former drug addict on his last chance to stay out of...
CA: Judge rejects returning prison care to state
Posted on March 25, 2009Judge rejects returning prison care to state Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, March 25, 2009 (03-24) 12:33 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's request to return health care in California prisons to state control...
The New Yorker: Annals of Human Rights Hellhole The United States holds tens of thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture?
Posted on March 24, 2009Annals of Human Rights Hellhole The United States holds tens of thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture? by Atul Gawande March 30, 2009, The New Yorker Human beings are social creatures. We are social not just...
OK: Major overhaul needed at 17 percent of DOC facilities
Posted on March 23, 2009Major overhaul needed at 17 percent of DOC facilities By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau Published: 3/18/2009 8:21 PM OKLAHOMA CITY ? Seventeen percent of the buildings at the state?s correctional facilities need major work or need to be torn...
How PA handles prison medical care
Posted on March 23, 2009How Pa. handles prison medical care By: JO CIAVAGLIA The Intelligencer In the Pennsylvania state prison system, men diagnosed with cancer could be transferred to Graterford Prison, where a chemotherapy suite was installed in 2005. The prison in Montgomery County...
Plan for Prison Closures Stirs Fears Distressed Towns in Upstate N.Y. Cite Dire Economic Consequences
Posted on March 22, 2009"Gregory M. Hooks, a sociology professor at Washington State University, who analyzed the economies of prisons, said that among other problems, the pool of free inmate labor eliminates the pool of low-paid manual labor jobs, further depressing local economies...
Louisiana?s prison telephone rip-off
Posted on March 21, 2009Louisiana?s prison telephone rip-off Ronald Fraser Guest Columnist Published: Friday, March 20, 2009 Prison inmates who use the telephone to maintain strong family ties will be better prepared to rebuild their lives upon returning home. Why then do Louisiana elected...
MA Bar Association: MBA-backed criminal reform legislation returns for 2009-10 session
Posted on March 21, 2009Lawyers Journal MBA-backed criminal reform legislation returns for 2009-10 session By Kelsey Sadoff March 20, 2009 Criminal reform bills that failed to make it through last year?s legislative session are being reintroduced for the 2009-10 session with high expectations for...
MI: Juvenile lifer bills in Senate ?The greatest hope I have had in 33 years.?
Posted on March 20, 2009Juvenile lifer bills in Senate ?The greatest hope I have had in 33 years.? By Diane Bukowski The Michigan Citizen DETROIT ? Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy charged a 17-year-old with assault with intent to commit murder, felonious assault, assault...
Court Allows Brooklyn Jail to Reopen But Cannot Double Jail size Without Environmental and Land-Use Reviews
Posted on March 20, 2009Court Allows Brooklyn Jail to Reopen By SEWELL CHAN March 18, 2009 NY Times A Brooklyn judge has cleared the way for the city to resume sending inmates to the Brooklyn House of Detention, which stopped housing them overnight in...
NC: Critics: Perdue's closing plan may overload prisons Officials say state's correctional system is already above capacity.
Posted on March 20, 2009Critics: Perdue's closing plan may overload prisons Officials say state's correctional system is already above capacity. By Dan Kane Charlotte Observer Friday, Mar. 20, 2009 At a time when the state's prisons desperately need new beds, Gov. Bev Perdue wants...
MA: Round Two for Question 2 The battle over marijuana laws moves to the local level.
Posted on March 20, 2009News Round Two for Question 2 The battle over marijuana laws moves to the local level. Tuesday, March 17, 2009 By Maureen Turner Valley Advocate (Northampton, MA) Drug law reform advocates scored a decisive victory last November when voters approved,...
Delano CA: Guards fire rounds during fatal Kern Valley State Prison riot
Posted on March 20, 2009CALIFORNIA BRIEFING Guards fire rounds during fatal Kern Valley State Prison riot March 20, 2009 LA Times DELANO Guards fire rounds during fatal prison riot Prison guards fired live rounds, pepper spray and rubber bullets to quell a riot at...
The L.A. County Sheriff's Department and other agencies cover budget shortfalls and save positions using ICE money....$55.2 million in 2008
Posted on March 19, 2009"Washington paid nearly $55.2 million to house detainees at 13 local jails in California in fiscal year 2008, up from $52.6 million the previous year. " The L.A. County Sheriff's Department and other agencies cover budget shortfalls and save positions...
NC: Perdue's budget tries again to close inefficient but job-rich NC prisons targeted since 1992
Posted on March 19, 2009Perdue's budget tries again to close inefficient but job-rich NC prisons targeted since 1992 Gov. Beverly Perdue's roadmap for narrowing the state's $3.4 billion budget gap for the coming year includes closing seven of the state's 79 prisons, traditionally some...
$1 Spent on Prevention Saves $10, Study Says
Posted on March 19, 2009$1 Spent on Prevention Saves $10, Study Says March 16, 2009 ISU report to United Nations conference says drug prevention programs help the economy AMES, Iowa -- Two Iowa State University researchers have given communities worldwide good reason to implement...
Prison Population Continues to Rise. To save money on prisons, states take a softer stance
Posted on March 18, 2009Prison Population Continues to Rise To save money on prisons, states take a softer stance Good state by state map at this URL- http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-03-17-prison-economy_N.htm By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY SALINA, Kan. ? In a hushed conference room overlooking the town's...
Plan Would Limit Prison Chapel Books
Posted on March 18, 2009Plan Would Limit Prison Chapel Books By SOLOMON MOORE NY Times Published: March 17, 2009 A broad swath of religious organizations and civil liberties groups ? often on opposite sides of contentious issues ? have joined together to condemn a...
Alabama raising rates for inmate work squad labor. State get $15 a day. Prisoners get $2.
Posted on March 18, 2009Alabama raising rates for inmate work squad labor Monday, March 16, 2009 TOM GORDON Birmingham (AL) News staff writer The state Department of Corrections began in October 2007 charging cities, counties and other governing bodies for labor done by prisoners,...
Some Minnesota counties struggle with empty jails
Posted on March 18, 2009Some Minnesota counties struggle with empty jails By TOM ROBERTSON , Associated Press Minneapolis Star Tribune March 16, 2009 PARK RAPIDS, Minn. - This state-of-the-art jail facility in Park Rapids has enough beds to hold 116 prisoners. But on this...
OR: Bill introduced to count prisoners as part of their home communities
Posted on March 17, 2009Statesman Journal 2009 Legislature Bill would change way inmates are counted March 17, 2009 Marion County's population would shrink for purposes of redrawing state legislative and federal congressional districts under a bill that the House Rules Committee took up Monday...
OR: State may need to use jail to imprison women as a result of Measure 57
Posted on March 17, 2009State wants to send female inmates to Wapato jail by Edward Walsh, The Oregonian Sunday March 15, 2009, 9:03 PM The long-shuttered Wapato jail may finally open to house female prison inmates, whose numbers are expected to surge in the...
Alaska: Lawmakers have second thoughts on "jumbo" state prison
Posted on March 16, 2009Prison costs raise concern MAT-SU FACILITY: Lawmakers take new look at privatizing amid budget crunch. By SEAN COCKERHAM Published: March 15th, 2009 JUNEAU -- Legislators are cringing at the cost of the planned new jumbo state prison in the Matanuska-Susita...
FL: GEO Proposed 3,000 cage prison near Florida City
Posted on March 16, 2009Corporation offers to build prison near Florida City GEO Group proposes to build a 3,000-bed correctional facility near Florida City that would cost $100 million and create 900 jobs. BY KYLE BAILEY Special to The Miami Herald A corporation wants...
Job losses hit black men hardest: Some 8 percent of black men in the US have lost their jobs since November 2007
Posted on March 16, 2009Job losses hit black men hardest: Some 8 percent of black men in the US have lost their jobs since November 2007, according to a recent study. By Patrik Jonsson | Staff writer/ March 15, 2009 edition and Yvonne Zipp...
Calif. fight over inmate care may go to high court
Posted on March 15, 2009Calif. fight over inmate care may go to high court By DON THOMPSON Associated Press Writer Posted: 03/14/2009 San Jose Mercury News SACRAMENTO?When the quality of health care in California's sprawling prison system was first challenged in court, it seemed...
Real Cost of Prisons Comix (the book)
Posted on March 14, 2009The Real Cost of Prisons Comix edited by Lois Ahrens PM Press Reviews: http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=loisahrens#reviews Ordering info: https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=48 One out of every hundred adults in the U...
MA: Telephone company price gouging
Posted on March 14, 2009A bad call for prisoners By Ronald Fraser / As You Were Saying . . . | Saturday, March 14, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Op-Ed It is time to end telephone price gouging in prisons. If phone companies in Florida,...
A Nation of Jailers by Glenn Loury
Posted on March 14, 2009A Nation of Jailers by Glenn Loury Lead Essay- Cato Unbound March 11th, 2009 The most challenging problems of social policy in the modern world are never merely technical. In order properly to decide how we should govern ourselves, we...
TX: Lawmakers considering plan that would cap the number of juveniles being sent to TYC jails and keep them in the county in which they live
Posted on March 14, 2009Lawmakers eyeing Travis' plan for juveniles Proposal among many being considered that would reform youth agency, save state money. By Bob Banta and Mike Ward AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Thursday, March 12, 2009 Legislators are studying proposals from Travis and other counties...
FL: Private Prison Problems Not Quickly Fixed
Posted on March 13, 2009Report: Florida prison problems not quickly fixed By JESSICA GRESKO , 03.12.09, 04:11 PM EDT The agency that oversees Florida's six privately run prisons needs to ensure that problems found during audits - such as broken alarms and unsanitary infirmaries...
NV: Prisoner Internet access plan advances
Posted on March 13, 2009Inmate Internet access plan advances By CATHY BUSSEWITZ, Associated Press Writer Thursday, March 12, 2009 (03-12) 16:52 PDT Carson City, Nev. (AP) -- Nevada lawmakers advanced a plan Thursday that would allow some state prison inmates ? who lost the....
MS:Omnibus spending Bill brings $205 million for construction of Federal Prison in Yazoo
Posted on March 12, 2009Spending bill brings large windfall to Mississippi By CHRIS TALBOTT ? March 12, 2009 JACKSON - The federal omnibus spending bill that President Barack Obama signed on Wednesday funnels millions of dollars to Mississippi, including $205 million for construction at...
IL : Pontiac Prison to Stay Open After Months of Lobbying by town and guard's unions
Posted on March 12, 2009" PCC is the only institution in the state to currently house condemned inmates. It also has the largest segregation unit in which many of the state?s ?worst of the worst? inmates are housed. Pontiac is the state?s only facility...
Voting Rights Elude Some People in FL With Felony Convictions
Posted on March 12, 2009NY Times By GARY FINEOUT Published: March 11, 2009 TALLAHASSEE, Fla.? Florida?s procedures for restoring voting rights to convicted felons are so cumbersome, bureaucratic and confusing that some ex-convicts are being denied their rights, according to a report by...
Another excellent article from Tom Barry on "The National Imperative to Imprison Immigrants for Profit"
Posted on March 12, 2009The National Imperative to Imprison Immigrants for Profit Tom Barry | March 10, 2009 Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP) There is a codependent relationship between the private prison industry and the federal government's immigration enforcement apparatus...
PA: Officials present preliminary plans for Graterford Prison replacement
Posted on March 12, 200903/11/2009 WEB EXCLUSIVE ... Officials present preliminary plans for Graterford Prison replacement By: David Hare , For The Valley Item At a Skippack Township Board of Supervisors meeting March 11, state officials presented preliminary plans for two new prisons that...
Justice Dept. Opens Investigation of Arpaio's Office
Posted on March 11, 2009NY Times National Briefing | Southwest Arizona: Inquiry Into County Sheriff?s Office By PAUL GIBLIN Published: March 10, 2009 The United States Department of Justice opened an investigation into the Maricopa County Sheriff?s Office for suspected civil rights violations...
New look at sentencing guidelines for cocaine
Posted on March 10, 2009"The U.S. Sentencing Commission tallied all 4,262 crack cases for 2006. It calculated a median drug quantity of 1.8 ounces." New look at sentencing guidelines for cocaine Claire Cooper Sunday, March 8, 2009 SF Chronicle Willie Mays Aikens has returned...
Veterans Courts Are An Alternative to Jail
Posted on March 10, 2009These courts give wayward veterans a chance The first veterans court opened last year in Buffalo, N.Y.; its success stories have led to more across the country. By Nicholas Riccardi March 10, 2009 Los Angeles Times Reporting from Tulsa, Okla....
Introduction to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Jailhouse Lawyers By Angela Davis
Posted on March 10, 2009Introduction to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Jailhouse Lawyers By Angela Davis March 02, 2009 http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/20752 One of the most important public intellectuals of our time, Mumia Abu-Jamal has spent more than twenty-five years behind bars, the majority of that time on death...
Tennessee: State eyes cost-effective alternatives to prison
Posted on March 09, 2009Commissioner George Little: ?We can figure out how to better manage those populations,? he said. ?What I think it opens up is a discussion of who we are locking up, how long they are being locked up and do we...
UK: We should try rehabilitating 'lifers' Given the questionable conditions life-sentence prisoners are kept in, we should be grateful more don't re-offend once released
Posted on March 09, 2009We should try rehabilitating 'lifers' Given the questionable conditions life-sentence prisoners are kept in, we should be grateful more don't re-offend once released By Erwin James Sunday 8 March 2009 16.00 GMT The Guardian Of the thousand or so life-sentence...
MA: Towns Weigh Recriminalizing Marijuana Use
Posted on March 09, 2009Towns weigh ban on pot use By Scott Stafford, Berkshire Eagle Staff Updated: 03/07/2009 Even though 65 percent of voters in Massachusetts agreed with the ballot initiative known as Question 2 ? the decriminalization of less than an ounce of...
GA:: CCA takes over jail as ICE detention center
Posted on March 09, 2009March 9, 2009 CCA bringing 160 jobs to Georgia Atlanta Business Chronicle Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) landed a contract to manage detainee populations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the North Georgia Detention Center in Gainesville, Ga...
Derrick Z. Jackson: "Rectifying a 'mistake' in drug sentencing"
Posted on March 09, 2009The Boston Globe Rectifying a 'mistake' in drug sentencing By Derrick Z. Jackson Globe Columnist / March 7, 2009 CRIMINAL JUSTICE will never supplant the economy, war, or healthcare as a top priority, but when Attorney General Eric Holder called...
New book: Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women
Posted on March 09, 2009Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women By Vikki Law PM Press Now available In 1974, women imprisoned at New York?s maximum-security prison at Bedford Hills staged what is known as the August Rebellion. Protesting the brutal beating of...
PA: Rendell's prison plan could lock him up in costly quandary Increased budget likely to cause inmate population to swell
Posted on March 08, 2009Rendell's prison plan could lock him up in costly quandary Increased budget likely to cause inmate population to swell Sunday, March 08, 2009 By Daniel Malloy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Excellent chart: http://www.post-gazette.com/downloads/20090308Correction_population...
CT: New Haven Independent Teen Prisoner?s Mom: Raise The Age
Posted on March 06, 2009New Haven Independent Teen Prisoner?s Mom: Raise The Age by Melinda Tuhus | March 5, 2009 2:17 PM HARTFORD ? ?I don?t understand why they have this idea that sending kids to jail is gonna help them,? cried Katherine Gonzalez...
PA: Does any 11-year old deserve life in prison?
Posted on March 06, 2009Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Does any 11-year-old deserve life in prison? By Chris Togneri TRIBUNE-REVIEW Saturday, February 28, 2009 Fears that someone might try to harm an 11-year-old homicide suspect prompted authorities to place extra patrols at a Beaver County detention center,...
MA: Retired public workers smiling all the way to the bank Still on sheriff?s payroll
Posted on March 05, 2009Video and 2 articles on today's (3-5-09) developments on the Rockefeller Drugs Laws
Posted on March 05, 2009UT: Senate panel OKs prison-education overhaul. Sponsor says prisoners should pay bigger share of their behind-bars education
Posted on March 04, 2009CA: State to stop imprisoning undocumented immigrants with prior convicitions
Posted on March 03, 2009Mass. fifth in nation for adults in prison, probation or parole---$1.25 B. 1 in 24 under correctional control
Posted on March 03, 2009Human Rights Watch Report: Decades of Disparity Drug Arrests and Race in the United States
Posted on March 03, 2009PEW: 1 in 11 African Americans Under Correctional Control, 1 in 27 Latinos, 1 in 45 white people
Posted on March 02, 2009Pew Study: 1 in 31 adults in the U.S. under criminal justice control. Money for prisons not probation/paorole
Posted on March 02, 2009Keeping the Faith, Ignoring the History---Op-Ed on faith based initiatives and the Obama Administration
Posted on March 01, 2009Re-Entry Policy Council: U.S. House of Representatives Approves Over $133 Million for Prisoner Reentry in FY 2009, Including $25 Million for the Second Chance Act
Posted on February 27, 2009The Scott Sisters: Two Life Sentences for 11 Dollars? By Anthony Papa
Posted on February 26, 2009The Scott Sisters: Two Life Sentences for 11 Dollars? By Anthony Papa February 25, 2009 Talk about injustice. How do you wind up in prison serving two life terms for a robbery that netted 11 dollars? That question has haunted...
Justice Strategies New Report: Local Democracy on ICE: Why State and Local Governments Have No Business in Federal Immigration Law Enforcement
Posted on February 26, 2009New Report from Justice Strategies (Feb 2009) Local Democracy on ICE: Why State and Local Governments Have No Business in Federal Immigration Law Enforcement Democracy on ICE 287(g) is a tiny provision in federal immigration law that allows Homeland Security?s...
MA: Mandatory Minimums in Action: A Berkshire County case highlights the controversies in school-zone sentencing.
Posted on February 26, 2009Mandatory Minimums in Action: A Berkshire County case highlights the controversies in school-zone sentencing. February 26, 2009 By Maureen Turner, Valley Advocate (Northampton, MA) On a June morning in 2004, 17-year-old Mitchell Lawrence rode his bicycle from his home in...
MA: Urban Penalty Do drug-free school zones unfairly target cities and people of color? And a response from Lois Ahrens
Posted on February 25, 2009Urban Penalty Do drug-free school zones unfairly target cities and people of color? Thursday, February 26, 2009 By Maureen Turner Valley Advocate (MA) In January of 1989, Gov. Mike Dukakis was fresh off a failed presidential bid, but he wasn't...
Missouri senator proposes bill to lengthen prison stays
Posted on February 25, 2009Missouri senator proposes bill to lengthen prison stays Tuesday, February 24, 2009 Missourian BY Michael Bushnell JEFFERSON CITY ? Before he even was sworn in as a state senator for his first term, Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, filed a bill to...
TX: Study finds major interruptions in antiretroviral therapy after release from prison
Posted on February 25, 2009University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston Study finds major interruptions in antiretroviral therapy after release from prison Feb 24, 2009 GALVESTON, Texas ? The vast majority of HIV-infected Texas prison inmates who receive antiretroviral therapy while incarcerated experience...
Wall St. Journal Op-Ed: Former Presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Columbia Declare War on Drugs a Failure
Posted on February 24, 2009Former Presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Columbia Declare War on Drugs a Failure The War on Drugs Is a Failure Wall Street Journal FEBRUARY 23, 2009 We should focus instead on reducing harm to users and on tackling organized crime....
VA: Meherrin River Regional Jail project up in the air
Posted on February 24, 2009Meherrin River Regional Jail project up in the air By Luz Lazo Published: February 23, 2009 Richmond Times Dispatch DINWIDDIE -- A plan to build a $100 million regional jail for Brunswick, Dinwiddie and Mecklenburg counties would alleviate the need...
WI: Prison future creates high anxiety in Appleton
Posted on February 23, 2009Prison future creates high anxiety in Appleton Morris Sun Tribune Published Saturday, February 21, 2009 By Tom Cherveny West Central Tribune APPLETON ? Anxiety levels are running high in Appleton, where workers at the Prairie Correctional Facility are fearful that...
"Charles Dickens adn The House of Fallen Women"- an account of Dickens' efforts to help destitute women
Posted on February 22, 2009The house that Charles built Claire Tomalin enjoys a vivid account of Dickens's efforts to help destitute women By Claire Tomalin * The Guardian, Saturday 20 December 2008 Jenny Hartley's brilliant book fills a gap in Dickens studies. Vivid, intelligent...
Enforcement Gone Bad
Posted on February 22, 2009Editorial- NY Times Enforcement Gone Bad Published: February 21, 2009 The failures of the immigration system are many and severe, but the main problem is not that the country is catching too few undocumented immigrants. It is catching too many....
Josh MacPhee Review of: Illustrations from the Inside & The Real Cost of Prisons Comix
Posted on February 20, 2009Review: Illustrations from the Inside & The Real Cost of Prisons Posted February 18, 2009 by Josh MacPhee Go to this URL for the review which includes images from the books. http://www.justseeds.org/blog/2009/02/review_illustrations_from_the_1.html Review: Illustrations from the Inside: The Beat Within...
NV: Legislative panel discusses prison plans
Posted on February 20, 2009Legislative panel discusses prison plans Feb. 19, 2009 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Legislative panel discusses prison plans By BRENDAN RILEY The Associated Press CARSON CITY ? Told that the state's prison population is lower than expected, members of a...
Report: Prison Rehab Programs Are Working. Prison Population Has Stopped Expanding
Posted on February 20, 2009Report: Prison rehab programs working By Mike Ward | Thursday, February 19, 2009 Austin American Statesman Texas? prison population has stopped growing for the time being, thanks in part to a controversial changes in corrections policy two years ago that...
NY Plans to Release More Prisoners
Posted on February 20, 2009NY plans to release more inmates from prisons By Michael Virtanen Associated Press Writer Newsday February 19, 2009 ALBANY, N.Y. The Paterson administration has proposed further emptying New York's prisons by releasing more inmates six months early for good behavior,...
PA: New Bigger Prison to Proposed to Replace Graterford
Posted on February 20, 2009New state prison planned Thursday, February 19, 2009 By KEITH PHUCAS Times Herald Staff COURTHOUSE ? Pennsylvania is planning to replace Graterford Prison with a new facility to reduce overcrowding, and construction could begin as early as next fall, according...
OK: DOC Boss Want to Close One Women's Prison
Posted on February 20, 2009DOC boss wants to close one female prison by: CURTIS KILLMAN, Tulsa World Staff Writer Monday, February 09, 2009 2/10/2009 Laura Pitman would like to see one of Oklahoma's female prisons closed. As the boss of the state Department of...
MA: School Zone Laws Fail to Keep Children Safe from Drug Sales and Disproportionately Send More African Americans and Latinos to Prison & Jail
Posted on February 19, 2009Go to the full report and excellent graph: http://www.prisonpolicy.org/toofar/report.html Report: Mass. sentencing laws not doing the job Feb. 19, 2009 Bay State Banner St. John Barned-Smith Calls for reform of mandatory minimum sentencing laws received some added support recently from...
FL: Business lobby: Don't build prisons, release inmates instead
Posted on February 19, 2009Business lobby: Don't build prisons, release inmates instead BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER Miami Herald As lawmakers grapple with the need to build nearly 20 new Florida prisons in the next five years on a cratering state budget, a powerful business...
MI: Analysis: Granholm's prison plan is ambitious
Posted on February 18, 2009February 16, 2009 Analysis: Granholm's prison plan is ambitious By David Eggert Associated Press Writer LANSING (AP) ? Gov. Jennifer Granholm's ambitious plan to save money by releasing more prisoners is doable, but a lot has to go right for...
Pew Study Finds Sharp Rise in Latino Federal Prisoners
Posted on February 18, 2009Study Shows Sharp Rise in Latino Federal Convicts By SOLOMON MOORE Published: February 18, 2009 NY Times Latino convicts now represent the largest ethnic population in the federal prison system, accounting for 40 percent of all those convicted of federal...
NH: Officials praise planned prison closing Many hopeful about future use of the land
Posted on February 18, 2009Officials praise planned prison closing Many hopeful about future use of the land By ANNMARIE TIMMINS Monitor staff February 16, 2009 Laconia, NH The governor's announcement last week that he intends to close the Lakes Region prison by July was...
WI: Thread a threat to control of prisoners
Posted on February 17, 2009"Thread is seized frequently in the Secure Program Facility, which houses the most unruly felons in highly restrictive conditions." SAT., FEB 14, 2009 Prison contraband reports show hidden potential of ordinary items Karen Rivedal Ramen noodles and a Bic pen...
Some Find Hope for a Shift in Drug Policy If Seattle Police Chief is Named Drug Czar
Posted on February 16, 2009Some Find Hope for a Shift in Drug Policy By WILLIAM YARDLEY Published: February 15, 2009 NY Times SEATTLE ? Washington State law prohibits the possession of marijuana except for certain medical purposes. Hempfest is not one of them. Yet...
Rapid Repat for California prisons
Posted on February 16, 2009From the Los Angeles Times Opinion Rapid Repat for California prisons The state could save money and reduce the number of inmates by taking part in a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement program. By Julie Myers Wood Julie Myers Wood...
OH: Strained Budget Prompts Call for Prison Reform
Posted on February 16, 2009Seitz offers plan for prison reform OVERCROWDING STRAINS BUDGETS By Sharon Coolidge and Jon Craig February 16, 2009 State Sen. Bill Seitz says sweeping prison reform is the only way to reduce overcrowding and ease strain on Ohio's incarceration budget...
Kansas parks lose as prisons cut back
Posted on February 16, 2009Monday, Feb 16, 2009 Posted on Sun, Feb. 15, 2009 Kansas parks lose as prisons cut back BY MICHAEL PEARCE The Wichita Eagle The closing of three rural correctional facilities to save the state money could increase costs in areas...
Texas-New Mexico Border Series Immigrant Inmates Caught in Outsourcing Labyrinth
Posted on February 16, 2009Americas Program Report Texas-New Mexico Border Series Immigrant Inmates Caught in Outsourcing Labyrinth Tom Barry | February 16, 2009 Imprisoned immigrants in the large prison complex outside the small West Texas town of Pecos have rioted twice over the past...
PA: Suit Names 2 Judges Accused in a Kickback Case
Posted on February 14, 2009Suit Names 2 Judges Accused in a Kickback Case By IAN URBINA Published: February 13, 2009 NY Times Several hundred families filed a class-action suit Friday against two Pennsylvania judges who pleaded guilty on Thursday to accepting $2.6 million in...
Alison Des Forges, 66, Human Rights Advocate, Dies
Posted on February 14, 2009Alison Des Forges, 66, Human Rights Advocate, Dies By SEWELL CHAN and DENNIS HEVESI Published: February 13, 2009 NY Times Alison L. Des Forges, a human rights activist and historian who tried to call the world?s attention to the looming...
New Hazelden Study Finds 79% think War on Drugs a Failure
Posted on February 14, 2009New Hazelden Survey Finds Strong Support for Treatment, Recovery February 6, 2009 News Feature, Join Together by Bob Curley Advocates who say addiction should be treated as a public-health issue and not a criminal problem have broad public support, according...
Torture at Angola Prison: President Obama promises to close Guantanamo, but a court proceeding in Louisiana exposes brutality closer to home
Posted on February 13, 2009Torture at Angola Prison President Obama promises to close Guantanamo, but a court proceeding in Louisiana exposes brutality closer to home by Jordan Flaherty / January 27th, 2009 The torture of prisoners in US custody is not only found in...
"Your Valentine, Made In Prison"
Posted on February 13, 2009February 12, 2009 Beth Schwartzapfel Your Valentine, Made in Priosn The Nation With Valentine's Day approaching, perhaps you're planning a trip to Victoria's Secret. If you're a conscientious shopper, chances are you want to know about the origins of the...
Excellent article " The New Political Economy of Immigration"
Posted on February 13, 2009The New Political Economy of Immigration By Tom Barry This article is from the January/February 2009 issue of Dollars & Sense: The Magazine of Economic Justice available at http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0109barry.html The terrorist attacks of Sept...
PA: Judges Plead Guilty in Scheme to Jail Youths for Profit
Posted on February 13, 2009Judges Plead Guilty in Scheme to Jail Youths for Profit February 12, 2009 By IAN URBINA and SEAN D. HAMILL NY Times At worst, Hillary Transue thought she might get a stern lecture when she appeared before a judge for...
Katrina vanden Heuvel on "Senator Webb's Act of Strength"
Posted on February 13, 2009Senator Webb's Act of Strength posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 02/12/2009 The Nation Our criminal justice system is broken. The US represents 5 percent of the world's population but accounts for nearly 25 percent of its prison population. We...
NY: Jail Guard Union Throws Party for Indicted Rikers Island Guards
Posted on February 13, 2009Jail Guard Union Throws Party for Indicted Guards Posted by Graham Rayman at 2:47 PM, February 9, 2009 Last Friday, the Voice has learned, the union for correction officers held a 10-hour fundraiser to benefit three members who were indicted...
VA: Voting rights for people with non-violent felony convictions dies without even a vote
Posted on February 12, 2009Voting rights resolution dies in House committee Del. Onzlee Ware sponsored a bill to help restore voting rights to nonviolent felons. By Michael Sluss RICHMOND -- Without discussion or debate, a House of Delegates committee on Friday hurriedly voted down...
CA: The Prison Overcrowding Fix
Posted on February 11, 2009News Analysis The Prison Overcrowding Fix By SOLOMON MOORE Published: February 10, 2009 In San Francisco last week, a federal court was hearing final arguments in the prison overcrowding lawsuit that led Monday to an unprecedented decision to reduce the...
Pa. judges accused of jailing kids for cash
Posted on February 11, 2009Pa. judges accused of jailing kids for cash By MICHAEL RUBINKAM and MARYCLAIRE DALE, \Associated Press Writers Michael Rubinkam And Maryclaire Dale, Associated Press Writers WILKES-BARRE, Pa. ? For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor...
CA: Panel of Judges Rule State must release up to 57,000 prisoners---3 articles
Posted on February 10, 2009From the Los Angeles Times Judges back a one-third reduction in state prison population Jurists issue tentative ruling in lawsuit brought by inmates, who say overcrowding in state prisons violates their right to adequate healthcare. By Michael Rothfeld February 10,...
MA: Local legislators weigh in on prison fee idea
Posted on February 09, 2009Local legislators weigh in on prison fee idea By Stephanie Ganias/ Milford Daily News correspondent Feb 08, 2009 BOSTON One state legislator has a simple plan to bring in $10 million for the state: Charge inmates small fees for rooming...
Budget crunch forces Florida prisons to feed inmates for less
Posted on February 09, 2009Budget crunch forces Florida prisons to feed inmates for less By Steve Bousquet, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau Monday, February 9, 2009 St. Petersburg Times MADISON ? Three times a day, the inmates at Madison Correctional Institution discover what a budget deficit...
Singing the prison blues Incarceration rate has direct impact on Florida's finances
Posted on February 09, 2009The News-Journal February 08, 2009 Singing the prison blues Incarceration rate has direct impact on Florida's finances Everyone in Florida government is singing the Budget Blues. But underlying the melody is a drumbeat many state leaders profess not to hear:...
California budget mess: Where did our money go?
Posted on February 08, 2009Good graph at this URL http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11649004?nclick_check=1 California budget mess: Where did our money go? By Paul Rogers and Leigh Poitinger Mercury News Posted: 02/08/2009 California is broke. But lost in the day-to-day drama over IOUs, furloughs and huge deficits is...
NY: Towns must do without prison work crews
Posted on February 08, 2009Towns must do without prison work crews State eliminated all but 2 groups By Keith Goldberg Times Herald-Record Posted: February 07, 2009 MOUNT HOPE ? It didn't cost a dime for Mount Hope to re-paint its senior center last summer....
Five Big Ideas We Should Be Talking About (including closing some prisons)
Posted on February 08, 2009Published on OurFuture.org (http://www.ourfuture.org) Five Big Ideas We Should Be Talking About By Sara Robinson Created 02/04/2009 - 1:19am http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009020604/five-big-ideas-we-should-be-talking-about Summary: This is a moment for a big vision, painted in bold strokes...
The Census: Phantom Constituents
Posted on February 07, 2009February 6, 2009, 5:55 pm The Census: Phantom Constituents By Brent Staples http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/ There are many ways to hijack political power. One of them is to draw state or city legislative districts around large prisons ? and pretend that the...
NY: Sentencing Commission Calls for Drug Law Reform and Critical Response from NY Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
Posted on February 06, 2009Sentencing Commission Calls for Drug Law Reform February 3, 2009 Panel also recommends determinate sentencing, graduated sanctions for parole violators A bi-partisan panel that spent nearly two years studying New York State?s sentencing statutes today called for further reforms to...
CT: Gov. delays sending 16 & 17 year old youth to juvenile system
Posted on February 06, 2009Criminal justice initiative clipped in Rell budget By Keith M. Phaneuf Journal Inquirer Published: Thursday, February 5, 2009 HARTFORD ? Though criminal justice initiatives traditionally are one area both political parties insist are immune to budget cuts, even they may...
NY: Rikers Fight Club After indications for more than a year that guards were using inmates as enforcers, New York's jails are rocked by a pair of indictments
Posted on February 06, 2009Rikers Fight Club After indications for more than a year that guards were using inmates as enforcers, New York's jails are rocked by a pair of indictments By Graham Rayman published: February 04, 2009 The Village Voice Eighteen months after...
Arpaio?s America
Posted on February 06, 2009Arpaio?s America Editorial: NY Times including a picture on the editorial page of the shackled men Published: February 5, 2009 It has come to this: In Phoenix on Wednesday, more than 200 men in shackles and prison stripes were marched...
Warren Kimbro, Ex-Panther Who Turned to Life of Service After Killing, Dies at 74
Posted on February 05, 2009Warren Kimbro, Ex-Panther Who Turned to Life of Service After Killing, Dies at 74 By BRUCE WEBER Published: February 5, 2009 NY Times Warren Kimbro, who as a fledgling member of the Black Panther Party shot and killed a...
National Academy of Sciences Report finds Science Found Wanting in Nation?s Crime Labs
Posted on February 05, 2009"One person who has reviewed the draft and who asked not to be identified because of promises to keep the contents confidential said: ?I?m sure that every defense attorney in the country is waiting for this report to come out....
PA: Cut spending with inmate fees, not guard jobs, union says
Posted on February 05, 2009Warning....an infuriating article! Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Cut spending with inmate fees, not guard jobs, union says By Brad Bumsted STATE CAPITOL REPORTER Thursday, February 5, 2009 HARRISBURG ? Inmates who committed crimes from burglary to murder pay token amounts for health...
WA: State Rep. works to change law that prohibits people who owe fines but are not in prison or parole from voting
Posted on February 05, 2009Eye On Olympia Darneille takes another run at broadening felons? rights to vote upon release from prison? February 1 Comments (0) Two years ago, the state Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that even after felons are released from prison, the state...
MI: State should expand Parole Board to cut prison stays and costs
Posted on February 05, 2009State should expand Parole Board to cut prison stays and costs February 4, 2009 Michigan's $2-billion-a-year prison system holds thousands of inmates who have served their minimum sentence and are eligible for release. Not all of them merit paroles, of...
Lawsuits Suggest Pattern of Rikers Guards Looking Other Way
Posted on February 05, 2009Lawsuits Suggest Pattern of Rikers Guards Looking Other Way By BENJAMIN WEISER Published: February 3, 2009 When two guards were accused last month of encouraging inmates in one Rikers Island jail to police themselves, leading to beatings and in one...
Albion, New York Portrait of a prison town.
Posted on February 04, 2009Albion, New York Portrait of a prison town. By Andrew Marantz / Albion, New York Tuesday, February 3, 2009 America?s prison system is the biggest in history. Of the roughly nine million prisoners in the world, over two million are...
PREVENTING CRIME 101: MORE COLLEGE IN PRISONS
Posted on February 03, 2009PREVENTING CRIME 101: MORE COLLEGE IN PRISONS Increasing higher ed opportunities behind bars lowers recidivism rates and incarceration costs over the long run, say advocates. > By Jarrett Murphy City Limits WEEKLY #673 February 2, 2009 At a time when...
Despite Vow, Target of Immigrant Raids Shifted
Posted on February 03, 2009Despite Vow, Target of Immigrant Raids Shifted By NINA BERNSTEIN Published: February 3, 2009 NY Times The raids on homes around the country were billed as carefully planned hunts for dangerous immigrant fugitives, and given catchy names like Operation Return...
Call for Papers: The International Prison Privatization Experience: A Transatlantic and Transpacific Dialogue, Houston, TX, August 6-8, 2009
Posted on February 03, 2009The International Prison Privatization Experience: A Transatlantic and Transpacific Dialogue, Houston, TX, August 6-8, 2009 Call for Papers The Barbara Jordan Institute for Policy Research, the BJ-ML School of Public Affairs Administration of Justice Department, and Justice Strategies will convene...
Defining ?Cruel and Unusual? When Offender Is 13
Posted on February 03, 2009Sidebar Defining ?Cruel and Unusual? When Offender Is 13 By ADAM LIPTAK Published: February 2, 2009 In 1989, someone raped a 72-year-old woman in Pensacola, Fla. Joe Sullivan was 13 at the time, and he admitted that he and two...
Some of the spending In the Senate Stimulus Bill
Posted on February 02, 2009$150 million for the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee - (OFDT) is an organization that achieves efficiencies, effectiveness and operational synergies within the detention and incarceration community by fostering interagency cooperation, mutual understanding, accountability and teamwork...
Writing and Arts Residency Focusing on Prison Issues
Posted on February 02, 2009*Prison Issues Residency * Blue Mountain Center is pleased to invite you and your colleagues to apply to a special two week session, May 8-25, that will be dedicated to artists and writers who are working on material pertaining to...
The Big Business of Family Detention
Posted on February 02, 2009The Big Business of Family Detention It's not just alleged terrorists who are suffering from our inhumane treatment of detainees. It's also children. Courtney E. Martin | February 2, 2009 | American Prospect web only When President Barack Obama made....
REPORT AFFIRMS BENEFITS OF IN-PRISON COLLEGE PROGRAMS, CALLS FOR RENEWED FUNDING
Posted on January 30, 2009NEW CORRECTIONAL ASSOCIATION REPORT AFFIRMS BENEFITS OF IN-PRISON COLLEGE PROGRAMS, CALLS FOR RENEWED FUNDING http://www.correctionalassociation.org/publications/download/ppp/Higher_Education_Full_Report_2009.pdf Inmates that participate in post-secondary education programs have a lower recidivism rate than incarcerated comparison groups, several studies show...
UK: Arrests of teenage girls and women reach record levels * More than 250,000 detained by police in one year
Posted on January 30, 2009Arrests of teenage girls and women reach record levels * More than 250,000 detained by police in one year * Crime gap narrowing between men and women * Alan Travis, home affairs editor * guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 January 2009 17.15...
MI: Sacred Cows Block Real Prison Reform
Posted on January 30, 2009Wednesday, January 28,2009 Sacred cows block real prison reform by Kyle Melinn Don't claim to be a Korean War veteran if you're not. In Michigan, it's a three-year felony. Sodomy is still a crime in Michigan, as is dueling, adultery...
MA: The department of incorrection Prisoner kept beyond term, despite state's vow to change
Posted on January 29, 2009The department of incorrection Prisoner kept beyond term, despite state's vow to change Mark Taylor was held in prison beyond his release date. Mark Taylor was held in prison beyond his release date. By David Abel Globe Staff / January...
MA: FAMM instroduces reform bills on mandatory minimum sentencing and school zones
Posted on January 28, 2009Families Against Mandatory Minimums has just introduced two sentencing reform bills. They are comprehensive sentencing reform bills that go beyond similar bills that were filed in previous sessions. One would repeal mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses while the other...
VA: Death in another ICE jail
Posted on January 28, 2009"The parallels with detainee accounts of Mr. Newbrough?s treatment are striking to Jeff Winder, an organizer for the grass-roots Virginia group People United, who was contacted by several inmates at Piedmont who also spoke to a reporter. The latest death...
From National Advocates for Pregnant Women: a victory in the Texas v. Lovill case!
Posted on January 27, 2009From National Advocates for Pregnant Women: a victory in the Texas v. Lovill case! (January 27, 2009) www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org In this case, Amber Lovill's probation was revoked because the State thought that sending her to jail would protect her fetus...
"The Epidemic That Wasn?t" ---"crack babies"
Posted on January 27, 2009January 27, 2009 The Epidemic That Wasn?t By SUSAN OKIE NY Times--Pag1 Science Section BALTIMORE ? One sister is 14; the other is 9. They are a vibrant pair: the older girl is high-spirited but responsible, a solid student and...
Strapped states eye prison savings---including double celling and sending prisoners out of state
Posted on January 27, 2009Monday, January 26, 2009 Strapped states eye prison savings By John Gramlich, Stateline.org Staff Writer State of the States 2009 Faced with a surging prison population and a state budget more than $1 billion in the red, Gov. Steve Beshear...
MA: Another suicide at Souza-Baranowski
Posted on January 27, 2009Inmate found dead in Shirley prison cell Suicide believed to be the cause By Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff | January 27, 2009 A state prison inmate was found dead in his cell yesterday morning in an apparent suicide. The...
PA: Another New Prison Authorized by General Assembly
Posted on January 27, 2009January 27, 2009 State to build new prison at Rockview By Shannon Simcox Email Collegian Staff Writer The Pennsylvania General Assembly authorized state funds Monday to build a medium-security prison at the State Correctional Institution at Rockview. The facility will...
Isn't the Free Labor of Prisoners Wonderful? Towns Are Sad to See Their Prisons Leaving the Scene of the Grime Hard Times Cut Into Free Labor by Convicts Who Mop Town Hall, Rip Out Beaver Dams
Posted on January 26, 2009Towns Are Sad to See Their Prisons Leaving the Scene of the Grime Hard Times Cut Into Free Labor by Convicts Who Mop Town Hall, Rip Out Beaver Dams By JENNIFER LEVITZ Wall Street Journal January 26, 20009 CHARLESTON, Maine...
Organizations Press Congress to Adopt More Comprehensive Approach to Public Safety in Recovery Bill $4 Billion to Byrne and COPS programs will do little to strengthen communities, make us safer, or improve economy
Posted on January 26, 2009Please feel free to circulate the letter pasted below to other organizations and to congressperson. Lois ========================= Organizations Press Congress to Adopt More Comprehensive Approach to Public Safety in Recovery Bill $4 Billion to Byrne and COPS programs will do...
Guantánamo Detainees? Not in My State
Posted on January 24, 2009Guantánamo Detainees? Not in My State Fifty to 100 of the remaining detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, may face federal trials. By MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANE Published: January 23, 2009 WASHINGTON ? Is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed coming to a...
VA: Delegates weigh prison savings
Posted on January 24, 2009Delegates weigh prison savings By Tyler Whitley Published: January 24, 2009 Sixty percent of the new commitments to Virginia's prison system have a history of substance abuse, the director of the Department of Corrections told the House Appropriations Committee yesterday...
Pahrump NV: Opponents raise their voices
Posted on January 24, 2009"The PUC "isn't four or five stiffs that live in Pahrump or Tonopah," he said. Smith said each inmate needs 150 gallons of water per day. He appealed to fears over the sinking water table adding, "CCA is going to...
The End Of A Prison Offers New Hope To Camden Area
Posted on January 24, 2009Jan 24, 2009 The End Of A Prison Offers New Hope To Camden Area CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) ? On the south side of the bridge, there's a spiffy red brick minor-league baseball stadium where families go for a good time;...
NAACP to hold voter registration drives at Maine prisons
Posted on January 23, 2009January 16, 2009 - NAACP to hold voter registration drives at Maine prisons Starting this year, the civil rights group will bring more education about voting to prisoners. By ELBERT AULL Portland Press Herald PORTLAND, Maine ? The NAACP will...
MI: Getting smart on crime ? and prison time
Posted on January 23, 2009Getting smart on crime ? and prison time Jeff Gerritt January 22, 2009 A study by a far more credible source than me ? the Justice Center at the Council of State Governments ? backs what I?ve been saying the...
King's legacy demands reforms in criminal justice system
Posted on January 22, 2009King's legacy demands reforms in criminal justice system BY JEFF GERRITT ? DETROIT FREE PRESS EDITORIAL WRITER ? January 20, 2009 For the last three years, I've celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Ryan Correctional Facility, a guest of...
Obama to Close Foreign Prisons and Guantánamo
Posted on January 22, 2009By MARK MAZZETTI and WILLIAM GLABERSON Published: January 21, 2009 NY Times WASHINGTON ? President Obama is expected to sign executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering...
Michigan can save millions on prison costs, group says
Posted on January 22, 2009Thursday, January 22, 2009 Detroit News Michigan can save millions on prison costs, group says Gary Heinlein and Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau LANSING --Michigan can save $262 million in five years on prison spending with new...
NJ: Guard union fights prison closing with scare tactics
Posted on January 22, 2009"The guards' union should be ashamed for distributing an atrocious flier depicting murderers, rapists and gang members breaking into homes and harming children after the prison closes. Needlessly scaring people isn't the way to save union jobs. Riverfront's inmates are...
My Shawshank Redemption The prison system is broken. But the Honor Program works. Save it. By Dortell Williams
Posted on January 22, 2009My Shawshank Redemption The prison system is broken. But the Honor Program works. Save it. By Dortell Williams from the November 10, 2008 edition Lancaster, Calif. - Next September will mark my 20th year in jail. It is not an...
Calif. AG challenges $8 billion prison proposal
Posted on January 22, 2009Calif. AG challenges $8 billion prison proposal By DON THOMPSON, The Associated Press January 21, 2009 SACRAMENTO ? California's attorney general asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to block what he described as an extravagant spending proposal for prison medical...
MA: Gov. Patrick pushes for a state takeover of county jails, but at least one sheriff isn?t giving up his turf so easily
Posted on January 22, 2009Of course, even where the jails are supposedly controlled by the state as in Hampden County, the sheriff still has free reign. In Hampden County, (sheriff) Ashe has found a way to both build a new jail for women AND...
WI: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex
Posted on January 21, 2009Wisconsin Books to Prisoners/Rainbow Books 426 W. Gilman St. Madison, WI 53703 www.rainbowbookstore.org/b2p Wisconsin Books to Prisoners a project of Rainbow Bookstore, is sponsoring an exhibit ARTISTS AGAINST THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. The show will run from Jan 30 ?...
Report Faults Treatment of Women Held at Immigration Centers in AZ
Posted on January 21, 2009Report Faults Treatment of Women Held at Immigration Centers By DAN FROSCH Published: January 20, 2009 Some 300 women held at immigration detention centers in Arizona face dangerous delays in health care and widespread mistreatment, according to a new study...
OK: Report: Rethink corrections policies or risk federal oversight
Posted on January 19, 2009Report: Rethink corrections policies or risk federal bout by Marie Price, The Journal Record January 14, 2009 http://www.journalrecord.com/article.cfm?recid=95123 OKLAHOMA CITY ? Oklahoma?s swelling inmate population shows the need to rethink corrections policies to avoid another bout with federal-court oversight of...
ICE to terminate agreement to house detainees at Wyatt RI Detention Facility
Posted on January 19, 2009ICE to terminate agreement to house detainees at Wyatt Detention Facility January 15, 2009 http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0901/090115washington.htm WASHINGTON, DC - Today, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has notified the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation of the agency's intention to terminate the...
ICE: Secure Communities: A Comprehensive Plan to Identify and Remove Criminal Aliens
Posted on January 19, 2009Secure Communities: A Comprehensive Plan to Identify and Remove Criminal Aliens November 19, 2008 http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/factsheets/secure_communities.htm U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the largest investigative agency in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is improving community safety by transforming the way...
Many in U.S. Prisons Lack Good Health Care Report finds high rate of chronic disease that often goes untreated
Posted on January 17, 2009U.S.News & World Report Saturday, January 17, 2009 Many in U.S. Prisons Lack Good Health Care Report finds high rate of chronic disease that often goes untreated By Amanda Gardner HealthDay Reporter FRIDAY, Jan. 16 (HealthDay News) -- The 2.3...
Two reports: Many prisoners sick, access to care poor: study and Less Than One in Five Prisoners Needing Addiction Treatment Gets Help, NIDA Reports
Posted on January 16, 2009Many inmates sick, access to care poor: study Thu Jan 15, 2009 CHICAGO (Reuters) - Inmates in U.S. prisons and jails have rates of serious illness that far exceed those of the general population and many lack access to healthcare,...
No evidence Jessica's Law works, California officials say
Posted on January 16, 2009There's no evidence Jessica's Law works, California officials say A state board says tight residency limits on sex offenders have driven many to homelessness, which could propel them back into crime. The state spends $25 million housing some of the...
U.S. Issues Scathing Report on Immigrant Who Died in Detention
Posted on January 16, 2009January 16, 2009 U.S. Issues Scathing Report on Immigrant Who Died in Detention By NINA BERNSTEIN NY Times Federal immigration officials investigating the death of a New York computer engineer from China who died in their custody last summer said...
LA: Did Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and Others Push Up Mandatory Sentences
Posted on January 15, 2009"Why, then, is the country just now getting around to talking about cutting criminal justice costs by reducing the prison population? As Mauer said, the states have finally reached a point fiscally where leaders must choose between costly prisons and...
THE PEOPLE?S AGENDA: VIRGINIA PEOPLE?S ASSEMBLY
Posted on January 14, 2009THE PEOPLE?S AGENDA Adopted unanimously Jan. 10, 2009, by the VIRGINIA PEOPLE?S ASSEMBLY In this time of deepening economic crisis, the working people of Virginia are looking to the government to protect our interests. Instead, it is the Big Banks...
Bush Justice Department appointee hired 65 of 63 "right-thinking Americans"...not "mold spores" or "commies" for civil rights and voting sections
Posted on January 14, 2009Justice appointee wanted to purge liberals By AP Wire Created 01/14/2009 WASHINGTON - To Bradley Schlozman, they were "mold spores," "commies" and "crazy libs." He was referring to the career lawyers in the Justice Department's civil rights and voting rights...
VA: Doctor refused to treat woman while she is shackled
Posted on January 14, 2009The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, VA Shackles not what doctor ordered A Fredericksburg doctor this week refused to treat a handcuffed inmate Date published: 1/14/2009 BY JIM HALL When Dr. Declan Burke, a Fredericksburg obstetrician/gynecologist, walked into his exam room Monday,...
JPI: Violent Crime Fell in 2008; Prisons and jails experienced less growth than previous years
Posted on January 14, 2009Violent Crime Fell in 2008; Prisons and jails experienced less growth than previous years Justice Policy Institute: January 14, 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Violent crime in the United States fell by 3.5 percent and property crimes fell by 2.5 percent in....
Sex Workers Outreach Project: articles in the Washington Post and Newsweek on Protests in DC
Posted on January 13, 2009Sex Workers Criticize Law Enforcement By Theola Labbé-DeBose Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, December 18, 2008; B03 Dozens of sex workers marched through the streets of downtown Washington yesterday, demanding better treatment from law enforcement officials of prostitutes who become...
Guantanamo and U.S. Control Units
Posted on January 13, 2009Statement by Lois Ahrens on the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights given at commemorative event in Northampton, MA Dec 12 2008 Yesterday leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee released a report stating that Donald Rumsfeld bore...
UT: DOC cuts drug programs and parole violator center not cages
Posted on January 13, 2009Public safety cuts go deep, affect police and prisons Slashing spending » Trooper, prison guard jobs on the block By Robert Gehrke, The Salt Lake Tribune Updated: 01/12/2009 08:56:24 PM MST http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11438864 The state's belt-tightening could mean 42 fewer highway...
Lullabies Behind Bars In a few innovative prisons, babies find a safe haven with their moms
Posted on January 12, 2009NATIONAL NEWS | fall 2008 Ms. Magazine Lullabies Behind Bars In a few innovative prisons, babies find a safe haven with their moms By Beth Schwartzapfel It's midday on a recent Tuesday, and Rachael Irwin, 27, scurries across the floor...
How the Madoff Mess Hits Women
Posted on January 12, 2009How the Madoff mess hits women With two progressive organizations forced to shutter, it isn't just wealthy individuals being affected by the investment scandal. Salon.com Nancy Goldstein Jan. 07, 2009 | For all the ink that's been spilled on the...
WA: Cost of prison system must be reined in
Posted on January 12, 2009Cost of prison system must be reined in Sunday, January 11, 2009 11:25 AM PST Jan. 11 Daily News editorial Virtually every state agency is targeted for cuts in Gov. Chris Gregoire?s budget blueprint. The Department of Corrections is asked...
Budget woes prompt states to rethink prison policy
Posted on January 11, 2009"Of the states we do business with, none have made prison construction a priority in this economic environment," said Tony Grande, CCA's executive vice president. "Our partnership with the states will become even stronger. ...We want to be a part...
NC: Close to $20m OK'd for Bertie County prison expansion
Posted on January 11, 2009Published on HamptonRoads.com Close to $20m OK'd for Bertie County prison expansion By Connie Sage Correspondent January 11, 2009 Money for a nearly $20 million expansion of the Bertie County state prison - and with it 115 new jobs -...
Cocaine and White Teens
Posted on January 10, 2009White teens use cocaine at 4 times that of Black teens....and who is incarcerated? January 10, 2009 Op-Ed Columnist Cocaine and White Teens By CHARLES M. BLOW Last month, President Bush touted the results of a government-sponsored study by the...
Florida needs more education, not more prisons
Posted on January 10, 2009Florida needs more education, not more prisons BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Editor?s note: Below is a reprint of a Dec. 30 editorial in The (Lakeland) Ledger, courtesy of The Associated Press. Although Florida?s overall population is about 16 percent black,...
Idaho DOC still assessing damage from uprising
Posted on January 10, 2009IDOC still assessing damage from uprising Story Created: Jan 9, 2009 By Associated Press BOISE (AP) ? Idaho Department of Correction officials are still piecing together just why some prison inmates staged an uprising in a temporary cell block, but...
AL: As His Inmates Grew Thinner, a Sheriff?s Wallet Grew Fatter
Posted on January 09, 2009January 9, 2009 As His Inmates Grew Thinner, a Sheriff?s Wallet Grew Fatter By ADAM NOSSITER NY Times DECATUR, Ala. ? The prisoners in the Morgan County jail here were always hungry. The sheriff, meanwhile, was getting a little richer....
WI: Consultants say thousands more cages and prison upgrades needed
Posted on January 09, 2009Consultants say prison system needs $1.2 billion upgrade By Steven Walters of the Journal Sentinel Posted: Jan. 8, 2009 Madison - Consultants recommended Thursday that the state spend more than $1.2?billion over the next decade to expand and update its...
MI: State's policy has imprisoned its future
Posted on January 07, 2009State's policy has imprisoned its future A Lansing State Journal editorial January 1, 2009 Before lawmakers return to Lansing to begin their work, they should take a pledge: "I will not leave the Capitol at the end of 2009 without...
VA: Time to rethink goals of prison
Posted on January 06, 2009Time to rethink goals of prison Editorials Opinion The Virginian-Pilot © January 5, 2009 In prosperous times, state and federal lawmakers wanting to polish their get-tough-on-crime image pass bills putting more people in prison and keeping them longer for offenses...
CA: Group cites deep flaws in juvenile justice plan
Posted on January 06, 2009Group cites deep flaws in juvenile justice plan By Dana M. Nichols Record Staff Writer January 06, 2009 6:00 AM SAN ANDREAS - The $93 million effort to reform California's juvenile justice system by transferring many young offenders to county...
LA: Gov. to close Tallulah prison and hopes to sell it to private detention center
Posted on January 06, 2009The News Star State to lay off 151 in Tallulah ASSOCIATED PRESS JANUARY 6, 2009 BATON ROUGE ? Gov. Bobby Jindal's plan to close a $341 million budget gap will cost at least 335 state employees their jobs ? largely...
AZ: Arpaio Gets A TV Series on FOX
Posted on January 05, 2009"Maricopa County has many times more federal prison condition lawsuits than New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston combined. In September of last year, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care revoked its accreditation of the jails Sheriff Arpaio...
MI: Sexual Abuse of Women Went Unheeded- 2 of 5 articles and Human Rights Watch Report
Posted on January 05, 2009SPECIAL REPORT | CHAPTER 1 Sexual assaults on female inmates went unheeded Detroit Free Press BY JEFF SEIDEL ? FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER ? January 4, 2009 First of five parts For years, rights groups warned that male guards were...
PA: Rendell Wants No Parole for People Convicted of Repeated Violent Crimes
Posted on January 05, 2009Rendell Wants No Parole For Repeat Violent Offenders Last Edited: Sunday, 04 Jan 2009 Governor Ed Rendell PHILADELPHIA -- Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has put forth his first order of business for 2009. He wants to get rid of parole...
CA: Schwarzenegger's plan would cut number of parolees in half and reduce the prison population by 10% in a year
Posted on January 03, 2009His proposal would cut the number of parolees in half and reduce the prison population by almost 10% within a year... Schwarzenegger plan would save nearly $1 billion in prisoner and parolee costs afurillo@sacbee.com Published Friday, Jan. 02, 2009 Gov...
NY State Law requires employers to provide jobseekers with criminal records with anti-discrimination info
Posted on January 01, 2009In 2008, the first bill drafted by the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy (DRCPP) at the Fortune Society, The Employer Education Act, was passed by the New York State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Paterson. The law:...
Helen Suzman, Anti-Apartheid Leader, Dies at 91
Posted on January 01, 2009"She was also remembered for efforts to ease p[prison conditions for Mr. Mandela and other political captives, ensuring that they were able to receive books." January 2, 2009 Helen Suzman, Anti-Apartheid Leader, Dies at 91 By ALAN COWELL and CELIA...
CA: Arsenic levels too high in Kern Valley State Prison's drinking water
Posted on December 29, 2008Later, the agency developed plans to add a filtration plant. It obtained $2.5 million from lawmakers for that purpose in 2006. But planners abandoned the idea, electing instead to incorporate the project into an overall prison expansion approved by lawmakers...
Study reports murders by Black teenage men rise
Posted on December 29, 2008"Bruce Western, a sociologist at Harvard, cautioned that the change in murder rates was not large and did not yet show a clear trend. Dr. Western also said that the impact of the reduction in government spending on crime control...
Oklahoma's Incarceration Rates--What would it mean to be average
Posted on December 29, 2008Oklahoma's Incarceration Rates by: JULIE DELCOUR Associate Editor Sunday, December 28, 2008 What if Oklahoma's per-capita incarceration rate were average. Nothing excessive, mind you, just similar to that of states in the middle of the pack? The research committee over...
PA: Corruption a keystone of state government, prof says
Posted on December 28, 2008Corruption a keystone of state government, prof says By Brad Bumsted and Brian Bowling TRIBUNE-REVIEW Saturday, December 20, 2008 HARRISBURG -- Pennsylvania is one of just a few states where corrupt government is ingrained in the culture. That's the view...
Leaning on Jail, City of Immigrants Fills Cells With Its Own
Posted on December 27, 2008Maps http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/12/26/us/1227_DETAIN.html http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/dwnmap December 27, 2008 Leaning on Jail, City of Immigrants Fills Cells With Its Own By NINA BERNSTEIN- NY Times CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. ? Few in this threadbare little mill town gave much thought to the Donald W...
Cash-strapped states cut juvenile justice programs
Posted on December 27, 2008Cash-strapped states cut juvenile justice programs December 26, 2008 By JIM DAVENPORT COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ? State budget cuts are forcing some of the nation's youngest criminals out of counseling programs and group homes and into juvenile prisons in what...
Christmas Day in a Louisiana Dungeon: Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace Sent Back to Solitary
Posted on December 26, 2008Ira Glasser Former Executive Director, ACLU Posted December 25, 2008 Christmas Day in a Louisiana Dungeon This is a story about a double crucifixion happening on the very day that hundreds of millions of Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus....
WA: cut backs for state DOC and making consolidating a prison for women
Posted on December 26, 2008State might make Larch all-women prison Corrections seeks ways to save funds in face of budget woes Wednesday, December 24 | 9:00 p.m. THE COLUMBIAN, AP State officials are considering making the Larch Corrections Center in Clark County an all-women?s...
Alaska's prison population falls
Posted on December 26, 2008Fairbanks Daily News-Miner Alaska's prison population falls The Associated Press Published Thursday, December 25, 2008 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- There are fewer prisoners under the watch of the Alaska Department of Corrections this year even though there have been more bookings...
Needle and Syringe Programs Reduce HIV in Prisons. Methadone treatment also effective in reducing injection drug use and HIV in prison
Posted on December 25, 2008Needle and Syringe Programs Reduce HIV in Prisons. Methadone treatment also effective in reducing injection drug use and HIV in prison Modern Medicine: December 24, 2008 WEDNESDAY, Dec. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Reducing injection drug use in prison to reduce...
WI: Univ. of WI-Federal Prison to end 4 year college program
Posted on December 24, 2008UW-Baraboo, prison end relationship By Matthew Ryno / News Republic December 24, 2008-- Baraboo, WI Working toward a four-year university degree while behind bars will no longer be an option at a nearby federal prison, due to a push to...
VT putting criminal records on line.
Posted on December 23, 2008States putting criminal records online by John Curran - Dec. 21, 2008 Associated Press WATERBURY, Vt. - Worried your daughter's new boyfriend might have a nefarious past? Want to know whether the job applicant in front of you has a...
Booked: Seminar Explores American Prisons
Posted on December 23, 2008Booked: Seminar Explores American Prisons by Nora Grenfell '12 Hamilton College (NY) December 23, 2008 During the fall semester, a new seminar was offered by Hamilton's English Department. "Booked: Prison Writing," taught by Associate Professor Doran Larson, offered a survey...
OH: Budget cuts force closure of Cincinnati jail
Posted on December 22, 2008Budget cuts force closure of Cincinnati jail Published on Saturday Dec 20, 2008 One of Hamilton Countys four jails has shut its doors because of budget cuts, the first time a jail has closed in the county without a new...
VT: Womens prison opens, but not enough women to fill it
Posted on December 22, 2008http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/83334/ Womens prison opens, but not enough women to fill it Monday December 22, 2008 ST. ALBANS, Vt. (AP) Vermont corrections officials have rearranged the states prison system,turning the correctional facility in St. Albans into awomens prison...
UT: Focus of budget cuts include drug abuse treatment and cuts to juvenile jails
Posted on December 22, 2008Focus of budget cuts begins to sharpen Huntsmans plan » Several social programs would feel the pinch and 1,100 could lose their jobs. By Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune Updated:12/20/2008 It is, perhaps, the unlucky 7. But details of...
The Evidence Gap Drug Rehabilitation or Revolving Door?
Posted on December 22, 2008December 23, 2008 The Evidence Gap Drug Rehabilitation or Revolving Door? By BENEDICT CAREY NY Times ROSEBURG, Ore. ? Their first love might be the rum or vodka or gin and juice that is going around the bonfire. Or maybe...
OH: State could invest in half-way houses rather than more prisons
Posted on December 19, 2008Ohio bill seeks to ease prison crowding By JULIE CARR SMYTH AP Statehouse Correspondent Thursday Dec 18, 2008 Akron Beacon Journal Non-violent drug offenders could spend more time in halfway houses instead of in prison. Well-behaved inmates who earn their...
The Angola 3: Reform, Bobby Jindal Style
Posted on December 18, 2008James Rucker Posted December 17, 2008 | Reform, Bobby Jindal Style http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-rucker/reform-bobby-jindal-style_b_151737.html We may be on the brink of inaugurating a Black president, but the miscarriage of justice unfolding in Louisiana with the case of the Angola 3 tells a...
Blog Reveiw on Hunger, Homeless Poverty Task for of the American Library Assoc.: Comics for community organizing, outreach and education
Posted on December 18, 2008Hunger, Homelessness Poverty Task Force Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association http://www.hhptf.org/ Comics for community organizing, outreach and education Monday December 15, 2008 Graphic novels are a suitable medium for illustrating cold, hard facts...
MA: Marijuana Law Comes With Challenges
Posted on December 18, 2008December 18, 2008 Marijuana Law Comes With Challenges By ABBY GOODNOUGH NY Times BOSTON ? Last month, voters approved a statewide measure decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Now, wary authorities say, comes the hard part. They are...
NY: Gov. Paterson marks for prisons for closing
Posted on December 17, 2008Published December 16, 2008 04:39 pm - After winning efforts to keep the minimum-security prison open, workers and lawmakers look at a different fight this time. Paterson proposes closing Camp Gabriels By KIM SMITH DEDAM Staff Writer LAKE PLACID ?...
HOME DEPOT ACCUSED OF VIOLATING CIVIL RIGHTS OF JOB APPLICANTS WITH CRIMINAL RECORDS---Legal Action Center and National Employment Law Center seeking poeple with complaints
Posted on December 17, 2008HOME DEPOT ACCUSED OF VIOLATING CIVIL RIGHTS OF JOB APPLICANTS WITH CRIMINAL RECORDS Please see the notice below regarding a Title VII national class charge recently filed against Home Depot based on its failure to hire applicants due to their...
JEHT Foundation closes down due to investments with Bernad Madoff
Posted on December 15, 2008Statement of Robert Crane, President of the JEHT Foundation, on behalf of the Foundation?s Board of Directors Posted under General News on Monday, December 15, 2008 The JEHT Foundation, a national philanthropic organization, has stopped all grant making effective immediately...
MA DOC 2007 annual report
Posted on December 14, 2008http://www.mass.gov/Eeops/docs/doc/annual_report_2007.pdf...
LA: Artist Jackie Sumell designs a house based on the wishes of Angola prisoner Herman Wallace
Posted on December 14, 2008Artist Jackie Sumell designs a house based on the wishes of Angola inmate Herman Wallace Posted by Doug MacCash, Art critic, The Times-Picayune December 13, 2008 5:00AM PRISONER DREAMS UP A HOME THE HOME: The House that Herman Built THE...
Report Blames Rumsfeld for Prisoner Abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo
Posted on December 13, 2008December 12, 2008, NY Times Report Blames Rumsfeld for Detainee Abuses By SCOTT SHANE and MARK MAZZETTI WASHINGTON ? A report released Thursday by leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee said top Bush administration officials, including Donald H...
TX: Prisoners set fire and take two hostages at GEO Reeves Co Detention Center
Posted on December 13, 2008Saturday, Dec 13, 2008 Rioting inmates hold 2 hostages at privately run prison in West Texas The Associated Press PECOS ? Inmates at a privately run prison took two hostages Friday after starting a riot and setting at least one...
BJS: ONE IN EVERY 31 U.S. ADULTS WAS IN A PRISON OR JAIL OR ON PROBATION OR PAROLE AT THE END OF LAST YEAR
Posted on December 12, 2008Bureau of Justice Statistics DECEMBER 5, 2007 ONE IN EVERY 31 U.S. ADULTS WAS IN A PRISON OR JAIL OR ON PROBATION OR PAROLE AT THE END OF LAST YEAR WASHINGTON ? The U.S. adult correctional population ? incarcerated or...
ACLU Massachusetts: Detention and Deportation in the Age of ICE: Immigrants and Human Rights in Massachusetts
Posted on December 12, 2008Detention and Deportation in the Age of ICE: Immigrants and Human Rights in Massachusetts ACLU Massachusetts http://www.aclum.org/ice/ Introduction EVERY DAY IN MASSACHUSETTS, approximately 800 immigrants and asylum-seekers are in detention in county jails around the state waiting to be deported...
Camp Hill PA: Torture in Solitary Confinement Uit
Posted on December 12, 2008STATE CORRECTIONS Do special units go too far? They're designed for toughest inmates, but opponents say they're misused Friday, December 12, 2008 BY PETE SHELLEM Of The Patriot-News They're the worst of the worst in the state prison system. Fifty-five...
THREE TIMELY ACTIONS THAT COULD HELP END PRISON-BASED GERRYMANDERING
Posted on December 12, 2008THREE TIMELY ACTIONS THAT COULD HELP END PRISON-BASED GERRYMANDERING by Peter Wagner, December 12, 2008 The next Census will be taken 14 months after our next President is sworn in. Counting the entire population, just once and in the right...
LAC Releases New Drug Law Reform Costs Savings Report (Very good study whether or not you are in NY)
Posted on December 12, 2008? LAC Releases New Drug Law Reform Costs Savings Report (Very good study whether or not you are in NY) The Legal Action Center has just completed a new study, Drug Law Reform 2008 - Dramatic Costs Savings For New...
MI: Two prison closings approved by lawmakers (2 articles & editorial)
Posted on December 11, 2008Prison closings to cost Ionia, Coldwater Local jobs, state revenue-sharing to be lost BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF ? Detroit FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF ? December 11, 2008 LANSING -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm's plan to close two state prisons topped her...
Northampton MA: Panhandling law is part of effort to sanitize the city
Posted on December 11, 2008Panhandling law is part of effort to sanitize the city By Daily Hampshire Gazette- Northampton, MA Created 12/11/2008 To the editor: If the city is seeking a solution to what some view as troublesome behavior by a handful of panhandlers...
Company "Hires" Prisoners to Build Solar Modules
Posted on December 10, 2008Company Hires Prison Inmates to Build Solar Modules Written by Ariel Schwartz Published on December 9th, 2008 Posted in solar energy Great news! If you?re sent to the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, NY, you may have the opportunity to....
Our neighbors to the north: Canadian incarceration rate up 2 percent to 36,300
Posted on December 10, 2008Canadian incarceration rate up 2 percent Published: Dec. 9, 2008 at 10:33 AM OTTAWA, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- The number of Canadian adults in jails and prisons rose 2 percent in 2007-2008 to a daily average of 36,300 *inmates, Statistics...
IL: Blagojevich hires 208 guards with no prison to guard
Posted on December 09, 2008Chicago Tribune Blagojevich hires 208 guards with no prison to guard Tribune staff report December 9, 2008 Associated Press SPRINGFIELD ? Just weeks after Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced hundreds of layoffs because of state budget woes, his administration hired 208...
PA: Sign of the Times: City workers transferred from libraries to prisons
Posted on December 09, 2008Philadelphia Library Closings, News, the budget crisis City workers transferred from libraries to prisons City Paper Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 4:35 pm posted by Isaiah Thompson Here's the good news: most of the municipa Free Library guards working at...
PA: State resumes parole for people convicted of violent offences
Posted on December 08, 2008State resumes parole for violent offenders Monday, December 01, 2008 The Associated Press HARRISBURG -- Pennsylvania's parole system must do a better job of identifying violent offenders who pose the greatest threat to public safety, an independent review found...
WA: Policy that lets prisoners serve half their sentences reduces money and doesn't increase crime
Posted on December 08, 2008Tacoma, WA - Monday, December 8, 2008 News Tribune Policy that lets inmates get out early might stay JOSEPH TURNER A policy that has allowed many Washington inmates to get out of prison after serving only half of their sentences...
Judges to Decide Whether Crowded California Prisons Are Unconstitutional
Posted on December 08, 2008December 8, 2008 Judges to Decide Whether Crowded California Prisons Are Unconstitutional By MALIA WOLLAN SAN FRANCISCO ? Faced with chronically packed prisons and a federal mandate to improve medical and living conditions, a three-judge panel is meeting here to...
Calif.'s Prop 5 Battle Exposes Fault Lines Between Treatment Groups, Drug Courts
Posted on December 08, 2008Calif.'s Prop 5 Battle Exposes Fault Lines Between Treatment Groups, Drug Courts December 5, 2008 News Feature By Bob Curley The battle over California's recently defeated Proposition 5 has led to a schism between drug courts and addiction treatment providers...
Greece: Hunger Strike by Prisoners results in cutting prison population in half!
Posted on December 07, 2008Hunger strike ends as Greek government caves Thursday, November 20 2008 @ 11:36 PM CST After 18 days 7,000 prisoners in Greece stop their hunger strike after the ministry of justice concedes to a series of their demands, promising to...
Fiscal Cost Forcasting for Criminal Sentencing
Posted on December 06, 2008Sentencing laws needn?t drain us By Rachel E. Barkow and Joshua J. Libling | Saturday, December 6, 2008 Op-Ed Massachusetts, like most states around the country, is in fiscal crisis. Gov. Deval Patrick announced more than $1 billion in midyear...
Boston MA: A $26m try to tame city's crime hot spots New program's workers may have rough pasts
Posted on December 05, 2008A $26m try to tame city's crime hot spots New program's workers may have rough pasts By Maria Cramer, Boston Globe Staff | December 4, 2008 The Boston Foundation and city officials are preparing to flood a 1.5-square-mile section of...
European Court Rules Against Britain?s Policy of Keeping DNA Database of Suspects
Posted on December 05, 2008December 5, 2008- NY Times European Court Rules Against Britain?s Policy of Keeping DNA Database of Suspects By SARAH LYALL LONDON ? The European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously on Thursday that Britain?s policy of gathering and storing the...
Call Governor Paterson to ask that Jalil Muntaqim & Herman Bell Be Returned to NY
Posted on December 05, 2008New York State letter denies request The transfer of SF8 defendants Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim from the San Francisco County Jail back to New York State for their rightful parole hearings has been blocked by both state governors for...
Prison Overcrowding Crisis Unhealthy for All Californians
Posted on December 05, 2008Prison Overcrowding Crisis Unhealthy for All Californians New America Media, Commentary, Donna Willmott, Posted: Dec 04, 2008 Review it on NewsTrust Editor's note: California prisons have become the largest mental health system for the poor, the largest battered women's shelter,...
Critical Solutions Upgrades the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Renewable Energy Towers With Latest Technology
Posted on December 05, 2008PRESS RELEASE Critical Solutions Upgrades the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Renewable Energy Towers With Latest Technology Next Generation Wind Turbines and Solar Panels Are Upgraded and Installed On Previously Sold Units Last update: 8:01 a.m. EST Dec. 4, 2008 CLEVELAND,...
College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S.
Posted on December 04, 2008December 3, 2008 College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S. By TAMAR LEWIN NY Times The rising cost of college ? even before the recession ? threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans, according to...
MA: Want to know the real reason the law-and-order set backs mandatory-minimum sentencing? They get their pockets lined by the 'prison-industrial complex.'
Posted on December 04, 2008Freedom watch: Jailhouse bloc Want to know the real reason the law-and-order set backs mandatory-minimum sentencing? They get their pockets lined by the 'prison-industrial complex.' By HARVEY SILVERGLATE AND KYLE SMEALLIE | December 3, 2008 With aromatic puffs of change,...
MA: Gov. Patrick Taps Judge Grants fro SJC opponent of mandatory minimums
Posted on December 03, 2008Patrick taps Superior Court judge Gants for SJC By Kyle Cheney/State House News Service Mon Dec 01, 2008, 01:12 PM EST Boston, Mass. - Gov. Deval Patrick on Monday nominated Superior Court Judge Ralph Gants, an opponent of mandatory minimum...
Review: Feel the Real Cost of Prisons by Paul Buhle
Posted on December 03, 2008Feel the Real Cost of Prisons by Paul Buhle The Real Cost of Prisons Comix. Edited by Lois Ahrens, with comic art by Kevin Pyle, Sabrina Jones, and Susan Willmarth. Oakland: PM Press, 96pp, paperback, $12.95. The Real Cost of...
Odetta, Voice of Civil Rights Movement, Dies at 77
Posted on December 03, 2008December 3, 2008- NY Times Odetta, Voice of Civil Rights Movement, Dies at 77 By TIM WEINER Odetta, the singer whose deep voice wove together the strongest songs of American folk music and the civil rights movement, died on Tuesday...
IN EPIC FISCAL STORM, NEW STRATEGIES RISE
Posted on December 02, 2008"There's an oft-neglected candidate: corrections. Because of politically motivated mandatory sentencing legislation, prisoner rolls have been growing rapidly, reaching world-leading shares of the total population. Complains Maricopa County, Ariz., Manager David Smith: "We have 40,000 felony cases yearly and corrections...
TN: CCA Faces Scrutiny After Man Dies in Jail
Posted on December 02, 2008Friends and comrades: Yet another prisoner has died in the solitary confinement unit in the Metropolitan Nashville Detention Facility (MNDF). Terry Battle, a Black prisoner, died in June '08, and his case was only disclosed over the Thanks-taking holiday, in...
NY: A new tack on drug policy could save the state billions
Posted on December 02, 2008A new tack on drug policy could save the state billions Posted by The Readers' Page November 30, 2008 5:00AM By Gabriel Sayegh While New York reels from the most severe budget crisis since the Great Depression, Gov. David Paterson...
Nick Montos Oldest Prisoner in MA dies without receiving a commutation
Posted on December 01, 2008Dear Boston Globe Editor: Nick Montos, purportedly the oldest prisoner in Massachusetts, died yesterday (11/30/08) at the age of 92. He was incarcerated at MCI Norfolk. Since the summer of '08 fellow prisoners at Norfolk had been waging a "free...
Black World Conference in New Orleans Discusses How to Advance Policies Critical to the Black Community
Posted on November 30, 2008BMORENEWS.com : News, video and live radio for the black community in the Washington D.C. and Baltimore area BLACK LEADERS GATHER IN NEW ORLEANS TO DISCUSS POLICY AGENDA Fresh off the historic victory of Senator Barack Obama as the first...
Private Prison Profits Soar Through Prisoners in the Immigration System
Posted on November 28, 2008Private Prison Profits Soar Through Bipartisan Pork by Dave Bennion Published November 26, 2008 @ 08:00AM PST Tom Barry at Border Lines, a blog I just added to my feed list, discusses the commodification of prisoners in the immigration system....
To fight drugs, U.S. must cut demand
Posted on November 28, 2008"The Office of National Drug Control Policy, under which Plan Colombia and other drug control programs operate, spends 65 percent of its $12 billion annual budget on supply-side efforts and only 35 percent on the demand side. In 1971, when...
MA: DOC Commissioner Clarke gets an earful at a local hearing
Posted on November 27, 2008"If there was a magic button that, if pressed, would instantly rehabilitate all prisoners and reduce recidivism to zero, with a show of hands, those who believe that the Department of Corrections would not press that button." Most hands shot...
Great News: Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3 to be released on bail after 37 years.
Posted on November 26, 2008Woodfox and Wallace were each held in solitary confinement from the time of the murder until last March, after a federal court concluded that their suit alleging that such confinement for three decades constitutes cruel and unusual punishment could go...
A Victory in PA: Pittsburgh jury awards $185K to state prisoner
Posted on November 25, 2008From the Human Rights Coalition---FedUp! Chapter Andre Jacobs, a captive of SCI Fayette in the PA DOC, was awarded $185,000 in compensatory damages by a jury today for violations of his constitutional rights while being hled in the Long Term...
OK: Good News Theresa Lee Hernandez
Posted on November 25, 2008Empowering Oklahoma women & girls Monday, November 24, 2008 Theresa Lee Hernandez- Follow-up Dear Amici, Activists, and Allies: We are so pleased to let you know that on November 19, 2008, after serving only one year from the date of...
Tired of the Guilt, Fugitives Line Up to Give Up
Posted on November 24, 2008November 24, 2008 Tired of the Guilt, Fugitives Line Up to Give Up By KAREEM FAHIM CAMDEN, N.J. ? A church served as the police station house, and central booking was set up in a community center. An apartment building...
Kansas discusses closing 2 El Dorado prisons
Posted on November 24, 2008Kansas discusses closing 2 El Dorado prisons EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) -- Impending budget cuts have prompted the Kansas Department of Corrections to consider closing two minimum-security prisons in El Dorado, although no final decision has been made. "Every aspect...
(Bad) Choices for Possible Obama Drug Czar
Posted on November 24, 2008Ramstad Seen as Possible Obama Drug Czar November 21, 2008 News Feature By Bob Curley As President-elect Barack Obama's transition team gathers steam, word is leaking out that recently retired Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.) -- a strong advocate for addiction...
WI Books to Prisoners: artwork by prisoners and others wanted
Posted on November 23, 2008WANTED ? ARTWORK BY PRISONERS AND OTHERS Wisconsin Books to Prisoners was the recipient of a powerful set of posters created by 20 printmakers from the JUSTSEEDS Visual Resistance art collective. These posters were created in anticipation of the...
Inspiring Rikers Teacher Runs Afoul of Jail's Rules
Posted on November 23, 2008Inspiring Rikers Teacher Runs Afoul of Jail's Rules By MICHAEL WINERIP Published: January 25, 2006 JEFF KAUFMAN, a teacher at the Rikers Island jail, has a reputation as a good educator who cares about his student inmates. In 2004, without...
CA: Editorial: Time to pay for getting tough on crime
Posted on November 23, 2008Editorial: Time to pay for getting tough on crime Published Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008 Sacramento Bee There's an old kids' joke, "How do you know if there's an elephant under your bed?" Answer: "Your nose is touching the ceiling." As...
OK: Audit: State?s prisons crowded, underfunded
Posted on November 23, 2008Audit: State?s prisons crowded, underfunded November 23, 2008 Muskogee Phoeniz ? TAFT ? Velita Nash says she does not have a drug or alcohol problem. ?I have a problem shoplifting clothing,? she said. ?I steal clothes from a retailer.? Nash,...
MA: "Reform is Needed" letter by Barbara Dougan of FAMM
Posted on November 23, 2008Letters to the Editor - The Boston Globe Reform is needed November 23, 2008 "PRISON TO double-bunk inmates" highlights the urgent need for sentencing reform in Massachusetts. Our prisons are bursting, due in large part to costly and inflexible mandatory...
Phone and Fax for Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim
Posted on November 22, 2008PhonSF 8 defendants Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim (aka Anthony Bottom) are being held in intolerable conditions in the San Francisco County jail, a facility designed to hold arrestees for only a day or two. The Free the SF 8...
Gail Collins- NY Times " Time for Him to Go"
Posted on November 22, 2008November 22, 2008 Op-Ed Columnist- NY Times Time for Him to Go By GAIL COLLINS Thanksgiving is next week, and President Bush could make it a really special holiday by resigning. Seriously. We have an economy that?s crashing and a...
Larger Inmate Population Is Boon to Private Prisons
Posted on November 20, 2008Wall Street Journal NOVEMBER 18, 2008 Larger Inmate Population Is Boon to Private Prisons By STEPHANIE CHEN Prison companies are preparing for a wave of new business as the economic downturn makes it increasingly difficult for federal and state government...
MA: Testimony by Lois Ahrens to DOC Commissioner Clark on barriers to speaking to Lifers Group at Norfolk
Posted on November 20, 2008From Cell Block to City Block: Strategies for a Successful Re-Entry My name is Lois Ahrens. I am the founder and Director of The Real Cost of Prisons Project, a Northampton-based national organization. With Donald Petigny-Perry, I also organized the....
Cheney, Gonzales Indicted in 'Prisonville'
Posted on November 20, 2008The Bond Buyer November 20, 2008 Thursday SECTION: THE REGIONS; Pg. 1 Vol. 365 No. 33012 The Bond Buyer November 20, 2008 Thursday SECTION: THE REGIONS; Pg. 1 Vol. 365 No. 33012 Cheney, Gonzales Indicted in 'Prisonville' BYLINE: Richard Williamson...
2 articles on closoing Pontiac IL prison-- Mistakes of black youth keep Pontiac prison in business Union fights closing, wants more paroles revoked
Posted on November 20, 2008Mistakes of black youth keep Pontiac prison in business Union fights closing, wants more paroles revoked November 20, 2008 Chicago Sun Times BY MARY MITCHELL marym@suntimes.com Pardon me while I make this real plain. If you have worn your knees...
The Agents of Change on Obama's Transition Team
Posted on November 20, 2008The Agents of Change on Obama's Transition Team David Corn, Mother Jones eams, which, according to the office of the president-elect, will examine key departments, agencies, and commissions, as well as the White House, to provide Barack Obama and his...
This is Change? 20 Hawks, Clintonites and Neocons to Watch for in Obama's White House
Posted on November 20, 2008AlterNet This is Change? 20 Hawks, Clintonites and Neocons to Watch for in Obama's White House By Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet Posted on November 20, 2008, Printed on November 20, 2008 http://www.alternet.org/story/107666/ U.S. policy is not about one individual, and no...
NY: Guards Oppose Closing of Empty Prisons which would save $84 million
Posted on November 19, 2008Correctional officers oppose proposed cuts Tuesday, November 18, 2008 12:45 PM EST By James V. Franco The Record TROY ? The plan to save money by consolidating prisoners within the respective prisons where they are held is coming under fire...
Trial begins over California prison crowding
Posted on November 19, 2008Trial begins over California prison crowding By DON THOMPSON -Nov. 19, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Attorneys for the state and inmates' rights groups clashed Tuesday at the opening of a high-stakes trial over whether California's jam-packed prisons have led...
IL: Judge Halts Pontiac Prison Closing
Posted on November 19, 2008Judge Halts Pontiac Prison Closing By Paul Meincke November 18, 2008 (PONTIAC, Ill.) (WLS) -- One of the state's cost cutting measures is closing the Pontiac prison. But a lot of people in Pontiac are fighting to keep the prison...
More children going hungry in U.S.
Posted on November 18, 2008More children going hungry in U.S. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Staff Writer Tuesday, November 18, 2008 WASHINGTON - Some 691,000 children went hungry in America sometime in 2007, while close to one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately...
Amherst MA: Justice for Jason Campaign
Posted on November 18, 2008On February 3, 2008, two white men appeared at the window of the dormitory room of Jason Vassell, a black student who was majoring in Biology at UMass Amherst. The two men subjected Jason to racial invective and threats of...
MS: Southern Poverty Law Center Calls for Closing Mississippi Youth Prison
Posted on November 18, 200811/17/2008 SPLC Calls for Closing of Mississippi Youth Prison The Southern Poverty Law Center today called for the state of Mississippi to abandon the use of large youth prisons following a report showing that after almost four years, the state's...
LA: State takes steps to close Jetson prison for youth
Posted on November 18, 2008State takes steps to close Jetson * By SANDY DAVIS * Published: Nov 15, 2008 - Page: 1B The state is on its way to closing Jetson Center for Youth and making steps toward reforming the state?s juvenile justice system,...
KY: Study Blames Repeat "Offender" Law for Overcrowded Prisons
Posted on November 18, 2008Study blames Ky. law for overcrowded prisons November 17, 2008 @ 07:30 PM 2008/The Herald-Dispatch LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) ? Kentucky?s repeat offender law shoulders much of the blame for overcrowded prisons, according to a new study by the man who...
More Native Americans Now In Prisons
Posted on November 18, 2008More Native Americans Now In Prisons Indianz.Com, Posted: Nov 17, 2008 Review it on NewsTrust WASHINGTON, D.C. ? The number of incarcerated Native Americans has risen sharply over the last five years, reports Indianz.Com. The figures come from a federal...
CO: Fort Carson has sent thousands of troops into action overseas. But nine may have brought too much of the war home with them and have been linked to violent crimes.
Posted on November 16, 2008Deadly duty for Fort Carson Fort Carson has sent thousands of troops into action overseas. But nine may have brought too much of the war home with them and have been linked to violent crimes. By David Olinger The Denver...
MN: Veterans taking care of their own with new business center Founded by former soldiers, center will help vets start ? and sustain ? businesses
Posted on November 16, 2008Rubén Rosario: Veterans taking care of their own with new business center Founded by former soldiers, center will help vets start ? and sustain ? businesses By Rubén Rosario, Pioneer Press Article Launched: 11/16/2008 12:01:00 AM CST Jimmie Lee Coulthard...
Alaska: Prison Privateer Gets Fine and 6 months jail time
Posted on November 16, 2008Weimar gets 6 months in prison, fine By LISA DEMER Published: November 12th,2008 Bill Weimar, who built a lucrative business in Alaska working with criminals, was sentenced to federal prison Wednesday as a convicted felon. Weimar, 68, tall and silver-haired,...
MA: Prisoners to be double bunked due to sentencing/war on drugs
Posted on November 16, 2008Prison to double-bunk inmates Senten