FCC Steps Up to Bar for Phone Charges

<applause>  <applause> The FCC has issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making.  OK.... they are taking comments.  But still, this is a huge step from a huge agency that can stop the gouging of inmates and their families.       http://www.pitchengine.com/centerformediajustice/fcc-takes-action-toward-fair-prison-phone-rates-and-stronger-communiti...

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Tx House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee

Criminal justice is always at the mercy of legislative budgets.  It is also always noticed/ignored/acted on by the legislative body if the committee chair is  active and interested.  Thus Texas' new dilemma:  who will chair the committee now that Rep. Pete Gallego is in D.C?  Gallego's   constituents always came first (not his party affiliations, not special interest groups).  So he will be hard to replace, and the current list of possibles does not hold any bright stars.  Who cares about criminal justice?  One of the representatives needs to stand up and shout an interest, and all the interested parties need time to review the shouter.  Soon.           http://www.austinchronicle.co...

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Prison Rape Elimination Act applies to females, too

Movies and TV have painted a grim story of male inmates being raped.  What many citizens aren't noticing, however, are female inmates.  Passed in 2003 and signed into law by Pres. G.W. Bush, PREA is making major changes in how prisons and staff are held accountable for rape.  Prison advocates are hoping that the 8-member commission will require cameras in all areas--including closets--to keep the record straight.  No guard wants a false accusation;  no inmate should be fearing the staff or other inmates.  The more scrutiny in PREA, the better all parties will be.                http://truth-out.org/news/item/13280-women-prisoners-endure-rampant-sexual-violence-current-laws-not-suffi...

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Solitary without Hearing?

Massachusetts inmate Edmund LaChance lost his chance to live in the regular population when he threw a cup of pudding.  He was kept there indefinitely, "awaiting action status."  Ten months after being sanctioned for the original 14 days, he was released into the general population again.  Don't throw pudding?  Don't have a melt-down and threaten others when you learn of the punishment? Prison Legal Services in Boston took the pro se case to Massachusetts's top court--and won.  Won!  They determined he had a due process right to a hearing rather than a pro-forma review by officials.         http://solitarywatch.com/2012/11/30/massachusetts-court-rules-against-solitary-confinement-without-due-proces...

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Texas leg to investigate uncorroborated snitching

Democratic Representative Harold Dutton has filed HB 189, hoping that this year the Texas legislature will ban uncorroborated testimony of jailhouse snitches.  The snitching is a terrific tool for prosecutors, so it may be a difficult sell.  In the past, Pete Gallejo was in charge of the committee overseeing criminal justice; he has ascended to national Congress.  [disclaimer:  Pete was not only my student at U.T. Law but was Teacher's Pet.]   Let's hope Rep. Dutton can open a fruitful debate.     http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2012-12-07/will-texas-do-better-criminal-justice-cheaper-but-smarte...

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Tamms Supermax: Report Reveals More Guards Than Prisoners, Soaring Costs

A southern Illinois, all-solitary confinement prison, is reported to have twice the number of guards for the number of prisoners.  Since they are in lock-down cells, that work is something the rest of us might sign up for!  "Tamms has 208 guards and supervisors in its maximum-security unit, or C-max, to handle 138 prisoners, for a security-staff-to-inmate ratio of 1.5-to-1. At Alcatraz in the 1940s, the ratio was 1-to-3, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons." Or you might want to sign on a chef/cook:  "In addition, there are 16 food supervisors earning an average of $71,600 a year working at Tamms. That’s the same number of food supervisors as at the Pontiac Correctional Center, which houses around 1,700 maximum- and medium-security inmates." http://solitarywatch.com/...

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Snitching! 1 in 8 fed inmates tattles for reduction

It's hard to get your mind around this statistic, but apparently 1 in 8 federal convicts get their sentences reduced for snitching on each other.  If they don't have anything worth snitching about, obviously it's worth their while to dream something up.  But what to do about it?  Prosecutors insist they'd never make a case if we eliminate use of snitches.  Activists insist on eliminating the use of snitches.  Middle ground seems to be to insist on taped recordings of the private conversations if they're to be used--but that opens yet another can of worms.            http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/14/jailhouse-informants-for-sale/176201...

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Prison Diets: Budget vs. Health

Should prisons be required to offer healthful options?  How about vegetarian options for those who have lifetime commitments to meatless lives?  A court in Missouri has recently turned down a vegetarian's request to have meatless servings at Buzz Westfall Justice Center.  Diabetes and obesity and high blood pressure is creating a prison population that needs extra medical care;  prisons need the money to upgrade food choices, period.     http://molawyersmedia.com/blog/2012/12/07/vegetarian-inmate-loses-battle-over-meals-in-jail/?goback=%2Egde_106893_member_1951629...

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Word Play over Solitary: Bradley Manning

James Averhart, Chief Warrant Officer IV, who as commander of the Quantico brig determined conditions of confinement, kept Pvt. Bradley Manning naked for 7 days, and in solitary confinement despite recomendations from doctors to release him  He insists that the regulation gives him to authority to decide whether to relax confinement standards--even though the regulation says a prisoner "shall" be released if the medicos say so.  Averhart argued that the word "shall" did not introduce a specific timeline for ending the confinement. "[T]he order is vague - it does say 'shall,' it does not say 'right now' or 'immediately,' sir - it still gives me the opportunity to evaluate," he said. http://peoplesworld.org/hearing-highlights-controversy-over-bradley-manning-jail-con...

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780 days solitary--no threat, violence

Leroy Peoples is suing the state of New York.  He was left in solitary confinement for 780 days--for misbehaving:  no violence, no security threat.  The New York Civil Liberties is helping with the suit: http://www.nyclu.org/news/nyclu-lawsuit-challenges-new-york-states-use-of-solitary-confineme...

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The Atlantic Joins Wash Post: Phone Rates!

Two major journalistic inquiries into the exorbitant prison phone rates has uncovered that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has sat on the problem for 3500 days.  That's some sitting, because a judge sent them the problem to resolve. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/12/stupid-and-unjust-the-highway-robbery-of-prison-phone-rates/265859/?goback=%2Egde_65622_member_192474479 &nbs...

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Tx. Senator and Union boss agree: close some prisons

I'm not sure how often in Texas politics that we've had this confluence:  Sen. Whitmire and Lance Lowry, president of Texas chapter of the union with prison staff, agree that we need to close 2 more prisons.  Doing so will help ensure the safety and security of not only inmates but the guards.  Texas prison staffing is down 2700 officers this year. http://www.texastribune.org/texas-dept-criminal-justice/texas-department-of-criminal-justice/whitmire-employee-union-urge-prison-closure...

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Got Change for a Call? Or $25?

It's about stealing from the poor again;  telephone companies are charging so much for inmate phone calls that even the FCC is noticing.  No, really.  And the New Yourk Times is reporting the outrage.  I suppose a $17 phone call that lasts under 15 minutes depletes a commissary account pretty fast. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/opinion/a-needless-charge-for-prison-families.html?_r=0  ...

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Moral Responsibilites

As a society, we have a moral obligation to safeguard the members of our society by maintaining a system that separates the worst among us so that other citizens are not injured;  we also have a moral obligation not to injure those separated, not to reduce them to non-humans.  How we balance these obligations defines us as a society, as a nation.  When international human rights groups point to our prison system as 'barbaric,' we need to examine our laws, our oversight of the system.  And we have to act on what we lear...

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Majority of jail prisoners awaiting trial; wait coerces pleas

  The Pretrial Justice Institute has just released new statistics on the people we are keeping in our tax-funded jails;  61% are sitting there, waiting for a day in court.  And while they sit, they grow tired and discouraged.  So they are more likely to accept guilty pleas and spent unnecessary time in our jails and tax-funded prisons.  See the original report at http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Epretrial%2Eorg%2FReports%2FPJI%2520Reports%2FDispelling%2520the%2520Myths%2520%2528November%25202012%2529%2Epdf&urlhash=cgeQ&_t=tracking_anet and a discussion of it at http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=187291034&gid=65622&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_nd-pst_ttle-cn&ut=19MnFHm52bcB...

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Pinal County Jail makes list of 10 worst immigrant detention centers

Detained immigrants have even fewer rights then U.S. inmates in jails and prisons.  Detension centers are supposed to non-punitive administrative holding centers for individuals undergoing immigration proceedings.  The reality, though, is harsher than that.  Much harsher.  Detention Watch Netwrk just released a report citing 10 facilites with "sexual assault, substandard medical care, lack of due process and abysmal living conditions."  Not surprisingly, Arizona's Pinal County jail is one of the 10. http://www.examiner.com/article/pinal-county-jail-makes-list-of-10-worst-immigrant-detention-cente...

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Inmate With a Handicap? Lotsa Luck!

   California has yet another problem, this one a lawsuit filed by Berkeley's Disability Rights Advocates, on behalf of inmates in the Santa Rita units.  What if you require a wheelchair, but the bathroom stalls are too narrow for one?  What if you need help standing, but showers have to grab bars?  Apparently, you urinate on yourself at times, and hope a sympathetic guard will help you shower. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Santa-Rita-Jail-faces-bias-suit-4042551.ph...

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Funding Books for Prison Libraries

The campaign to fund the graphic novel Prison Grievances into prison libraries is almost over.  We've collected over $7000 and will be able to send books into more than 1500 prisons.  If you can help in these last two days, go for it!  And many thanks to all who have already given or sent positive wishes. http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/2405...

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Gangs Rule Idaho Private Prison?

   You know you're in trouble when the inmates file in court to get protection from the prison gangs.  Seems the gangs run the prison.  But CCA hasn't noticed, according to an article in CBS Top Stories.  http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_3107.sht...

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Contributions to graphic novel top $6000

As you know, I'm collecting money to send copies of my graphic novel into prison libraries,  It's the toughest work I've ever done (raising funds), but it's for a great cause.  I'm sure you've given, so thank you! If you haven't or know someone who might, here's the link again: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/2405...

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What's Deliberate Indifference?

We are about to find out.  In a Texas case just filed today, an Air Force veteran jailed for criminal mischief, died after repeated smashing his head into the jail's walls.  Allegedly, jailers watched and did nothing.     According to the complaint, Appell was put in a padded cell but not restrained. That, according to his mother, allowed him to paced the cell and strike his head against the door viewing window allegedly whiled the jailers watched.  "Everybody in the jail, from what Mrs. Appell told me, could hear him hitting his head against the wall," said Michelle Smith co-counsel with the Texas Civil Rights Project.   The lawsuit alleges that the death was slow and the decision not to stop him was deliberate.    "So they let him bash...

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Overcrowded federal prisons create their own problems

We all know that humans smashed into a finite space have more difficuloties than those with lots of breathing room.  Now consider being crowded behind cell bars and unable to get out at will.  WHile prison is supposed to be punishmnet, this recent overcrowding has proven to be much more.  Read the full story at  Reason.com http://reason.com/blog/2012/10/26/four-horrifying-facts-about-our-overcr...

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Can Felons Vote?

State law decides if felons can vote.  According to Solitary Watch and Mother Jones magazine, more than 2 million voters found themselves having to check with the Secretary of State in their own state to see if they were eligible to vote.  In Texas, once someone is "off paper," then he or she can cast a ballot.  In Florida, the governor declared that any felon is blocked from voting;  that overturned the decision of the last two Florida governors.  Given the high number of formerly incarcerated, and the high number of US couch potatoes, seem to me each state needs to reconsider any barriers to anyone voting. According to The Sentencing Project, 1 in 40 adults are disenfranchised.  In 11 states, felons can never again vote.  and 1 in 13 African...

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Colo. Solitary Confinement Prison Empty

Maybe we're all just nuts? Opened over objections  Colorado State Penitentiary II was built without a vote of the people, a requirement for Colorado projects that increase state debt, and in spite of a warning from the state treasurer that the voters should decide. The prison was built despite a 2005 Colorado Department of Corrections report from its own staff confirming that Colorado held three times as many people in solitary confinement as the average state prison system. It finally opened in 2010, over renewed objections that Colorado didn't need it. The corrections department, in turn, won the fight to open it with a misleading claim that most states actually held more prisoners in what the department calls "administrative segregation." Now it's empty. http://w...

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Low-level felons still marching into Calif. state prisons

Despite new policies, innumerable studies, and the concerns of over-taxed Californians, state judges continue to send low-level felons into the state prisons instead of county facilities.  Everyone loses! "A panel of three federal judges presiding over inmate lawsuits against California has given the state until Jan. 7 to produce a new prison reduction plan. California must reduce crowding to 137.5% of what its 33 prisons were designed to hold. The cap translates into 112,032 inmates in prisons built to hold 81,000. The population caps were ordered after California failed for years to improve what judges ruled were unconstitutionally cruel conditions in its aging prisons, with medical care so bad that an inmate a week died needlessly."  As usual, everyone is pointing fingers...

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Aljazeera criticizes 3-strike laws

Nothing, finally, surprises me about prisons and prison law.  But reading today a long story in Aljazeera:  Power & People, I discovered that people in the middle east find our laws excessive.  Whew!  In Saudi Arabia, they still cut off the hands of thieves.  They hold public beheadings.  But still, the authors of this article find that the U.S. 3-strike law, requiring life imprisonment for a third crime, to be excessive. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/10/2012103164254329343.htm...

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Private federal prison implodes: who pays?

OK, so ... the federal prison system hired a private firm to collect doctors together who would work on prisoners.  But no one seems to have been watching what that private firm did with the money, or whom they forgot to repay--like the doctors and the hospitals.  By Jay Price - jprice@newsobserver.com "BUTNER -- A Florida-based company that lent its CEO more than $5 million for an Angus cattle ranch and a biography and screenplay about himself has gone into receivership, leaving Duke University Health System and area doctors’ offices owed more than $8 million for treating patients from Butner federal prison, according to court records and officials of the state medical society." http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/10/24/2433650/company-that-handled-medical.html?goback=%2Egde_65622_member_180524027 Read...

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Russians question US jail precedures

How bad is the Houston jail?  Well, acording to the Russian radio stories, 4 Russians are asking international human rights observers to investigate.  They contend they are denied legal acccess, among other complaints. Russians detained in Houston complain about their prison conditions. http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_10_29/Russians-detained-in-Houston-complain-about-their-prison-condition...

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John Howard Society endorses graphic novel

The international organization, founded in 1777, investigates prison abuses;  keeps the public informed;  advocates for humane conditions in prisons. And their executive director has just announced that he will "be honored to support" Prison Grievances.  They read it and announced that it is "Brilliant!" and "much needed...

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Man Who Spent Time In an Iranian Prison Thinks California's Are Worse

Well, can you think of something to say about American prisons that would be worse than what Shane Bauer concludes?  Shane was one of three American hikers arrested in Iran after the crossing over the border from Iraq in 2009. He spent 26 months in Tehran's Evin Prison, the first four in solitary confinement. "He wasn't given a lawyer, a trial, or even an idea what he was supposedly guilty of," reports The Atlantic Wire.  But it was better tham California solitary confinement. "While a prison term is assigned by a judge, the amount of time in solitary sentences can be indefinite and the way out, impossible. The quickest route into the hole is to be associated with a prison gang, but anyone can accuse you of that without evidence and the appeal process is a joke. (The number of...

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GOA report traces problems to prison growth

Spet 2012 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office to Congress found that in 2011, 48% of federal inmates were incarcerated for drugs.  The most severe crowding, puzzlingly, was in the highest security facilities:  55% are overcrowded.  Perhaps that gang tag (discussed yesterday) has pushed this crowding. Among unacceptable conditions cited are double and triple bunking, wait list for education and drug treatment programs, limited meaningful work opportunities, and increased staff/inmate ratios.  These conditions contribute to inmate misconduct, which negatively affects the safety and security of staff and inmates.  See the full report: http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgao%2Egov%2Fassets%2F650%2F648123%2Epdf&urlhash=oBLw...

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How to Give up Gang Status?

California inmates in two prisons, at prisons near Tehachapi and Corcoran, are refusing food over new policies, policies that were supposed to relieve those in solitary confinement of lengthy stays. How does someone 'quit' a gang while he's in solitary?  Good question.  Currently, wardens from around the state are attempting to read and understand the guidelines.  Meanwhile, inmates believe the rules, intended to help, will make it even more difficult to get out of solitary confinement.  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/10/two-prisons-now-report-hunger-strikes-over-gang-policy.ht...

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Ohio turns to sentence reforms; privatizing failing

Ohio sold the Northeast Ohio prison to Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) in 2011;  a recent audit revealed that the private prison is meeting only 66.7% of the state's standards, including low staffing, lack of training, overcrowding (mattresses on floors), lack of santitaion, and--most worrisome perhaps--inadequate contraband services. These oversights create an unsafe environment for both staff and inmates.  Why isn't there an "in loco parentis" standard for citizens whose lives the state now controls?  We have that standard for students--who can at least move back home.  According to Cinncinati's City Beat, "ODRC Director Gary Mohr might have decided to stop privatizing Ohio’s prisons. On Sept. 25 — the same day the audit was mailed to Mohr’s office —...

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Overcrowding from 3 strikes? Unnecessary

Sociology professor Robert Nash Parker determined that crime has been decreasing at about the same rate in every state for 20 years, regardless of whether three-strikes policies are in place or not. Parker's findings appear in the paper "Why California's 'Three Strikes' Fails as Crime and Economic Policy, and What to Do." http://phys.org/news/2012-10-california-three-strikes-law-successful-crime.html#j...

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Cease fire plus hunger strike in Calif prison

Although inmates at one California prison broke their fast and began eating on Wednesday, another prison solitary population decided to continue fasting.  Across California, Wednesday began prisoners' attempts to stop racial violence within The Walls.  About 300 prisoners at California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, north of Los Angeles, also began refusing meals Wednesday. About 200 of them continued to refuse food Saturday. Curiously, prison officials say they do not know what caused inmates to begin fasting. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/10/hunger-strike-at-california-prison-underway.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+(L.A.+No...

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Lifetime Lockdown and Reentry

The American Friends Service Committee of Tucson, AZ, released a major report recently, following the statistics and stories of inmates left in lockdown for extended periods.  “The sustaining societal and economic consequences of solitary confinement, supermax prisons, and prisoner lockdown are detrimental to families, our communities, and the economy, and need not be expanded, but rather reduced and eventually halted all together” (p. 40). http://nicic.gov/Library/02637...

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Conditions Affect Staff as Well

We need to remember that once anyone enters jail or prison, those In Walls conditions affect them.  All of them. Oklahhoma Rep. Jeff Hickman, R-Fairview is investigating the wide-spead turn-over of prison staff. “These prison staffing levels are life and death situations now,” Hickman said. “Someone is going to die if we don't make some changes and make them sooner rather than later.” The Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester is short 50 employees, he said. The maximum-security prison is authorized to have 521 workers and is funded to have 363. It has 310. Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-prison-workers-need-pay-increase-legislative-panel-told/article/3717957#ixzz29BtDpy...

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Advice to Jail/Prison Staff

An excellent article in Corrections.com reminds officers of their own freedoms, and that those freedoms should help them stay calm and professional in a tense and negative world. http://www.corrections.com/news/article/31615-jail-officers-we-win-?utm_source=CCNN_ezine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CCNN_ezine_2012oct10...

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Ohio Private Prisons: 50% more assaults

When states contract with private prisons, it's to ease taxpayer burdens. But then the consequences: "One study by George Washington University found private prisons have a 50 percent higher rate of inmate-on-staff assault and a 66 percent higher rate of inmate-on-inmate assault. The troubling numbers were attributed to lower standards at private prisons that keep costs low and profits high." The Ohio Correction facility, the first private prison in the state, was cited for 47 violations by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODFC). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/09/private-prison-violates-state-law_n_1951917.html ...

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4500 in NY solitary confinement

How big is your city?  Your university?  Imagine 4500 people in boxes?  I can't.  But that's what the New York Civil LIberties investigating group discovered. “New York’s arbitrary, inhumane and unsafe use of extreme isolation has led to an urgent human rights crisis,” according to the report. “Corrections officials can separate and remove violent or vulnerable prisoners from the general prison population without subjecting them to the punishing physical or psychological deprivation of extreme isolation.” We can't keep ogmoring these numbers;  they will eventually swamp us--with taxes, with ex-cons who haven't seen and talked with others in decades. http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20121002/NEWS10/310020015/Report-NY-solitary-confinement-conditions-inhuma...

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Let's Review Medical Paroles

Marc Levin, director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, researched parole for "infirm" inmates and discovered that, in Texas alone, the state would save  $42.6 million in 2013, while only adding $1.57 million in parole costs.  It's arithmetic.  Tax dollars.  So why can't parole baords begin releasing the terminally ill, the veterans who can't walk but can be released to VA centers, etc. http://www.texastribune.org/texas-state-agencies/texas-board-of-pardons-and-paroles/inmates-case-highlights-medical-parole-issue...

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What we don't know can hurt us

http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2012/10/04/governor-vetoes-expanded-media-access-to-prisons/ Governor's Veto Leaves Some Prisoners Out of View October 4, 2012, 12:57 pm • Posted by Laird Harrison When Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill expanding news media access to state prisons, he was following in a long California tradition. Three previous governors have vetoed such bills that would let reporters record interviews of whatever prisoner they choose. Michael Montgomery/KQED So why does the legislature keep butting heads with the governor on this issue? When the bill passed in the State Senate, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said...

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NY: 5400 segregated inmates

Nearly 4,500 prisoners in the state are held in segregated housing on any given day, about half in solitary confinement and half in cells with another inmate, according to the N.Y.C.L.U., which planned to publish a 72-page report on its findings on Tuesday, a copy of which was provided in advance to The New York Times. The civil liberties group called both types of segregation “arbitrary, inhumane and unsafe,” arguing that corrections officials have too much discretion to send inmates to segregated housing for long periods, even for minor infractions. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/nyregion/prisoner-letters-offer-glimpses-of-life-in-solitary-confinement.html?ref=nyregion&_r=1&goback=%2Egde_65622_member_171460430& &nbs...

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Staggering Number in Correctional System

More than 7 million adults are under some form of correctional supervision in the United States. More than 1.6 million are incarcerated in federal and state prisons;  760,000 are locked in our jails. http://m.amarillo.com/opinion/opinion-columnist/guest-columnist/2012-09-29/we-need-rational-approach-incarceration &nbs...

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No shackles while delivering

Calif. Gov. Brown signed AB 30, allowing female inmates to have those shackles taken off whiole they deliver babies.  Now how about the other states?  ...

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Privatized health care in AZ

When the State of Arizona chose Wexler Health Services to supply the medical needs of inmates, taxpayers were supposed to save money, and the inmates were supposed to be cared for.  Opps. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2012/09/28/20120928arizona-fines-provider-prison-health-care.html?nclick_check=1 The Arizona Department of Corrections has just fined its own outsourcer $10,000 for both "wasting state resources" and for "improperly dispensing medicine."  The actual case stories are sickening (pun intended).  The Pittsburgh-based company took over inmate care July 1 after winning a $349 million, three-year contract. The company plans to appeal the fin...

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Mice, roaches in prison cells may be unconstitutional

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-09-27/news/sns-rt-us-courts-prison September 27, 2012|Jonathan Stempel | Reuters (Reuters) - A prominent federal judge said on Thursday that the infestation of a prison cell with mice and cockroaches may violate the U.S. constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment, even if the inmate is not physically harmed. Writing for a panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, Circuit Judge Richard Posner nonetheless said an inmate who objected to such conditions in his Illinois state prison cell could not recover damages because the state did not waive its immunity from sui...

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Even Amnesty Condemns SHUs

ONE VIEW: SHUs Have to Go This week Amnesty International issued a stark, damaging assessment of California's isolation units.  It concluded that California "must make substantial changes" and reduce the number inside SHUs and the amount of time any prisoner remains in isolation. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/usa-california-authorities-urged-end-shocking-conditions-prison-isolation-units-2012-09-27 That's just common sense, so it takes outsiders to make the point.  How can we ignore the 78 prisoners who have been in these cement coffins for over two decades each?  For 22 1/2 hours each day?  Often with no sunlight at all?  Shame on all of us. As you can imagine, many of these isolated souls are inside SHUs because they are mentally ill;  they...

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The Other Death Sentence: Aging and Dying in America’s Prisons

New America Media, James Ridgeway, Sept. 26, 2012 SHIRLEY. Mass.--William “Lefty” Gilday was 82 and suffering from dementia and Parkinson's when officials at Massachusetts' Shirley Prison placed him in an isolation cell -- a "medical bubble" -- for throwing an empty milk carton at a guard. He spent the last months of his life alone, separated by a window from medical staff, who placed manila folders across the glass so they didn’t have to look at him—and also blocking his view.As we get older, it is easy enough to imagine old age as a prison -- the body imprisoned by illness and loneliness. But in recent months, I have been corresponding with older men in Massachusetts state prisons who are in for life -- or in this case, death.I am 75, so we share a camaraderie of sorts as we compare...

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Better Hepatitis Treatment Costly for Prisons

Texas Tribune  September 21, 2012 by Brandi Grissom Tattooing is ubiquitous behind bars, despite — or perhaps because of — the fact that it is banned. “It’s just unbelievable how creative they can be,” said Michele Deitch, a prisons expert at the University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs. “They can jerry-rig pens to become needles. They use the dyes in paper products.” But the practice carries with it more than the risk of punishment — it can also spread hepatitis C. The prison population is particularly prone to this viral disease, which is transmitted largely through infected blood and can lead to liver cirrhosis and cancer. Not only do inmates have a penchant for illicit tattoos, but they are also likelier than the general population to have engaged in...

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Prison Violence Spikes in Tennessee

Nashville ScenePosted by Jonathan Meador Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 12:07 PMComissioner Derrick SchofieldThe nonprofit advocacy group Human Rights Defense Center has released data that shows an uptick in incidents of violence in Tennessee's prisons over the last three years, according to documents obtained by Pith.WSMV broke the news of this trend last night in a story featuring Alex Friedmann, a longtime prisoners' rights advocate and private prison critic, who on behalf of the HRDC provided data that reveals a steady 18.3 percent increase in violent incidents per 1,000 prisoners between 2010 and the first six months of 2012.Friedmann maintains that the surge in violence corresponds with the appointment of TDOC Commisioner Derrick Schofield, a Haslam Administration pick, whom Friedmann alleges...

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CAR "separate, unequal and wholly inhumane"

TEXAS TRIBUNE Advocacy Groups Target Private Prisons for Immigrants by Maurice Chammah September 13, 2012 The unnecessary prosecution of nonviolent illegal immigrants is sending ever larger numbers to poorly managed private prisons, a coalition of advocacy groups said in a report released Thursday, calling on Congress to reject the appropriation of $25,865,000 for 1,000 new private prison beds. The coalition, which includes Justice Strategies, the ACLU of Texas, Grassroots Leadership and the Sentencing Project, argued that “petty immigration violations” are sending more Latinos to prisons where they face “poor management, lack of medical care, prolonged lockdown and human rights violations.” These facilities, called “Criminal Alien Requirement” (CAR) prisons, are run by private...

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"Gang of Deputies" in L.A. Jails

A Sheriff with his Head in the Sand By Margaret Winter, National Prison Project & Peter J. Eliasberg, ACLU of Southern California at 9:30am [reposted from LinkedIn: The Innocence Project] Originally posted by the ACLU of Southern California. Gang-like cliques of sheriff’s deputies operating with impunity inside L.A. County jails. Department top brass encouraging a culture of violence and brutality against inmates. And a sheriff with his head in the sand. We at the ACLU have been calling attention to the medieval conditions inside L.A. County jails for years. But on September 7, 2012, the blue-ribbon Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence held its penultimate hearing on deputy violence in the L.A. County jails. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors created the Citizens’ Commission...

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Illinois System and Critics Agree

Northwest HeraldBy CHRISTOPHER WILLS - The Associated PressIll. to improve youth prison conditionsSPRINGFIELD – The state of Illinois has agreed to improve conditions at youth prisons under a settlement that officials hope will avert a legal battle if a judge agrees to the deal.The settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois doesn’t spell out exactly what would be done to correct problems such as violence, limited educational opportunities and inadequate mental health care. Instead, it proposes that independent investigators review procedures and present a plan within six months.Also under the proposal, the Department of Juvenile Justice would change its practice of throwing children into solitary confinement for long periods and keeping inmates behind bars after they’re...

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Texas: 878 Ag Seg released into public

The Texas Tribune Lawmakers Revisit Approach to Solitary Confinement by Maurice Chammah September 5, 2012 Solitary confinement has been referred to by many names, including "special housing units," "lockdown" and "the hole." In Texas, it's called "administrative segregation," and prison administrators reserve it for inmates considered particularly dangerous, including those affiliated with a prison gang.While solitary confinement in prisons is rising as a national issue because of concerns about its psychological effect on individual inmates, Texas lawmakers are worried in particular that inmates are released with no transition between solitary confinement and the free world."The longer you leave someone in there without rehabilitation, there is a possibility they will come out more dangerous,”...

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Chief Deputy Agrees: Deplorable Conditions

Inmate families protest conditions at Jefferson County Jail Published: Monday, September 10, 2012, 1:23 PM Updated: Monday, September 10, 2012, 1:23 PMBy Carol Robinson -- The Birmingham News BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Family members of several Jefferson County Jail inmates protested outside the downtown facility today, saying the food and conditions are atrocious. Five people held signs outside the Mel Bailey Criminal Justice Center and talked to news reporters and photographers, who outnumbered the protesters. Bridget Gober of Gardendale said her 18-year-old daughter has been jailed on drug charges since July 27, and has been in the same jail uniform since she was incarcerated. A judge has denied her bond and drug court, according to her mother. Gober said her daughter suffered withdrawals...

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Closing of Illinois Supermax

Fight Over Closing of Illinois Supermax Ends 14 Years of Prisoners' Silence in Solitary Confinement -Wednesday, 15 August 2012 00:00 By Yana Kunichoff and Jesse Menendez, Truthout and Vocalo | Report- Tamms Correctional Center on 200 Supermax Road, near the southern tip of Southern Illinois, may be as far from the hustling and bustling city of Chicago, with its constant city throb of noise, as you can get. And it's likely that no one can feel the difference as much as its inmates. The only supermax facility in Illinois, meaning it is the only prison built to keep the majority of its prisoners in isolation, Tamms prison was consigned for closure by the state's governor in July. But the battle between former prisoners, the families of those hurt by conditions at Tamms, anti-torture advocates,...

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