Mental health disorders are common for individuals who are incarcerated. In fact, according to a 2012 study by the National Institutes of Health, 26 percent of prisoners identified as having a mental health disorder while only 18 percent of the general population identified as having a mental health disorder.
While ...
In a highly controversial decision, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley (D) commutes the sentences of four death-row prisoners to spend the rest of their lives in prison without the possibility of parole.
An opponent of the death penalty, O'Malley has been fighting to abolish the death penalty for years. "In my ...
Nearly a decade after the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) began operating its notorious "Communications Management Units" (or CMU's), the Department of Justice (DOJ) has formally issued a final rule approving the BOP's restrictive policies already in place at those facilities.
In 2006, the BOP opened its first CMU at ...
For the second time in a year, a Hawaii Department of Corrections guard was convicted in federal court after being found guilty on corruption charges.
Former Halawa Correctional Facility guard Feso Malufau was found guilty by a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii on ...
Lonnie Benefield, a prisoner housed at United States Penitentiary Florence, Colorado, settled his claim against the Federal Bureau of Prisons for $150.00.
Benefield's suit was filed in March, 1998, and settled in June, 2002. The settlement agreement is one of many documents recently obtained by Prison Legal News after a ...
In May 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that sex offenders released from custody cannot be compelled to answer potentially incriminating polygraph questions as a condition of their supervised release. The ruling came after an earlier emergency stay of a polygraph test was issued by ...
Tobacco use and secondhand smoke kill over 480,000 people in the United States annually. The mortality rate of smokers is three times higher than those who have never smoked, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and smoking reduces an average smoker’s life expectancy by 10 years compared ...
In October 2011, 30-year-old Aaron David Persin was accosted by police officers for having an open container of alcohol. When they determined that he had warrants for missing traffic court they arrested Persin, who was homeless. Unable to post bail, he was held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center (OCCC). ...
Paul K. Tanaka, 57, the former second-in-command of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) and the elected mayor of Gardena, California, was found guilty on federal charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice in April 2016. Accused of being the “ringleader” of the conspiracy, he was ...
A 55-year-old mother of seven died in a Pennsylvania jail cell on June 7, 2014 while serving a 48-hour sentence for failure to pay truancy fines and court costs that totaled about $2,000.
Eileen DiNino was jailed by Berks County District Judge Dean Patton for debts that had been accruing ...
