by David M. Reutter
In an effort to reduce its 18 percent guard vacancy rate, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (DPS) has eliminated the requirement that all applicants go through psychological testing.
“We are trying to make it easier for the applicants to get through the hiring process,” ...
by David M. Reutter
At least 19 employees from eight different prisons operated by the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDOC) have been convicted or face charges of smuggling drugs, liquor, jewelry or cell phones into the facilities where they worked. [See: PLN, July 2019, p.29]. At the same ...
by David M. Reutter
As the incarceration rate for women has grown throughout the nation, so has the focus on how they are treated while imprisoned. With the recent enactment of a new state law, Georgia joined the majority of states that have adopted statutes to protect pregnant prisoners.
The ...
by David M. Reutter
Organizers of the Smart on Crime Innovations conference – an annual gathering of community leaders, elected officials, organizers, researchers, journalists and lawyers aimed at reforming the criminal justice system – tweeted an apology for allowing Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle to speak at the event, ...
by David M. Reutter
The Tennessee Department of Correction’s (TDOC) chronic Hepatitis C (HCV) treatment policies “are not perfect,” a federal district court found, but they do not violate the Eighth Amendment rights of state prisoners.
That ruling came after the district court held a bench trial in July 2019. ...
by David M. Reutter
A Michigan federal district court has dismissed a civil rights action alleging a prisoner was repeatedly and deliberately exposed to peanut butter and fish, which were known to cause serious allergic reactions. The court found the complaint failed to allege specific actions or involvement by the ...
by David M. Reutter
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania found it lacked jurisdiction in a case brought by a prisoner who was issued a belt and then later punished for possessing it. Dissenting judges called the disciplinary action taken by prison officials “Kafkaesque.”
While housed at SCI-Fayette, Albert Dantzler was ...
by David M. Reutter
After five days of searching, authorities apprehended escaped Tennessee prisoner Curtis Ray Watson. He was then sent to the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
Watson was serving a 15-year sentence for especially aggravated kidnapping, and had a 2025 release date. He was considered a ...
by David M. Reutter
Anquanette Woodall’s third child was born in 2016 – during her third year of a 15-year sentence for burglary and robbery – after she was raped by Florida prison guard Travis Hinson in an area at the Gadsden Correctional Facility not covered by security cameras. ...
by David M. Reutter
During the recent campaign to reinstate the voting rights of 1.4 million disenfranchised Florida felons, Republicans rallied against a constitutional amendment out of fear that former prisoners would vote as Democrats. Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and a top adviser, now claims they had it wrong ...
