By: David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin held, on December 14, 2010 that a prison guard’s involvement in the investigation in an incident is not “substantial involvement” that violates the due process right to an impartial decision maker in a prison disciplinary hearing.
This case involved protracted litigation ...
by David M. Reutter
South Carolina-based Anderson Hardwood Floors formally announced in January 2012 that it had been violating Canadian law by exporting products partly manufactured by prisoners into Canada for the past 15 years. The announcement implicitly means the company also violated U.S. law by failing to clearly label ...
by David M. Reutter
On December 23, 2011, a Maryland federal district court three-judge panel upheld a state law that counts prisoners as residents of their legal home address rather than their prison address for redistricting purposes.
For decades, states have used unadjusted census data to set voting districts. The ...
by David M. Reutter
A report by the John Howard Association of Illinois (JHA) found that overcrowding and understaffing at the Menard Correctional Center (Menard) has resulted in an “alarming” increase in staff and prisoner assaults.
Opened in 1878, Menard is the second-oldest prison in Illinois. When JHA visited the ...
by David M. Reutter
One of the most insidious businesses to grow out of the prison industrial complex revolves around mug shots. Natural curiosity compels many people to view jail booking photos taken by law enforcement agencies when someone is arrested, which are usually considered public records. Profiteers are now ...
by David M. Reutter
As America’s prison population has swelled over the past three decades to become the largest per capita in the world, the number of special interests that feed off the so-called prison industrial complex has grown. The expansion of companies that benefit from crime and incarceration is ...
by David M. Reutter
Residents in a South Florida community near a proposed 1,500-bed privately-operated immigration detention center waged a successful yearlong opposition campaign that culminated in the cancellation of the project in June 2012.
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) purchased a 24-acre plot in the town of Southwest Ranches ...
by David M. Reutter
The Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) may ban all pen pal solicitations between pen pal services and Florida prisoners, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held on December 22, 2011. The appellate decision affirms a federal district court’s January 2011 summary judgment order that found the ...
by David M. Reutter
Advocates of automatic restoration of civil rights for ex-offenders have long maintained that such a policy helps former prisoners reintegrate into society and therefore reduces recidivism. Two reports by the Florida Parole Commission (FPC), released in 2011 and 2012, lend support to that argument.
Since the ...
by David M. Reutter
Two audit reports, one by Michigan’s Office of the Auditor General in 2012 and the other by the State Budget Office in 2011, both found shortcomings with the Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative (MPRI).
Michigan took a bold step in 2005 by implementing MPRI. The program abandoned ...
