by David M. Reutter
Things that are seemingly inconsequential to people outside of prison can quickly become something of great importance when made available to prisoners. The honey bun is one such item, which has taken on its own lore and become a beloved sticky-sweet staple among prisoners.
Why are ...
by David M. Reutter
Compact video cameras smuggled into prison have allowed New Jersey prisoner Omar Broadway to become an amateur documentarian of life behind bars. His first video, taken inside a New Jersey state facility in 2004, has been turned into a full-length feature, and he plans to use ...
by David M. Reutter
The Great Recession has put millions of Americans out of work, which has caused more people than usual to become delinquent on their child support obligations and other debts. Many courts, especially those in Georgia and South Carolina, have reacted to child support delinquencies by finding ...
by David M. Reutter
A settlement agreement to remedy violations of the federal Clean Air Act at four Pennsylvania state prisons was announced on January 4, 2011. The settlement between the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PDOC), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice covers violations ...
by David M. Reutter
“From this day forward I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.”
—Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, Callins v. Collins, 501 U.S. 1141 (1994)
The only American producer of sodium thiopental has abandoned the market for that drug due to protests and export bans ...
by David M. Reutter
Pennsylvania-based Wexford Health Services, which bills itself as “the nation’s leading innovative correctional health care company,” entered into a confidential settlement with the estate of a New Mexico prisoner who died due to deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs.
When prisoner Michael Crespin arrived at ...
by David M. Reutter
Touting its 140-year history of using prisoner slave labor, the North Carolina Department of Correction (NDOC) announced in January 2011 that it will save taxpayers $27 million when building more than 2,700 new prison beds with prisoner labor.
The North Carolina legislature has allocated funds since ...
by David M. Reutter
Washington State’s Kitsap County Jail (KCJ) has corrected an error in how it calculates and awards “good time” to prisoners, after a former prisoner discovered the mistake and brought it to the attention of jail officials.
As prisoner Robert “Doug” Pierce was being shackled to be ...
by David M. Reutter
Despite a prosecutor’s request for a probationary sentence, a Massachusetts federal judge sentenced Patrice Tierney, 60, the wife of U.S. Representative John F. Tierney, to 30 days in prison followed by five months on house arrest as part of two years’ supervised release. She also must ...
by David M. Reutter
A brouhaha has erupted in Mississippi after an unregistered sex offender, who was working on the BP oil spill cleanup, was charged with raping a co-worker. The uproar revolves around the failure to perform background checks.
Rundy Charles Robertson, 41, was supervising a crew of cleanup ...
