by Derek Gilna

A law passed by in 2016 by Congress and signed by the President, the Port State Measures Agreement, prohibits the importation of fish caught using slave labor. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry indicated that the new law closed a loophole in the 1930 Tariff Act that prohibits that practice unless there is a shortage of that particular fish in the U.S. market. However, prisoner rights advocates were quick to point out that there is no such prohibition of U.S. companies profiting from the forced labor of prisoners.

The non-profit Human Trafficking Center, the "Center," notes that, "The 13th Amendment reads, 'Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for punishment of a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States..." According to the Center, exploitive prison labor practices have netted huge profits for many private companies.

The Bureau of Prisons' Federal Prison Industries, also known as UNICOR, earned over $500 million based upon the labor of over 20,000 prisoners, who earn from 23 cents to $1.15 an hour. As a result of this cheap labor, Prison Legal News has noted that UNICOR effectively has forced several domestic companies to severely cut ...

by Derek Gilna

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on April 23, 2014 announced significant changes in the Office of Pardon Attorney, which processes Pardons, Clemencies, and Commutations.  The former head of the pardon office, Ronald Rogers, had been criticized for lack of pardons issued during President Obama’s administration, the fewest in recent history.  To date, Obama has granted only ten clemencies.

Attorney General Holder’s announcement of the new emphasis on pardons said that it will focus on application related to the Fair Sentencing Act of 2011, but that it would not be limited to just drug offenders.  He noted that the limited retroactivity offered under Fair Sentencing meant that many are still unfairly confined in prison based only upon the year of their conviction, rather than any other factor.

Under the current system, the President only sees the applications for relief that make it to his desk after being approved by the DOJ- the very agency that prosecuted those who are now seeking relief.  Holder eased out the old DOJ attorney who was clearly unsympathetic to the petitions he was supposed to be impartially reviewing, and replaced him with one who is committed to putting thousands of applications on ...

by Derek Gilna

The Bureau of Prison culture of retaliation against whistleblowers appears to be alive and well, at least in the instance of Linda Thomas, a BOP employee who was punished for revealing the unearned compensation of a fellow employee.  When Thomas revealed this to the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Inspector General (OIG) she was assigned to work in a converted cell without proper office equipment with which to do her job.  Then the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) stepped in.

A 2010 U.S. Equal Opportunity  Commission report cited repeated instances where the BOP took action against its own employees for revealing agency wrongdoing. The BOP, secretive in its dealings with not only the public, but also curious members of Congress, is notoriously publicity shy. Woe to any BOP employee who draws attention to any wrongdoing, even it involves clearly illegal conduct or misuse of authority.

Even GOP Senator Charles Grassley, no friend to prisoners and defender of mandatory minimum sentences, lashed out at BOP Director Samuels in a sharply worded letter, was incredulous that $150,000 of unearned compensation was received by Thomas' superior and that in retaliation she had been assigned to a clearly inappropriate work ...

by Derek Gilna

Officials in Livingston County, Michigan have agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, which argued that a “postcard-only” policy for mail sent to prisoners at the county jail interfered with the ACLU’s confidential communications with potential clients. As part ...

by Derek Gilna

The Innocence Project has published a report that examines the lack of consequences for prosecutors who engage in misconduct resulting in the conviction and imprisonment of innocent defendants. The non-profit organization examined court records in Arizona, California, Texas, New York and Pennsylvania for the years 2004 to 2008.

The report, released in March 2016, identified “660 instances of prosecutorial error or misconduct,” but in 527 of those cases “judges upheld the conviction, finding that the prosecutorial lapse did not impact the fairness of the defendant’s original trial.” However, in the other 133 cases the convictions were overturned.

In only one case, the Innocence Project report said, was a prosecutor disciplined. Given such statistics, it is no wonder that prosecutors feel little or no pressure to follow the rules, such as their obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence to defense attorneys.

The sole case where a prosecutor was disciplined occurred in Brooklyn, New York – a city that has had an epidemic of wrongful convictions costing millions in settlements. That prosecutor, Claude N. Stuart, was involved in three wrongful prosecutions and his law license was suspended in 2005 due to his serial misconduct; New York’s appellate division court denied ...

by Derek Gilna

The Connecticut Department of Corrections (DOC) has settled a federal lawsuit filed by a state prisoner and entered into a consent decree recognizing his religion. The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc (RLUIPA), provides that prisoners may practice their sincerely-held religious beliefs, and it is the government’s burden to justify restrictions on religious practices.

DOC prisoner Kevin Harris, who also refers to himself as King Young God Nazair Allah, sought recognition for his preferred faith – the Nation of God and Earth (NOGE), also known as the Five Percenters.

The DOC declined, claiming that NOGE was not a religion, citing allegedly expert opinions that NOGE was a disruptive group and an organization that posed a security risk, and confiscating Harris’ religious materials. He exhausted his administrative remedies over the DOC’s refusal to recognize NOGE as a religion, then filed a federal complaint.

According to his lawsuit, “inmate adherents of the NOGE have been unable to (1) meet, pray and study with other adherents of the NOGE in the same manner that other religions recognized by the CT DOC are permitted; (2) purchase and wear a crown, which is similar to the ‘Kufi’ ...

by Derek Gilna

Robert Gerald Knott, who had spent decades in the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), committed suicide after staff at the ADX Florence supermax in Colorado ignored clear signs that he was going to harm himself. Knott, who had a lengthy history of serious mental illness, had spent ...

by Derek Gilna

Adam Corris, incarcerated at the Gouverneur Correctional Facility in New York, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2015 claiming that he had been diagnosed with hepatitis C but prison staff wrongfully refused to treat him. In May 2016, New York corrections officials agreed to change their ...

by Derek Gilna

Nathson Fields, convicted of a 1984 double homicide in Chicago, served eighteen years in prison – including 11 on death row – before his convictions were overturned. He was released in 2003 after an exonerated former death row prisoner, Aaron Patterson, posted his $100,000 bond, then was ...

by Derek Gilna

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is arguably a failed institution, and that fact is no more obvious than in the substandard medical care it provides to the prisoners in its custody. Although the BOP’s bloated bureaucracy absorbs an ever-increasing percentage of the Department of Justice’s financial resources, it never seems to be able to deliver even a mediocre level of medical care, and has become a magnet for prisoner tort claims and federal civil rights lawsuits. For too many prisoners with serious health needs, a stint in the BOP can turn into a death sentence.

That is the inescapable conclusion one derives from a March 2016 report on the BOP’s medical system by the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). According to the report, “recruitment of medical professionals is one of the BOP’s greatest challenges and staffing shortages limit inmate access to medical care, result in an increased need to send inmates outside the institution for medical care, and contribute to increases in medical costs.”

One could argue that such shortcomings are a direct result of the BOP’s practice of building prisons in remote or rural areas, to save money on construction costs and salaries ...