by Derek Gilna
Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2016 presidential election early on the morning of November 9, 2016. Before that day was over, the stock prices for private prison companies GEO Group (GEO) and CoreCivic (formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America) had significantly surged in value.
Opponents to prison privatization correctly pointed out that President-elect Trump had made no secret of his intention to start deporting “two or three million criminal aliens,” which apparently led to Wall Street’s reaction the day after he was elected, since over 60% of immigrant detainees are held in privately-operated facilities. Additionally, during his campaign Trump had made a comment in favor of private prisons, saying they seemed to “work a lot better.”
Given the inherent volatility of the stock market, it remains to be seen if these newly-inflated share values will be sustained – though the stock prices for both GEO and CoreCivic currently remain much higher than they were pre-election.
CoreCivic’s stock jumped from $14.19 per share to $20.31 per share the day after the election, and as of late March was trading at around $32 per share. GEO Group’s stock went from $23.88 per share on November ...
by Derek Gilna
The Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School published a report in July 2016 that examined in detail the living arrangements for death row prisoners held by state Departments of Corrections.
The report noted the wide variation in how states house death row prisoners, ranging from some form of solitary confinement to much less restrictive housing. It also cited “the growing awareness of the debilitating effects of long-term isolation” on death-sentenced prisoners, which had “become the subject of discussion, controversy, and litigation.” The European Court of Human Rights has been critical of solitary confinement, and strict limitations on that practice were included in the “Mandela Rules” adopted by the United Nations in 2015. [See: PLN, Aug. 2015, p.38].
Part one of the Yale report examined not only state correctional manuals and statistics, as well as other factual data regarding death row prisoners, but also unofficial anecdotal accounts of death row procedures in more restrictive states. In part two, the authors turned to examples from North Carolina, Missouri and Colorado, “where correctional administrators enable death-sentenced prisoners to have meaningful opportunities to interact with others.”
Of the 35 states with the death penalty, 19 specifically set ...
by Derek Gilna
In a decision sure to reverberate throughout the nation’s criminal courts, in March 2017 the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the conviction of a Colorado defendant charged with sexual battery due to a juror’s racially discriminatory comments during deliberations. According to Justice Anthony Kennedy, “Racial bias implicates unique historical, constitutional, and institutional concerns.”
In a majority opinion joined by five of the eight justices currently on the Court, Justice Kennedy wrote, “An effort to address the most grave and serious statements of racial bias is not an effort to perfect the jury but to ensure that our legal system remains capable of coming ever closer to the promise of equal treatment under the law that is so central to a functioning democracy.”
Jurors are normally inoculated from having their decisions scrutinized and overturned pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 606(b), which sets forth a broad no-impeachment policy, with only limited exceptions, to provide finality to jury verdicts.
However, many jurisdictions have recognized exceptions for juror comments that exhibit racial bias during deliberations, and three federal Courts of Appeal have held there is a constitutional exception based on evidence of racial bias.
Miguel Angel Peña-Rodriguez was charged in Colorado ...
by Derek Gilna
According to April 2016 news reports, Belgian prison authorities have instituted limited and controlled access to online services, including the Internet, at the Beveren Prison in Antwerp. The innovative system, called PrisonCloud, has caught the attention of criminal justice officials worldwide; unlike other prison communications systems, this one can be accessed by prisoners from their cells, subject to certain safeguards.
Wim Adriaenssen, deputy director of the Beveren facility, stated, “Inmates can go to a website where they can see what jobs are offered [on the outside] and they can say to themselves, ‘When I go out, I can work in construction or whatever.’ If they have a legal problem, they can get help from PrisonCloud and they can see the books they want to read. It’s a connection with the outside world. PrisonCloud has more positive sides than downside.”
What’s clear is that the system provides options to prisoners that are not generally available in most facilities, if they have the funds to pay for them. PrisonCloud offers free games and access to books and legal materials, as well as access to restricted websites, but prisoners have to pay for secure email and phone calls, which can ...
The National Employment Law Project (NELP) released a study in April 2016 that cataloged the thousands of state laws and regulations which restrict or bar people with criminal records from obtaining licenses needed to work in various professions. NELP cited an American Bar Association report that identified “over 12,000 restrictions ...
Michael Sanzo, formerly incarcerated at the High Desert State Prison near Indian Springs, Nevada, received a $60,000 settlement as a result of “unbearable pain” that forced him to remove six of his own teeth after he was denied timely dental care.
Sanzo, who served five years after pleading guilty to ...
Add potential penalties for late Medicare registration to the list of hurdles that prisoners must clear if they are released after their 65th birthday. Medicare regulations impose a penalty of 10% per year for each year of delay after age 65, when eligible individuals can begin receiving Medicare benefits. Incarceration ...
Former President Barack Obama has been widely commended for granting a record 1,927 applications for clemency during his two terms in office from January 20, 2009 through January 19, 2017, consisting of 1,715 commutations and 212 pardons. Those figures are higher than the clemencies granted by the previous six presidents ...
As a result of two federal lawsuits brought on behalf of eight plaintiffs, in October 2016 the Colorado town of Trinidad agreed to pay $775,000 to the victims of its police department’s incompetence and over-reliance on a snitch who was bent on fingering those she held vendettas against.
The plaintiffs ...
Pennsylvania state prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, serving a life sentence for murder and diagnosed with hepatitis C, sued the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) in federal court when he was refused treatment for that life-threatening disease.
On January 3, 2017, U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Marian granted Abu-Jamal’s motion for ...
