by Ed Lyon

Texas may have bragging rights for the largest state prison system in the United States, but California still has the single largest female prison in the country. According to attorney Alison Hardy of California’s Prison Law Office, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is bound ...

by Ed Lyon

On June 12, 2020, a former California prisoner suffered a setback in his legal battle to hold San Bernardino County accountable for the loss of his hand and legs due to illness that went untreated while he was in a county jail.

The former inmate, Perry Belden, ...

by Ed Lyon

When many people think about eugenics, visions of a former European fascist regime trying to build a master race or science fiction stories come to mind. Attempts to purge societies of humans whose existence trouble the elite, or even “normal” people who did not want to see ...

by Ed Lyon

In 1855, young General Philip H. Sheridan was a second lieutenant at Fort Clark, located in present-day Kinney County, Texas. When someone asked him how he liked the state, he replied “If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent out Texas and live in Hell.”

There ...

by Ed Lyon

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice (DACJJ) has been in a severe crisis mode regarding prison guard understaffing. The August 2019 vacancy rate was 21 percent, causing prisons to be unable to safely.

DPS and DACJJ administrators decided ...

by Ed Lyon

For decades, New York City’s Rikes Island Jail Complex (RIJC) has been the largest urban lock-up in the United States. It has also been infamous as among the most violent jails regarding assaultive behavior by guards toward prisoners, even extending at times to citizens who visit prisoners. ...

by Ed Lyon

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has been challenged regarding care for its mentally ill prisoners for decades. Rather than improve under a class action lawsuit dating back to 1990 (now Plata v. Newsom) and seeking constitutionally acceptable mental health care for prisoners, conditions ...

by Ed Lyon

The dubious history of agreement, contract and treaty breaking by the United States and its state governments was briefly addressed in the February 2019 issue of Criminal Legal News [p. 33].

The federal government has been in continuous violation of one of its treaties with Native Americans ...

by Ed Lyon

To be penitent is generally defined to be sorry for the wrongs, sins, misdeeds or offenses a person has committed. The word penitent is actually the root of the word penitentiary, which is another word for prison — places of confinement where prisoners are involuntarily housed after ...

by Ed Lyon

At least two Massachusetts sheriffs offer rehabilitative programs to prisoners in their jails. Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi’s jail holds anger management, domestic violence classes and employment seminars while providing bus service to and from the jail for visitors. Worcester County Sheriff Lewis Evangelidis’ jail holds mental ...