Between 2001 and 2006, 101 prisoners died while in custody at Houston's Harris County Jail, more than in any other Texas county. Dallas County's jail had 70 deaths over the same period.
The Harris County Jail has an average population of 9,000 prisoners, and has failed to meet minimal state ...
China has long been accused of illegally harvesting human organs from its executed prisoners. On November 19, 2006 Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu admitted that the suspicions were true.
?Under-the-table business must be banned,? Mr. Huang told a conference of surgeons in Guangzhou. ?The harvesting, distribution and use of organs ...
A recent study entitled African Americans, Health Disparities and HIV/AIDS has directly linked incarceration to the spread of AIDS in minority communities. Robert Fullilove ED.D., of Columbia University authored the study which was released on December 1, 2006 to coincide with World AIDS Day.
The Fullilove study highlights the fact ...
An innovative plan to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in Canadian prisons has been axed by Canada?s Conservative government.
In 2005, $350,000 in startup funds plus $600,000 for operating costs were allocated to implement a safe-tattoo program in six federal prisons. [See: PLN, August 2006].
During its one year ...
On March 31, 2006, in a Walker County courthouse, Salvador ?Sammy? Buentello pleaded guilty to a felony charge of unlawful restraint and five counts of official oppression. Buentello, 50, had been the assistant director of gang affairs for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) until he was forced to ...
After serving 12 years in the Texas Legislature state Representative Ray Allen resigned citing financial difficulties. ?I simply cannot afford to serve on a $600-a-month salary with no other source of income,? said Allen.
Allen has since overcome his financial woes working as a lobbyist for some of the same ...
Tracking sex offenders just cost Wisconsin taxpayers millions of dollars and ensures that citizens will pay millions more every year.
Governor Jim Doyle signed a bill on May 22, 2006 that requires GPS monitoring for certain child molesters. The vote to implement lifetime tracking was approved by a unanimous vote ...
State law enforcement agencies have struck a tentative deal with FBI officials that allows agencies to share previously privileged information.
The deal resulted from the brutal rape and beating of a Colorado woman who literally lost an eye from the attack.
DNA from the rapist was compared to more than ...
Arizona prisoners are so adept at defrauding the IRS that U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth (AZ) dubbed the dilemma ?Operation H&R (Cell) Block.?
The business of bilking Uncle Sam from within Arizona prisons accounted for about half of the state?s fraudulent income tax claims in 2005. ?It?s time we put it ...
Overcrowded prisons in Alabama almost landed state prison commissioner Richard Allen in jail. Under current state law the DOC has thirty days to pick up prisoners from county jails once they?ve been convicted. But the prison population being almost double what it was designed to hold has left a backlog ...
