For decades Texas jails have been cesspool's of misery, medical neglect, brutality and over crowding. Class action litigation in the 1970's alleviated some of the worst aspects of the Texas jail system and led to modest improvements. By the late 1990's the jail consent decrees and injunctions had been removed ...
Over ten percent of the guards at the Lyncher State Jail, near Houston Texas, are convicted felons themselves. Houston television station. KPRC uncovered court files showing that about thirty of the guards had served time. Some are repeat offenders; some are ranking officers.
Charges against the guards include felony theft, ...
Overwhelming depression drove Shawana West to hang herself when she learned that she was being placed in the Structured Living Unit (SLU) at Virginia's Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women. While the attempt was unsuccessful it did not fail to make a statement.
What kind of prison strikes this kind of ...
Court orders have forced Alabama to reduce the number of prisoners in its county jails and send half of its prison population to two other states. Until recently the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC) had crammed 28,000 prisoners into cell-space designed to hold half that many.
On June 27, 2003 ...
Criminal Court Judge Chris Craft claimed private probation companies have "created a nightmare" in the Memphis, Tennessee probation system. Judge Craft, who is also chairman of the Private Probation Services Council, said that probation companies currently charge probationers fees "that frankly are not justified" and use probationers for "pet projects ...
Between April 12 and April 25, 2003,
Lawrence Trant, Jr., 56, tried to kill 8 registered sex offenders in Concord, New Hampshire. Trant set fire to a boarding house, to an apartment building and ultimately stabbed one man in the street. All of the victim's names and addresses were easily ...
Three Virginia retailers who made their money from prisoner earnings now find themselves in financial trouble. In August 2003, when the Virginia Department of Corrections (DOC) relinquished management of prison commissaries to St. Louis-based Keefe Supply Co., three Virginia vendors filed suit against the prisons in Richmond Circuit Court.
Virginia ...
Texas Probation Officer Charged With Having
Juvenile Probationer's Baby
by Gary Hunter
Laura Hernandez, a 32 year old probation officer, was arrested October 30, 2003 when it was discovered that the father of her child was only 16 years old.
The boy had been placed on probation for possession of ...
"Unremarkable." That's what prison nurse Jolinda Waterman called Donnie Powe's condition when she relegated him to an observation cell. Guards perfunctorily recorded his declining health right up until he died, face down on the floor of his 6 by 8 foot tomb in Wisconsin Secure Program Facility (WSPF) aka Supermax. ...
It was not an earthshaking day when Cornell Corrections was founded in 1991. It was more like a pebble plummeting over a cliff, leading to a landslide of greed and corruption. Backed by Dillon Read Venture Capital, David Cornell's callous creation rose like cream to the top of the prison-building ...
