by Matt Clarke
On December 23, 2009, a California superior court ruled that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) had to produce records requested two years earlier by Prison Legal News.
PLN made the request for documents related to “Paid Adult Legal Claims” from 2002-2007 resulting in payments ...
by Matt Clarke
In February 2010, the Idaho legislature’s Office of Performance Evaluations (OPE) released an audit report titled “Increasing Efficiencies in Idaho’s Parole Process.” Among other things, the report critiqued Olivia Craven, Executive Director of the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole, for failing to have a formal grievance ...
by Matt Clarke
On January 12, 2010, Haiti suffered a major earthquake that killed more than 230,000 people and, as a side effect, allowed thousands of prisoners to escape from the country’s most secure lock-up, the national penitentiary in Port-au-Prince. Les Cayes, Haiti’s third largest city, took less damage, though ...
by Matt Clarke
Recent reports in the Texas media have focused attention on the state’s prison commissaries. However, none have presented the point of view of prisoners or their families. Instead, such reports tend to interview members of victims rights groups and ask them what they think about prisoners being ...
by Matt Clarke
In 2003 and 2004, Texas state Senator Eddie Lucio, Jr. (D) was a consultant for Management & Training Corporation, a private prison firm, and Corplan Corrections, a prison design and development company. Now his son, state Rep. Eddie Lucio III, (D) has signed on to be a ...
by Matt Clarke
On May 20, 2010, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Texas parolees who had never been convicted of a sex offense, but were subject to onerous sex offender parole conditions (SOPCs), were entitled to specific and extensive due process before the imposition of such conditions. ...
To millions of people whose knowledge of crime labs comes from television shows such as CSI, Bones, Crossing Jordan and the venerable Quincy M.E., the forensic experts who work at such labs seem to be infallible scientists who use validated scientific techniques to follow the evidence to the truth, regardless ...
by Matt Clarke
In April 2009, New York passed a statutory amendment that expanded the state’s compassionate release program for terminally ill prisoners. The amendment permitted medical parole for prisoners convicted of certain violent crimes who were physically or cognitively unable to present a threat to society, if they had ...
by Matt Clarke
Cocke County, Tennessee General Sessions Judge John A. Bell, while facing a judicial misconduct complaint, sought to depose Joseph S. Daniel, disciplinary counsel for the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary, in February 2010. Bell also asked to review all complaints filed against Tennessee judges due to delayed ...
by Matt Clarke
Texas Governor Rick Perry caused considerable controversy on Sept. 30, 2009 when he replaced three members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, just two days before the commission’s hearing on a report that an innocent man may have been executed during Perry’s tenure. As a result the ...
