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Articles by Matthew Clarke

Colorado Expands Private Prisons While Fining CCA for Understaffing

by Matthew T. Clarke

On June 28, 2006, Colorado assessed $126,000 in fines against Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) for persistently understaffing two Colorado private prisons. The Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) also awarded contracts for new private prisons and the expansion of current private prisons to CCA and other ...

Private Geo Prison in Texas Rocked By Prisoner Abuse, Disturbance and Escape

by Matthew T. Clarke

Recently, the Newton County Correctional Center (NCCC), a private prison in Newton, Texas run by the Boca Raton, Florida-based Geo Group, has experienced several incidents involving the out-of-state Idaho prisoners housed there. These incidents included a non-violent protest involving 85 prisoners, an escape, and the resignation ...

U.S. Businesses Lobby Government to Curb Federal Prosecutors

by Matthew T. Clarke

U.S. businesses and Wall Street investment companies have begun a campaign to get the Justice Department to reign in federal prosecutors in business crime cases. The effort by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Securities Industry Association and Bond Market Association focuses on prosecutors pressuring companies to ...

Unique Texas Sexual Predator Civil Commitment Has Successes/Failures

by Matthew T. Clarke

Texas has a unique form of civil commitment for sexual predators which allows outpatient treatment and requires most of the civilly committed to live at a halfway house. A committed man's recent escape from a Dallas halfway house brought the Texas model into question.

Seventeen states ...

Supreme Court: No Exclusionary Rule for Vienna Convention Violations

by Matthew T. Clarke

On June 28, 2006, the Supreme Court held that violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Notification (Convention) do not require exclusion of evidence from a criminal trial and are subject to procedural default rules.

Moises Sanchez-Llamas, an Oregon state prisoner and a citizen of Mexico, ...

European Court of Human Rights Voids UKs Blanket Bans On Prisoner Voting

European Court of Human Rights Voids UKs Blanket Bans On Prisoner Voting

by Matthew T. Clarke

On October 6, 2005, the European Court of Human Rights issued a Grand Chamber Judgment holding that Britains blanket ban on incarcerated prisoners voting in elections violated Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 of ...

BOP Transfers Unescorted Prisoners On Civilian Buses, Some Escape

by Matthew T. Clarke

In a little-known program, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has been allowing unescorted prisoners to transfer between prisons using Greyhound and other civilian buses. Not surprisingly, some never show up at their destination.

The program is considered a form of furlough by the BOP, related ...

Alleged Attacks Plotted By New Folsom Prisoners Uncovered

by Matthew T. Clarke

A federal grand jury has indicted four men--two of whom have been prisoners at the California State Prison-Sacramento (New Folsom Prison)--with conspiracy to levy war against the United States, to possess and use firearms in the furtherance of violence, and to kill U.S. and foreign officials. ...

Non-Sex-Offender Parolee Entitled to Due Process Before Being Treated As Sex Offender

by Matthew T. Clarke

The Fifth Circuit court of appeals held that a parolee who has never been convicted of a sex offense is entitled to a due process hearing prior to being required to register as a sex offender and attend sex offender treatment as a condition of parole. ...

Texas Federal District Judge Throws Out VitaPro Convictions

by Matthew T. Clarke

In another bizarre twist to an already bewildering prosecution history, on September 9, 2005, Texas federal district judge Lynn Hughes, by judicial fiat, acquitted Andy Collins, the former executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), and Yank Barry, the Canadian ex-con owner of ...