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Articles by Matthew Clarke

Illinois DOC Seeks to Block Ex-Wardens Benefits

Illinois DOC Seeks to Block Ex-Wardens Benefits

by Matthew T. Clarke

On September 13, 2005, the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) filed an appeal of a workers compensation arbitrators decision to grant ex-prison warden William Barham permanent total disabilities benefits. Barhams injuries stem from a fatal one-vehicle accident for which ...

Houston Grand Juries Mostly Law-Enforcement

Houston Grand Juries Mostly Law-Enforcement and Government Employees

by Matthew T. Clarke

Ever since a ruling by the U. S. Supreme Court in Smith v. State of Texas, 311 U.S. 128, 61 S.Ct. 164, 85 L.Ed. 84 (1940), grand juries have been required to represent a broad cross-section" of the ...

Texas Prison Expert Pays the Price for Telling the Truth

by Matthew T. Clarke

Tony Fabelo was the head of the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council for two decades. He survived multiple changes of administration by doing a great job as the state's top number-cruncher on prison issues. Legislators of both parties say the Cuban-born Ph.D., a nationally-known authority on ...

Texas State Equipment and Employees Used for Private Prison Labor Lobbying

by Matthew T. Clarke


Republican State Representative Ray Allen of Grand Prairie, Texas, Chairman of the Texas House Corrections Committee, has been using his state employees and state equipment to operate a private firm that specializes in consulting and lobbying for the private prison industry. Allen's company, called Service House, ...

Fifth Circuit Allows Sexual-Orientation Discrimination in Texas Prisoner Rape Suit

by Matthew T. Clarke


The Fifth Circuit court of appeals held that a homosexual prisoner who prison officials allegedly allowed to be repeatedly sexually assaulted and made a sex slave may sue the prison officials for both failures to protect him in violation of the Eighth Amendment and discrimination based ...

Uprising by Vermont Prisoners Damages CCA Prison in Kentucky

by Matthew T. Clarke


On September 14, 2004, a prisoner uprising rocked the 816-bed, 88-acre Lee Adjustment Center (LAC), a private prison owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) in Lee County, Kentucky.


The Prison


LAC was built in 1990 as a 400-bed, minimum-security prison by a private ...

Compensating the Wrongly Convicted, or Not

by Matthew T. Clarke

Hundreds of thousands of men and women are hidden from society—social failures convicted of felonies—behind concrete walls and razor wire in isolated parts of our country. Nestled among them are society's silenced victims—the wrongfully convicted.

Society is loath to admit its mistakes. Citizens would rather believe ...