by Matt Clarke
A June 2017 audit at the Montana Women’s Prison (MWP) found the facility was not in full compliance with 20 of 43 standards promulgated under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), enacted in 2003. [See: PLN, Nov. 2017, p.1; Sept. 2013, p.1].
The prison, which has a ...
by Matt Clarke
According to a recent study by the U.S. Department of Justice, about 11% of the state and federal prison population in 2016 was over age 55. Of those prisoners, numbering roughly 160,000, around 38,000 were 65 or older. The share of prisoners over age 50 is expected ...
by Matt Clarke
In January 2018, Cibola County, New Mexico agreed to pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of a jail prisoner who was repeatedly denied medical treatment despite vomiting and defecating blood.
Douglas Edmisten, 50, was arrested on misdemeanor charges and booked into the Cibola ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 8, 2018, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) announced new measures to prevent another murder from occurring on its transport buses.
Those measures included replacing a “significant number” of buses with new vehicles featuring factory-installed camera systems to monitor passengers and separate compartments ...
by Matt Clarke
On December 19, 2017, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of a federal civil rights suit brought by a prisoner who alleged Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) officials ignored his warnings that rival gang members intended to kill him, and his requests not to ...
by Matt Clarke
Greta Lindercrantz, 67, was jailed for contempt of court by Arapahoe County, Colorado District Judge Michelle Amico on February 26, 2018.
Lindercrantz, a Mennonite defense investigator, had refused to testify in a hearing for Colorado death row prisoner Robert Keith Ray. Lindercrantz was part of Ray’s defense ...
by Matt Clarke
On May 17, 2018, a federal district court certified a class of Allen County, Indiana jail prisoners who were denied their right to vote in the November 2016 general election.
Ian Barnhart was held at the jail on misdemeanor charges from October 31, 2016 until December 15, ...
by Matt Clarke
A recent poll found a majority of Americans – 67 percent overall – believe that building more prisons and jails does not reduce crime. Nearly as many – 62 percent – don’t believe that more prisons would improve the quality of life in their communities, either. The ...
by Matt Clarke
In April 2018, just weeks before a trial was scheduled to begin, the City of Phoenix, Arizona agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a mentally ill prisoner who died at the Maricopa County jail after being mocked, beaten and Tasered ...
by Matt Clarke and David Reutter
On April 27, 2018, the Supreme Court of Alaska held that a prisoner had been improperly denied his right to call witnesses at a prison disciplinary hearing, and his failure to raise that issue during administrative appeals did not waive the issue.
Scott Walker, ...
