Some prison systems have been providing a college education to prisoners financed, at least in part, by federal funding named after correctional education advocate Arlen Specter, a former U.S. senator. But Congress didn't renew the "Specter" funds for 2011 and 2012 and now prison education officials are scrambling to come ...
On March 29, 2012, a Louisiana federal court held that the sex offender registration requirement of the Louisiana Crimes Against Nature by Solicitation (CANS) statute, La.R.S. 14:89(B), was an unconstitutional violation of the Equal Protection Clause when the same conduct did not require registration as a sex offender if prosecuted ...
The Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in Ocilla, Georgia is an example of everything that is wrong with small-town private-prison development. It's a story of local government officials seeking to make their community profit off the misery of others, only to end up in misery themselves.
ICDC had half its ...
An investigation by Albuquerque television station KRQE revealed that Bernalillo County house arrestees who were assigned to wash cars, pick up trash and pull weeds as part of their community service spent close to the same amount of time on private property as on public rights of way during four ...
The Texas State Auditor's Office released an audit report on the Office of Violent Sex Offender Management (Office) in January 2015. The report listed many problems, including a lack of controls over the management of some contracting and financial processes.
The report criticized the Office's frequent use of memoranda of ...
The Prison Justice League (PJL), a group advocating prison reform in Texas, released a report entitled Cruel & Unusual Punishment: Excessive Use of Force at the Estelle Unit. The report found that blind, deaf, elderly and disabled prisoners were routinely physically and sexually abused at the Texas Department of Criminal ...
Due to policies and practices which are costly to society and former parolees, well over half the 7,727 people sent to prison in Wisconsin in 2013 were imprisoned for parole rule violations without any new criminal charges. Those 4,049 revoked parolees made up a significant number of the over 22,000 ...
On February 17, 2015, the New York Court of Appeals held that sex offender residency restrictions enacted by local governments were invalid because the state had already created a comprehensive and detailed regulatory scheme.
Michael Diack was convicted of possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child. After his release ...
A man who was arrested for criminal trespass spent 200 days in the Dallas County Jail awaiting a court date on a charge that carries a maximum of 180 days in jail.
The 37-year-old unidentified man had previously been arrested 27 times for criminal trespass. After his arrest for criminal ...
The United Nations Committee Against Torture issued a combined report encompassing its third to fifth periodic reports on the United States at its 1276th and 1277th meetings held on November 20, 2014. The report lauded some improvements under U.S. jurisdiction, but still found plenty to criticize. PLN had submitted comments ...
