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Articles by Matthew Clarke

Blanket Enforcement of Sex Offender Residency Restrictions against San Diego Parolees Unconstitutional

On March 2, 2015, a California Court of Appeal held that the blanket enforcement of California’s residency restrictions against all registered sex offender parolees (RSOPs) in San Diego County was unconstitutional.

This case involves four RSOPs who are representative of the over 150 RSOPs in San Diego County who filed ...

Texas Man Exonerated By DNA Test He Didn't Request

A Texas man, Michael Phillips, 57, recently became the first person to be cleared of a crime by DNA testing he did not request.

Phillips was accused of raping a white teenage girl at a Dallas motel in 1990. The victim, who had partially removed her attacker’s face mask during ...

Guards Massacre Iraqi Prisoners as ISIS Forces Attack Tal Afar

According to prisoners who were incarcerated at the anti-terrorism detention facility in Tal Afar, Iraq, as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) forces closed on the prison, guards began slaughtering the prisoners in their cells.

"At about 2 a.m., three of the guards came into our cell ... and ...

Texas Guards and Prisoners Rarely Prosecuted for Contraband Cellphones

According to an investigation conducted by the Texas Tribune, guards and prisoners are rarely prosecuted for the contraband cell phones found within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The investigation discovered that only 5% of the cellphone smuggling cases investigated by the TDCJ's Office of Inspector General from 2009 ...

Former New Mexico Jail Captain Sentenced for Sexually Assaulting Prisoners

On April 9, 2014, a New Mexico federal grand jury indicted former Gallup-McKinley Adult Detention Center captain John Greene, 70, on charges related to the sexual assault of three female prisoners at the jail.

Greene was charged with three counts of violating the civil rights of the prisoners by engaging ...

Private Prison Debt May Ruin Texas County's Bond Rating

Bernard Ammerman, the District Attorney of Willacy County, Texas believes that debt for privately-operated prisons may overwhelm the county's finances. In July 2012, he publicly complained that the county may not be able to repay the debt incurred for the construction and later renovation of a private "tent city" prison ...

60% of Louisiana Prison Doctors Disciplined by Medical Board

Of the fifteen physicians employed by the Louisiana prison system, nine have received medical board disciplinary sanctions. Of those nine, two have served time in federal prison, five are on probation, two have their practice limited to "institutional settings," two can't treat patients under 18 years old and one has ...

New Hepatitis C Treatment to Dramatically Increase Texas Prison Health Costs

Hepatitis C is a slow-progressing potentially-fatal viral disease that ultimately destroys the liver. Unlike HIV, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is resilient, capable of surviving for weeks outside the human body. It is spread by blood-to-blood contact and is very common among users of intravenous drugs. The immune systems of ...

Seventh Circuit Holds Indiana Must Provide Process to Appeal Errors in Sex Offender Registry

On August 26, 2012, the Seventh Circuit court of appeals held that the Indiana Department of Corrections (DOC) must provide a procedure by which persons listed on the state's "Sex and Violent Offender Registry" (SVOR) may appeal errors in their registry information.

Any resident of Indiana convicted of one of ...

Rikers Island Guards Treat Mental Illness with Violence

With around 4,000 of its 11,000 prisoners classified as mentally ill, Rikers Island jail holds more psychiatric patients than all 24 of the psychiatric hospitals in New York State combined. In 2006, prisoners with mental illness comprised about 20% of the jail's population. The percentage had almost doubled since then. ...