by Rick Anderson
The more a certain group of Illinois prisoners age behind bars, the less likely they are to be released, according to a study released last year by the non-partisan, not-for-profit group Injustice Watch.
The study, using Prisoner Review Board records and other documents, revealed that several board ...
by Rick Anderson
A female prisoner in New York who wore a wire to help bust three Rikers Island jailers who sexually abused her has received a $425,000 settlement from the city.
The trio of guards – David Johnson, Steven Santiago and Nana Osei – reportedly abused prisoner Kelly Spinelli ...
by Rick Anderson
The number of people on probation and parole increased 239 percent from 1980 to 2016, according to a September 2018 report by the Pew Research Center. That spurred a dramatic rise in the per capita rate of people under community supervision, which grew to one out of ...
by Rick Anderson
Victor Guerrero, wrongly denied a chance to apply as a California prison guard after disclosing he had once used a false Social Security number to obtain a job, can now seek additional damages from the state, an appeals court ruled Nov. 7, 2018.
Guerrero had already won ...
by Rick Anderson
Jerry Boyle, CEO of Correct Care Solutions, was arrested for driving under the influence on June 16, 2015, after police found him in the parking lot of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
According to a police report obtained by the Daily News Journal ...
by Rick Anderson
"When I walk into my cell and see a [toilet] bowl full of brown water, I’m reminded of my status in the world; I’m reminded of my value. All the pious talk in the world about rehabilitation doesn’t change this ugly reality.”
That was lifer Kenneth E. ...
by Rick Anderson
The September 1988 rape and murder of 29-year-old Diane Ballasiotes in Seattle, Washington, followed by the 1989 rape and sexual mutilation of a 7-year-old Tacoma boy, were the seedlings of today’s nationwide sex offender registry laws – a 50-state network that tracks over 805,000 registrants and whose usefulness as a crime-prevention tool has been questioned and criticized.
Other cases from that same era – including the widely-reported 1989 kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling in Minnesota, which was solved only late last year – led to a series of 1990-2000 state and federal statutes that established central registries for sex offenders, as well as residency restrictions and civil commitment laws.
Attorneys and advocates for change wonder how many of the nation’s more than 805,000 registered sex offenders are in prison or jail on any given day just for violating registration requirements – which are technical violations rather than sex crimes, and did not even exist before 1990. And how much does that, and registry enforcement efforts, add to the rising costs of tracking and monitoring sex offenders? In Palm Beach County, Florida, one officer said 20 deputies are assigned full time to check on ...
Greenwashing Washington State’s Prison System in a River of Sewage
by Rick Anderson
Greenwashing: When an agency or company spends more on marketing and public relations to promote the perception they are environmentally conscious than they spend on implementing environmentally conscious practices and policies.
In 2005, embarking on a new-found ...
In Washington State Prisons, Negligent Health Care Turns Illness into a Death Sentence
Ricardo Cruz Mejia went to prison a murderer, he left a victim.
by Rick Anderson
Ricardo Cruz Mejia’s final days began with a stomach problem. It was October 2010. After the 26-year-old Walla Walla State Penitentiary prisoner ...
By Rick Anderson
Gas-station robber Ronald Ray Hicks went to sleep in his King County Jail bunk just before 10 p.m. July 25 and never woke up. His cellmate noticed Hicks still lying on his left side on the lower bunk, facing the wall, as the downtown jail was stirring ...
