by Scott Grammer
Francisco Valdes, 44, a jailer with the sheriff’s office in Will County, Illinois, was the subject of a secret prosecution at that county’s courthouse. Valdes was charged with two misdemeanor counts of battery in December 2018.
After the fact of the secret prosecution was revealed by ...
by Scott Grammer
On March 3, 2019, Brian Riling, 38, was in custody after being arrested on intimidation charges. His girlfriend told police that he had sent her a number of text messages threatening to attack her, calling her a prostitute and saying he would kill himself. Court records showed ...
by Scott Grammer
The Noble County jail in Albion, Kentucky has found a new way to make money – by renting texting devices to prisoners. For $4.00 a month plus $0.10 per text, prisoners can send and receive monitored messages. The $0.10 fee applies to incoming texts, too. Most people ...
by Scott Grammer
Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had accepted a $50,000 settlement from Cary J. Hudson, a former Bureau of Prisons financial administrator, to resolve allegations that he took kickbacks from Integrated Medical Solutions, Inc. (IMS). Hudson was accused of accepting the payments ...
by Scott Grammer
Oumer Salim, a resident of Colleyville, Texas, wanted to communicate with his brother, who was in an Ohio state prison. The facility used JPay for video calling, at a cost of $9.90 for each 30-minute session. So Salim began using the system. He noticed a recurring problem, ...
by Scott Grammer
In May 2018, federal authorities, including the FBI and DEA, in conjunction with California state prison officials and local police, arrested 32 people on charges related to the Mexican Mafia’s operation of a massive crime ring in Los Angeles County’s jail system. Approximately three dozen prisoners ...
by Scott Grammer
In August 1976, a lawsuit was filed in a Florida federal district court alleging numerous constitutional violations at the Broward County jail, including overcrowding. Two years later the case was certified as a class action. It took until 1994 for a consent decree to be reached, then ...
by Scott Grammer
Michael Todd Sabbie, 35, died on July 22, 2015 at the Bi-State Jail, which sits astraddle the border between Texas and Arkansas. He left behind four children. U.S. Magistrate Judge Caroline Craven, in a 169-page 2019 report and recommendation, discussed the extensive record of mismanagement and neglect ...
by Scott Grammer
On August 20, 2018, then-California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 2550, which prohibits male prison guards from going into areas where female prisoners are often undressed, such as showers, medical treatment areas and restrooms, when “there is a female correctional officer who can resolve ...
by Scott Grammer
John Krause, an ex-prisoner who served time at San Quentin, has remade himself into a coffee entrepreneur. In October 2014 he opened Big House Beans, a roastery that specializes in coffees made from beans from Ethiopia, El Salvador, Indonesia and Columbia. The beans are not roasted until ...
