In a culture where it is socially acceptable for celebrities, advertisers and even movies to joke about the unfunny fact of prison rape, it should come as no surprise that almost 4% of prisoners in the United States have reported being sexually victimized while incarcerated.
As part of the Prison ...
The number of people serving terms of supervised release after leaving federal prison is creeping ever closer to 100,000. As judges and probation officers attempt to manage their growing caseloads, more and more judges are imposing supervised release conditions that unfairly restrict ex-prisoners from successful reentry.
The advent of supervised ...
Following its recent decision in Arrington v. Daniels, 516 F.3d 1106 (9th Cir. 2008) [PLN, June 2009, p.44], the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck down another federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) rule that limits early release for certain prisoners who participate in the BOP’s Residential Drug ...
On September 16, 2009, U.S. District Judge Marcia S. Krieger granted in part and denied in part a motion for summary judgment by Prison Legal News (PLN) in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case wherein PLN sought the disclosure of a gruesome video and autopsy photos related to the ...
A directive issued by the Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) that limits the award of educational sentence credit to only one Associate’s Degree cannot be applied retroactively without running afoul of the ex post facto clause of the U.S. and state Constitutions, the Indiana Court of Appeals decided on June ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has reversed the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a Colorado prisoner who requested but was denied protection from prison gang members.
Scott L. Howard, a self-described “openly homosexual” prisoner of “slight build,” was a target from the moment he arrived ...
The Adam Walsh Act (AWA) was enacted by Congress in 2006 with much fanfare. Proponents argued that the law, which requires the establishment of a national sex offender registry, would help protect children from predators. But according to a recent report from the Justice Policy Institute, the AWA has actually ...
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n August 12, 2009, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) agreed to settle a lawsuit by a Muslim former prisoner who alleged that he was tortured and beaten after complaining to investigators about his Quar’an and Kufi being desecrated.
From April 5, 1996, until October 4, 2005, Hakeem Shaheed ...
In April 2007, Joe Francis, 36, the multi-millionaire founder of the popular soft porn Girls Gone Wild videos – which consist of young women exposing themselves at parties, clubs and spring break – was charged with federal tax evasion for claiming about $20 million in fraudulent deductions on his income ...
On July 30, 2009, a federal jury found a former prison guard at the Federal Correctional Complex (FCC) in Coleman, Florida guilty of civil rights violations in connection with a prisoner’s death. She later received a life sentence.
Richard Delano had been in and out of prison since his early ...
