By Christopher Zoukis
District Judge Ann M. Donnelly recently granted the Plaintiffs' motion to amend their 42 U.S.C. § 1983 complaint against the Suffolk County, New York jail, as well as the county sheriff and several officers. The complaint, initially brought by a class of female prisoners housed at the ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The New York City Department of Correction and city officials are rethinking their policy of releasing prisoners without jackets during frigid winter months.
The New York Daily News reported in December 2016 that the city was routinely freeing prisoners from jail and court without proper winter clothing. ...
by Christopher Zoukis
A 17-year-old has made a startling discovery about Wisconsin: more than half of the state’s black “neighborhoods” are actually jails.
The young researcher, Lew Blank, used the Weldon Cooper Center’s Racial Dot Map and Google Maps to come to this conclusion, and released the results in August ...
by Christopher Zoukis
Following demands from the Afrikan Black Coalition (ABC), the University of California has agreed to terminate $475 million worth of contracts with Wells Fargo Bank. According to a press release from ABC, the terminated contracts include a $25 million commercial paper contract, a $150 million interest rate ...
by Christopher Zoukis
Wrongful convictions are a well-known phenomena in the United States; the administration of one of the world’s largest criminal justice systems virtually guarantees mistakes and failures. Famous cases such as that of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who was framed for murder and spent 20 years in prison, and ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The Death Penalty Information Center has released a report highlighting significant changes in the number of executions in the United States in 2016.
According to the report, there were 20 executions in the U.S. during calendar year 2016 – the lowest number in 25 years. Additionally, juries ...
by Christopher Zoukis
Incarceration in a state or federal prison is bad. Incarceration in a state or federal prison while disabled is much worse.
Consider the numbers. According to a recent Vice.com article, 31 percent of prisoners in state facilities reported having a physical or mental disability. And as the ...
by Christopher Zoukis
Four guards at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island were placed on administrative leave after a prisoner escaped on New Years Eve 2016. James Morales, 35, scaled the backboard of a basketball goal in the facility’s recreation yard, cut through a fence ...
by Christopher Zoukis
In a unanimous and lengthy opinion, the Vermont Supreme Court dismissed a charge of unauthorized practice of law brought against a jailhouse lawyer.
Martin Serendipity Morales, a prisoner who identifies as female, was being held at the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Center when she was charged with ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled against two Pennsylvania prisoners who were held in solitary confinement on death row for years after their death sentences were vacated. In the course of its opinion, however, the appellate court made it clear that in the ...
