by Derek Gilna
Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) officials announced on March 19, 2021, that they were beginning mass vaccination of the state’s roughly 17,000 prisoners with doses provided to all 3,017 inmates at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) in Pearl.
“We talked to the guys and ladies upfront ...
by Derek Gilna
COVID-19’s impact on American society has been dramatic, but no more so than in prisons and jails. While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended maintaining “social distancing” and governmental officials closed or mandated drastically reduced capacity of public buildings to stop the spread of ...
by Derek Gilna
Pennsylvania state prisons continued to suffer through a spike in COVID-19 cases in March 2021, with Albion Correctional Institution in Erie County and the State Correctional Institution (SCI) in Huntington each reporting 100 new cases in the first full week of the month. With 235 active cases ...
by Derek Gilna
Despite the fact that prisoners and staff at Colorado’s state prisons have been ravaged by COVID-19 infections and death, Colorado Governor Jared Polis reversed course and decided not to prioritize vaccines for prisoners. However, prisoners who are considered high-risk by reason of pre-existing condition or age will ...
by Derek Gilna
Many troubling details surround the 13 executions carried out by the Department of Justice in the final months of the Trump administration, including allegations that the drug used, pentobarbital, caused intense pain and suffering before death are reportedly being suppressed by federal officials. If the federal justice ...
by Derek Gilna
It seems inconceivable that prison personnel selected to carry out the ultimate judicial sanction – execution — would willfully violate Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and expose themselves, their families, prisoners and staff, clergy, and media witnesses to COVID-19. But that is exactly what happened, ...
by Derek Gilna
Federal prisoners transferred tohome confinement to serve their sentences because of the COVID-19 emergency could return to lockup if a January 15, 2021, opinion issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel is followed.
According to the memo, if the U.S. attorney general ...
by Derek Gilna
Health experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agree that keeping people from coming in close contact with one another through social distancing is the most reliable method to stop the spread of COVID-19. So is the need to quarantine positive cases from ...
by Derek Gilna
Karla Bello, who claims that she was mistreated by Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office employees while in custody for 11 days for unpaid parking tickets, filed suit on September 10, 2020 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, alleging violations of her civil rights. ...
by Derek Gilna
According to statistics compiled by The Marshall Project, one in five U.S. prisoners has already contracted COVID-19, a rate more than four times that of the general population. The problem has been particularly acute in the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) and the separate federal prisons ...
