Deportations Still High Despite Decline from Record Levels
by Derek Gilna
s political efforts to reform the nation’s immigration laws continue to falter despite garnering headlines and generating contentious public debate, the latest statistics from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reveal that undocumented immigrants continue to be deported in large ...
Reenergized D.C. Corrections Information Council Targets Jail and Prison Conditions
by Derek Gilna
The number of suicides at the District of Columbia Jail was cited as the top concern of an independent agency whose mission is to monitor conditions for thousands of incarcerated D.C. offenders housed in the District’s jail ...
Debtors’ Prisons Prevail in Las Vegas, Thanks to Prosecutors and Casino Markers Law
by Derek Gilna
Anyone who has ever been threatened with jail or actually locked up for passing a bad check or failing to pay a debt knows that so-called “debtors’ prisons” are alive and well in the ...
$690,000 Settlement in HRDC Suit Over Death of Prisoner’s Baby at CCA Jail
by Derek Gilna
In August 2014, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit prison firm, settled a federal lawsuit filed by PLN’s parent organization, the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), on behalf of a former ...
Ethics Charge Against Former U.S. Marshal Ends in Pre-Trial Diversion
by Derek Gilna
A criminal ethics charge filed against a former U.S. Marshals Service agent in Arizona who had applied for a job with a private prison company he previously monitored has been dropped, and prosecutors let him enter a ...
$350,000 Settlement in PLN Censorship Suit Against Ventura County, California
by Derek Gilna
In a victory for the First Amendment rights of prisoners and those who correspond with them, Prison Legal News recently obtained a substantial settlement in a lawsuit filed against the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office in California.
PLN ...
Prison Systems Increasingly Provide Email – For a Price
by Derek Gilna
Prison officials and corrections experts have long recognized that helping prisoners maintain contact with the outside world decreases the stress, isolation and loneliness that are part of the inherent nature of incarceration. Further, regular communication with those outside ...
Former Wyoming Probation Officer Receives, Violates Probation
by Derek Gilna
A former Wyoming Department of Corrections probation officer was placed on probation herself following her conviction on drug and theft charges.
Ruby Maddox, 36, was enrolled in a rehabilitation center to address her addiction to prescription medication as part of ...
California: Federal Judge Certifies Class-Action Over SHU Placement, Conditions
by Derek Gilna
California state prison officials could be forgiven for complaining that the federal courts spend a lot of time monitoring their activities, but the facts indicate that such attention is warranted. California’s prison system, already singled out by the ...
D.C. Circuit Rules Detainee Treatment Act Not Subject to § 1983 Remedy
by Derek Gilna
A John Doe plaintiff, a U.S. citizen and employee of an American-owned defense contracting firm performing Arabic translating in Iraq, was taken into custody and held at Camp Cropper near the Baghdad International ...
