by Douglas Ankney
The chaplains of various faiths in the jails of Los Angeles County are united in a common mission: remind prisoners of their humanity. Often in one-on-one visits, the chaplains patiently listen to tragic stories of suffering, offer counseling, or share a prayer or religious teaching. …
by Douglas Ankney
On December 3, 2019, fourteen prisoners filed suit alleging repeated rapes and other sexual abuse at two federal prisons for women in Florida. Senator Marco Rubio demanded that the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) investigate the allegations. Nine months later, Rubio again wrote Attorney General William …
by Douglas Ankney
On June 10, 2020, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) sent a letter to then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper requesting information about the Department of Defense’s (“DOD”) reliance on the American Correctional Association (“ACA”) for accreditation of military confinement and corrections facilities.
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by Douglas Ankney
On December 10, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee approved a class action settlement in which Madison County agreed to pay $1.25 million over claims alleging that Sheriff John Mehr violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).
Natasha Grayson, …
by Douglas Ankney
Forty-three states, along with the District of Columbia and the federal government, passed “consequential legislation” in 2019 aimed at reducing barriers faced by people with criminal records.
The 152 laws significantly or completely eliminated obstacles to societal reintegration in areas of employment, housing, voting, …
by Douglas Ankney
On July 21, 2020, attorneys for New York state prisoner Imhotep H’Shaka, 46, announced that he had been released into the general population at Attica Correctional Facility after spending nearly a quarter century in solitary.
The announcement followed a March 12, 2020, ruling by …
by Douglas Ankney
On December 10, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Eastern Division, modified and approved a $1.25 million settlement of a lawsuit against Madison County, Tennessee that alleged Sheriff John Mehr violated the Federal Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. § …
by Douglas Ankney
On January 28, 2020, the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island found the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) in violation of a 38-year-old consent order limiting stays in solitary confinement to 30 days for a single offense with a unilateral decision to change the limit …
by Douglas Ankney
According to a June 30, 2020, report from The New York Times, until recently San Quentin had zero cases of COVID-19. However, officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) transferred infected prisoners to San Quentin from the California Institution for Men …
by Douglas Ankney
On February 25, 2020, student members of the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign (HPDC) filed suit in the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County, Massachusetts, seeking to force the university to divest its charitable trust investments from entities that directly or indirectly profit from the “prison-industrial …
