by Ed Lyon
It is not uncommon to see police officers on TV shows masquerade as criminals to obtain evidence and even confessions from suspects. Many people may not be aware that this is an example of art imitating life. Such law enforcement practices were vigorously challenged in the ...
by Ed Lyon
Natasha McKenna, a diagnosed schizophrenic, died at age 37 at a jail in Fairfax County, Virginia, where she was being held awaiting transfer to Alexandria on charges of assaulting a peace officer. Alexandria officials had failed to take custody of McKenna three times during her eight-day ...
by Chad Marks and Ed Lyon
For a second time, the City of San Francisco has agreed to settle a prisoner’s lawsuit stemming from a fight club orchestrated by jail deputies and induced by fear.
Former prisoner Quincy Lewis filed a federal civil rights action against several deputy jailers in ...
by Ed Lyon
In March 2014, Mollianne Fischer’s term of probation for misusing a credit card was revoked and she began serving a two-year sentence at Arrendale State Prison. She appeared to be in good health at first, though later began vomiting and had trouble breathing and remaining continent. She ...
by Ed Lyon
After Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher murdered his girlfriend and then killed himself in 2012, an autopsy revealed he suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a disease caused by blunt head trauma during football blocking. Problems associated with CTE and other types of Traumatic Brain ...
by Ed Lyon
Vannara Nhar, 22, was sentenced to a term in federal prison for selling firearms to an undercover cop. He entered the Bureau of Prisons in October 2011 with near-perfect vision and was assigned to FCC Butner in North Carolina. When he left in 2013, his eyesight ...
by Ed Lyon
Under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, presidents nominate judges to sit on federal district and circuit courts, as well as the Supreme Court. Federal judges are appointed for life and serve until they retire, resign, die or are impeached. Politicians (including presidents) have historically been ...
by Ed Lyon
Ohio state prisoner William H. Evans Jr. was designated to be a white supremacist by a classification committee’s ruling in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC), the state’s prison system. This designation was arrived at solely by virtue of Evans having the words “white power” ...
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not own or even maintain immigration detention facilities for the prisoners under its charge. ICE contracts with private companies to operate 211 facilities holding 53,435 prisoners awaiting immigration, asylum and deportation hearings. ICE does have a set of standards these facilities are expected to ...
by Ed Lyon
It is unfortunate that one of the first things someone learns after being incarcerated is to never, ever trust anyone. Now-retired Wisconsin prison captain Jason Wilke is a poster-child for the never-trust-anyone creed, demonstrating that it also applies to prison staff not being able to trust ...
