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Articles by Keith Sanders

$1.1 Million Colorado Initiative Set to Assist Prisoners With More Employment Opportunities Upon Release

by Keith Sanders

Individuals leaving prison often face obstacles securing basic necessities like employment, housing, and health care. This can make reintegration into society exceedingly difficult. The restrictions and limited opportunities that ex-prisoners face often contribute to higher recidivism rates, especially the inability to find gainful employment. 

Now Colorado will ...

California Supreme Court Reclassifies Clemency Records, No Longer Confidential

by Keith Sanders

On May 26, 2021, the Supreme Court of California filed en banc a new administrative order changing the Court’s published Internal Operating Practices and Procedures regarding the confidentiality of clemency records. The Court had previously treated such records as confidential. Now clemency records that are forwarded to ...

After Sixth Death in Six Years, Virginia Jail Cuts Ties with Corizon Health

Corizon Employee Charged with Falsifying Records

by Jayson Hawkins and Keith Sanders

On February 1, 2022, a 41-year-old Black man being held on a trespassing charge was found unresponsive in his cell at the jail in Arlington County, Virginia. His death later that day, which is still under investigation, came ...

Prison Employee Union Fighting to Stop Closure of San Diego Federal Detention Center

Marshals Service Also Eyeing Work-around

by Keith Sanders

On September 21, 2021, a little over a week before the federal government contract was set to expire at the Western Region Detention Facility (WRDF) in San Diego, the facility’s private operator, Florida-based GEO Group, announced it had secured a six-month extension ...

Investigations Into the Deaths of Several Prisoners and Two Guards Reveal Rampant Corruption, Cover-ups in California Prison

by Keith Sanders

When Brant Daniel found himself in one of California’s most violent and corrupt prisons, the California State Prison (CSP) in Sacramento, known as New Folsom, he knew he was in trouble. Daniel, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, potentially faces the death penalty for the ...

Fifth Circuit Reinstates Federal Prisoner’s Tort Claim Against BOP Officials

by Keith Sanders

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held on August 23, 2021, that a district court erred in dismissing a former federal prisoner’s intentional tort claims.

The former prisoner, Bryan Kerr Dickson, was incarcerated by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) at the Federal Correctional Complex ...

California Town Fighting to Keep Prison Open

by Keith Sanders

In the 1950s, the timber mills in Susanville, California, began to shutter. For this isolated town of about 8,000 residents, the economic impact of losing its only industry was devastating. But in 1963 the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) came to the rescue. The department ...

San Luis Obispo County Jail Conditions Violate Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments

by Keith Sanders

On August 31, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division released a report detailing its investigation concerning the conditions inside San Luis Obispo County Jail.

The findings of the report, conducted pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA), 42, U.S.C. § 1997, ...

Unreliable Drug Tests Standard for Law Enforcement and Prisons

by Keith Sanders

Illicit drugs pose a serious problem for both prisoners and officials inside America’s prisons and jails. To combat smuggling, many state and federal prisons use field test kits to evaluate substances introduced into the facilities. These kits allow prison officials to detect the presence of meth, amphetamines, ...

History Professor Fired After Criticizing University’s Racist Past and Pro-Prison Present

by Keith Sanders

Dr. Garrett Felber, a history professor at the University of Mississippi (UM), has distinguished himself over the years as a vocal critic of America’s racist criminological and penological institutions. At conferences and public speaking engagements, he has decried mass incarceration, called for the abolition of prisons, and ...