by Kevin Bliss
In a report published January 2, 2021, two immigrant advocacy groups — Advocate Visitors with Immigrants in Detention (AVID) and Immigration Law Lab (ILL) — accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials of holding migrants in abuse-ridden detention camps.
The prolonged use of solitary confinement, ice-cold detention ...
by Kevin Bliss
The Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) houses over 3,200 prisoners in solitary confinement at any given time, according to a report, “Solitary: The Family Experience,” released in February of this year by the civil rights group Citizens for Prison Reform (CPR).
The report discussed the effects of ...
by Kevin Bliss
After spending time in prison, rebuilding your credit can be a difficult but important task, and even more so if your credit score suffered because you couldn’t pay your debts while in prison. Nick Cesare, a staff writer for the website FiscalTiger.com, suggested working to repair credit ...
by Kevin Bliss
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) was accused of not providing nutritionally fit meals in an article published October 24, 2020. Prisoners say portions are too small to be of value, there are little to no vegetables, and starches are overused to make up caloric deficits.
The ...
by Kevin Bliss
Ex-offenders are having a tougher time finding employment amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. With a national unemployment rate of 6.7% in December 2020, employers are able to pick applicants who do not have the stigma of a past felony conviction, and who historically have more job skills than ...
by Kevin Bliss
Republican Senator Jeffrey Brandes of Saint Petersburg filed a bill to exclude certain Florida citizens from benefiting from the increased minimum-wage measure, known as Amendment 2, passed by well over 60% of the state voters in November 2020.
Brandes is a long-time GOP member who also has ...
by Kevin Bliss
On January 28, 2021, Parnall Correctional Facility’s chief medical officer announced an extreme infestation of scabies, and the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) declared an institution-wide outbreak. The DOC said all 1,286 prisoners, their clothing and their bedding would be treated, and their personal property quarantined.
MDOC ...
by Kevin Bliss
After 25 years of alternative sentencing through the use of drug courts, experts are still divided on their effectiveness and the ethics that drive the system, according to a November 2, 2020, story in The Boston Globe.
The tough-on-crime policies that dominated the 1980s were soon ...
by Kevin Bliss
The Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) and its medical health-care provider, Centurion Managed Care, have been under investigation by the Vermont Defender General’s Prisoners’ Rights Office (PRO) and the law firm of Downs Rachlin Martin after the death of Kenneth Johnson, a 60-year-old Black prisoner at Northern ...
by Kevin Bliss
Within the first six days of office President Biden signed the ‘‘First Step’’ executive order preventing the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) from renewing any of its contracts with private companies to run its prisons. Activists say the order was nothing more than a token gesture and ...
