The Institute of Justice (IJ) is helping two Texas women with master’s degrees in social work challenge a 2019 state law that bars anyone with a prior conviction involving the threat or use of force from ever receiving a license to practice in a healthcare profession, including social work. Each ...
In May 2024, California federal District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers took the unusual step of writing a letter to numerous other judges who had sentenced women formerly incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Dublin and might be considering compassionate release pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). In the letter, she described conditions ...
On December 6, 2024, the Supreme Court of Nebraska clarified when a sentencing court is required to award credit for time served while incarcerated in a foreign country awaiting extradition. It held that crediting time served was mandatory provided the time was for the instant charge and had not been ...
As PLN has extensively reported, the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility (CCCF), Oregon’s only women’s prison, has been a decades long hotbed of staff sexual abuse. Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) administrators have long known about the problem, which has been detailed in reports by independent groups, but have done little ...
A recently published study of cognitive impairment (CI) among older prisoners held by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) showed that over 35%—more than 1 in 3—suffered from some form of CI.
The study used a random and representative sample of 143 of the state’s 20,202 prisoners aged 55 and over at the time; their mean age was 61.3. Each participant took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), a screening tool which involved a 15-minute interview with a masters-level psychologist. The MoCA has “high sensitivity for the detection of MCI [mild cognitive impairment] and dementia, especially in persons with low formal education,” the study report noted. Scores under 23 indicated CI while those under 18 indicated dementia, under MoCA scoring guidelines.
The results also showed that 9.1% of TDCJ participants “met the threshold for dementia.” Blacks, Hispanics and those suffering from serious depression “had a higher prevalence of a positive screen for MCI or dementia.” Alarmingly, only 15.4% of those who screened positive for dementia had a prior diagnosis of dementia in their medical records, indicating a severe under diagnosis of dementia among Texas prisoners.
This was the first look at CI in a randomized study of older state ...
On September 6, 2024, the Supreme Court of Kansas held that a prisoner’s due process rights were violated when he was able only to observe his parental rights termination hearing via videoconferencing and was unable to testify or consult with his attorney during the hearing.
Federal prisoner “H.S.” and “R.A.” ...
On September 11, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated a summary judgment dismissing a prisoner’s claim that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) refused to provide him a diet that conformed to dietary requirements of his Baha’i religious beliefs and remanded for further ...
On September 5, 2024, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) gave the last signoff to a $5.6 million settlement with the wife of a state prisoner who was forced to strip and submit to an invasive body cavity search when she went to visit him.
When Christina Cardenas, ...
In a research paper published on October 15, 2024, UCLA law professor Sharon Dolovich examined the state of civil rights law regarding excessive use of force by American prison guards and concluded that the current standard is woefully inadequate to protect prisoners from abuse or permit redress once excessive force ...
by Matt Clarke
On August 22, 2024, the federal court for the Eastern District of Kentucky sentenced Jesse Kipf to 81 months in federal prison for hacking into the Hawai’i Death Registry the year before. It was a strange crime; in his guilty plea, Kipf, 39, admitted to using the ...
