By Matt Clarke
On September 24, 2008, a Texas court of appeals issued an order allowing a Texas prisoner to proceed in forma pauperis despite having improperly filed his affidavit of indigence with the wrong court.
Junior Ray Brown, a Texas state prisoner, filed suit in state district court alleging ...
By Matt Clarke
On November 26, 2008, a Texas court of appeals held that a state district court must file a prisoner's civil suit petition even if he had not paid for the court-ordered fees and costs in a previously filed suit that was currently on appeal.
Gordon R. Simmonds, ...
by Matt Clarke
On October 12, 2009, a Texas state district court held that the City of Houston had no right to keep secret over 250 government documents related to the deployment and use of traffic cameras at intersections controlled by traffic lights.
After a Rice University study found that ...
by Matt Clarke
In 2009 the Texas legislature amended a law, codified at Article 16.22 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, with the intent to require early identification of mentally ill jail prisoners so they can receive appropriate treatment and consideration upon sentencing.
Bexar County, which includes the city of ...
by Matt Clarke
In March 2010 the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) released a report on the impact of in-prison sex offender treatment programs on recidivism rates. The results of the study “suggest that prison-based treatment in Minnesota produces a significant, albeit modest, reduction in sex offender recidivism.”
The report ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 8, 2010, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France held that four suspects being detained in the United Kingdom pending extradition to the United States on terrorism charges could challenge their extradition based upon the expected prison conditions they would be subjected ...
by Matt Clarke
In September 2010, Indiana Department of Corrections (DOC) officials announced the suspension of a dozen employees at the Pendleton Correctional Facility following a crackdown on contraband smuggling. [See: PLN, Oct. 2010, p.50]. Pendleton houses about 2,000 prisoners and has approximately 600 employees.
The crackdown, which included cell-by-cell ...
by Matt Clarke
Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie insisted on budget cuts in 2010, except when it came to funding treatment centers, formerly called halfway houses. Gov. Christie wanted to increase funding for treatment centers by $3.1 million, from $61.5 million to $64.6 million, which would benefit prisoners after ...
by Matt Clarke
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals found that New York’s Persistent Felony Offender Statute (PFOS), N.Y. Penal Law § 70.10 , which allows enhancement of sentences for prior felony convictions, violated the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. However, that finding was later reversed by an en ...
by Matt Clarke
On August 19, 2010, the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) issued a report concerning the July 30 escape of three prisoners from a privately-operated prison in Kingman, Arizona. The report was highly critical of Management and Training Corporation (MTC), the for-profit firm that runs the Kingman facility. ...
