by Matt Clarke
Texas Governor Rick Perry caused considerable controversy on Sept. 30, 2009 when he replaced three members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, just two days before the commission’s hearing on a report that an innocent man may have been executed during Perry’s tenure. As a result the ...
by Matt Clarke
Technological innovations and tech-savvy sex offenders, combined with budget cuts, have made it harder for law enforcement authorities to monitor the nation’s estimated 716,750 registered sex offenders (RSOs).
That does not include all RSOs, as some are not required to register and around 100,000 have failed to ...
by Matt Clarke
In February 2010, Ohio Penal Industries (OPI) announced it planned to close several prison industry programs and reduce its prisoner work force from 1,554 to 1,269 due to budget cuts. Previously, OPI stated in December 2009 that it was discontinuing its wood office furniture operation as part ...
by Matt Clarke
The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at New York’s Yeshiva University. Since that time the Innocence Project and its partners have been instrumental in securing the release of many of ...
by Matt Clarke
On November 12, 2009, Pennsylvania state representative John M. Perzel was charged with 82 counts of theft, conflict of interest, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and hindering apprehension or prosecution as a result of Attorney General Tom Corbett’s long-running investigation into political corruption, nicknamed “Bonusgate.” Perzel, a Republican ...
by Matt Clarke
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit prison company, already spends a significant amount of money courting federal agencies and members of Congress. CCA employs three lobbying firms in Washington D.C., spent about $1 million in lobbying on the federal level in 2009, and has ...
by Matt Clarke
On May 20, 2010, a $2.9 million settlement was reached in a Pennsylvania federal civil rights lawsuit against GEO Group for performing suspicionless strip searches of people arrested for minor, non-violent, non-drug offenses.
Penny Allison inadvertently missed a scheduled court appointment finalizing her probation program in a ...
by Matt Clarke
On November 30, 2009, a maximum-security Texas state prisoner who was shackled to a wheelchair in the back of a transport van while being transferred between prisons pulled out a pistol, commandeered the van, handcuffed the guards together and escaped. He was recaptured eight days later.
Arcade ...
by Matt Clarke
On September 17, 2009, Steven Charles Phillips, a former Texas prisoner who spent 24 years in prison on a rape charge before being exonerated in 2008, filed suit in Dallas County district court against his former attorney, Kevin Glasheen, and his attorney’s law firm, Glasheen, Valles, Inderman ...
by Matt Clarke
In December 2009, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of the U.S. Department of Justice released statistical data on capital punishment in the United States for 2008. The report was later revised to include preliminary statistics on capital punishment in 2009.
Of the 37 executions carried out ...
