by Matt Clarke
In the 1980s, faced with overcrowded prisons and probationers who often failed to pay their court-ordered fees and fines, some Texas counties came up with what sounded like a good idea: the Probationer Restitution Center (PRC). A PRC is essentially a group of dedicated jail beds used ...
by Matt Clarke
On August 6, 2009, a federal judge ruled that hearings held by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles (BPP) to determine whether onerous sex offender conditions should be imposed on parolees not convicted of sex offenses had violated a parolee’s right to procedural due process.
Ray ...
by Matt Clarke
On December 12, 2008, a riot erupted at the GEO Group-run Reeves County Detention Center (RCDC) in Pecos, Texas, which houses federal immigration detainees. The uprising was triggered by the death of a prisoner who had received inadequate medical care. A second, more serious riot at the ...
by Matt Clarke
The Bureau of Justice Statistics recently released statistics on state and local law enforcement arrest-related deaths for the years 2003 to 2006. Although Georgia, Montana and Maryland failed to respond to the survey and Nevada and Wyoming only provided information for one year, the statistics showed that ...
by Matt Clarke
When Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle signed legislation to grant early release to certain prisoners, he just couldn’t win. “It went too far,” said Republicans. “It didn’t go far enough,” retorted his fellow Democrats. What in fact Governor Doyle did was authorize a new form of parole.
Wisconsin ...
by Matt Clarke
On September 5, 2007, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a guard who used a cattle prod to shock a prisoner without any provocation caused more than a de minimis injury.
Dale Keith Payne, a Texas state prisoner, was working at the back gate of ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 29, 2009, the State of Ohio’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released an investigative report concerning the relationship between Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) Assistant Director Michael Randle and Keith B. Key, President of Columbus-based KBK Enterprises, a real estate development company. ...
by Matt Clarke
On August 4, 2009, a consent decree was entered in a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of jail prisoners with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) over conditions of confinement at the Canyon County Jail in Caldwell, Idaho. The defendants agreed to eliminate overcrowding ...
by Matt Clarke
On October 15, 2009, the Wyoming Department of Corrections’ Wind River Mushroom Farm in Shoshoni was sold at auction for an undisclosed amount. The agricultural program, which began in 2004 as an $8 million public-private partnership that used state funds and federal loan guarantees, was once called ...
by Matt Clarke
On August 18, 2009, a settlement was reached in a class-action lawsuit over conditions of confinement at the Baltimore City Detention Center (BCDC). The lawsuit dates back to 1971 and had been on the federal district court’s inactive docket from 1999 until 2004 following a 1993 consent ...
