by Matt Clarke
In January 2009, the Southwest Institute for Research on Women (SWIRW) and the Bacon Immigration Law and Policy Program of the University of Arizona published a report on women held in Arizona immigration prisons. It dealt with three locations: Central Arizona Detention Center (CADC) and Pinal County ...
by Matt Clarke
In February 2009, The Sentencing Project released a report on developments in sentencing policies and practices in 2008. The report notes that, with 2.3 million prisoners, 5 million citizens on parole or probation and a worldwide economic crisis, sentencing reforms to reduce the prison population have gained ...
by Matt Clarke
A number of counties in Arkansas have been sending their toxic electronics waste, including broken computers and televisions, to Federal Prison Industries, Inc. (UNICOR), the industry program for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
UNICOR uses prisoners at a federal facility in Texarkana, Texas to process the ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 4, 2008, a federal jury in Iowa awarded $750,000 to two political protesters who were arrested at the direction of the Secret Service, taken to jail and unlawfully strip-searched. After the court ordered another trial, a second jury awarded damages in the reduced amount of ...
by Matt Clarke
On February 2, 2009, Stuart W. Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, released a report on the United States’ appropriation of $50 billion for rebuilding efforts in Iraq.
The report, titled Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience, blamed many of the problems encountered in reconstruction projects ...
by Matt Clarke
On December 18, 2008, just a week before Christmas, the U.S. Postal Service abruptly suspended its decades-old Operation Santa Claus, a holiday program in which volunteers sift through children’s letters addressed to Santa, “adopt” one or more letters, and then provide gifts to needy children.
The reason ...
Cheney and Gonzales Indicted in Connection with Private Prison in Texas
by Matt Clarke
On November 17, 2008, a Texas grand jury returned an indictment against then-Vice President Richard B. Cheney and former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, charging Cheney with contributing to prisoner abuse in privately-run prisons and Gonzales ...
By Matt Clarke
On February 20, 2009, a medic in the U.S. Army was sentenced to life in prison for his part in the 2007 murder of four Iraqi prisoners in Baghdad. The next day, the infamous Abu Ghraib prison reopened under a new name.
Sgt. Michael Leahy, Jr., 28, ...
Texas Court of Appeals Upholds $42.5 Million Award Against Wackenhut / GEO Group
by Matt Clarke
On April 2, 2009, a Texas Court of Appeals upheld a jury award of $22,000,000 in actual damages and $20,500,000 in punitive damages against Wackenhut Corrections (now known as GEO Group) in a lawsuit ...
New Trial and JNOV Denial Upheld in $15,545,000 Michigan Prisoner Sexual Harassment Case
by Matt Clarke
On January 27, 2009, the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld a trial court’s denial of a motion for judgment nonwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) or a new trial in a case that resulted in a ...
