by Matthew T. Clarke
In another bizarre twist to an already bewildering prosecution history, on September 9, 2005, Texas federal district judge Lynn Hughes, by judicial fiat, acquitted Andy Collins, the former executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), and Yank Barry, the Canadian ex-con owner of ...
Illinois DOC Seeks to Block Ex-Wardens Benefits
by Matthew T. Clarke
On September 13, 2005, the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) filed an appeal of a workers compensation arbitrators decision to grant ex-prison warden William Barham permanent total disabilities benefits. Barhams injuries stem from a fatal one-vehicle accident for which ...
Houston Grand Juries Mostly Law-Enforcement and Government Employees
by Matthew T. Clarke
Ever since a ruling by the U. S. Supreme Court in Smith v. State of Texas, 311 U.S. 128, 61 S.Ct. 164, 85 L.Ed. 84 (1940), grand juries have been required to represent a broad cross-section" of the ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
Tony Fabelo was the head of the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council for two decades. He survived multiple changes of administration by doing a great job as the state's top number-cruncher on prison issues. Legislators of both parties say the Cuban-born Ph.D., a nationally-known authority on ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
Republican State Representative Ray Allen of Grand Prairie, Texas, Chairman of the Texas House Corrections Committee, has been using his state employees and state equipment to operate a private firm that specializes in consulting and lobbying for the private prison industry. Allen's company, called Service House, ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
The Fifth Circuit court of appeals held that a homosexual prisoner who prison officials allegedly allowed to be repeatedly sexually assaulted and made a sex slave may sue the prison officials for both failures to protect him in violation of the Eighth Amendment and discrimination based ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
On September 14, 2004, a prisoner uprising rocked the 816-bed, 88-acre Lee Adjustment Center (LAC), a private prison owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) in Lee County, Kentucky.
The Prison
LAC was built in 1990 as a 400-bed, minimum-security prison by a private ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
Hundreds of thousands of men and women are hidden from society—social failures convicted of felonies—behind concrete walls and razor wire in isolated parts of our country. Nestled among them are society's silenced victims—the wrongfully convicted.
Society is loath to admit its mistakes. Citizens would rather believe ...
