by Matt Clarke
In a resurgence of “tough-on-crime” sentencing reforms that swept the nation in the 1990s, many states enacted “three-strikes” laws mandating life sentences for those convicted of three felony offenses. Mississippi was among them (and harsher than most) with a mandatory sentence of life without parole (LWOP) for ...
by Matt Clarke
On January 24, 2020, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint in California federal court challenging the application to the federal government of a new state law — Assembly Bill 32 (A.B. 32) — which phases out all privately-operated prisons and jails inside state ...
by Matt Clarke
According to a secret report by the Investigation & Intelligence Division of the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC), guards beat and hog-tied a prisoner who was seeking medical attention for what turned out to be fatal injuries he received when he was beaten by another prisoner. The ...
by Matt Clarke
A man who taught female Kansas state prisoners how to make dentures was convicted on March 6, 2020 of molesting a prisoner, sentenced to 32 months in prison and required to register as a sex offender for 25 years.
Thomas Co, 73, was the supervisor of the ...
by Matt Clarke
New Mexico’s Otero County Prison Facility is unusual in that half of it is used by the federal government and half by the New Mexico Department of Corrections (DOC). Both sides are run by private prison operator Management & Training Corporation, or MTC. The state side has ...
by Matt Clarke
On October 10, 2019, a former Michigan Department of Corrections (DOC) prison guard, who is Hispanic and openly gay, settled a lawsuit over her discriminatory treatment at a DOC prison for $135,000.
Twelve months after starting work at the DOC in January 2016, Ashley Menchaca transferred to ...
by Matt Clarke
On February 28, 2020, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1589(a), 1595, or TVPA, applies to privately operated immigration detention centers. The Act prohibits forced labor and it subjects violators to criminal and civil liability.
Plaintiffs Wilhen ...
by Matt Clarke
On March 1, 2020, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) began enforcing sweeping new restrictions on the mail received in its 104 prisons. The new policy basically bans prisoners from receiving anything except letters written on plain white paper mailed in plain white envelopes.
The mail ...
by Matt Clarke
Around the globe, governments are releasing prisoners in an attempt to mitigate the threat of COVID-19-related mass deaths in their jails and prisons. However, Third World countries are far ahead of most of the so-called “advanced” nations. They have released torrents of prisoners compared to a trickle ...
by Matt Clarke
The COVID-19 pandemic, or rather government officials’ inept reaction to the pandemic, has led to unrest in prisons around the world—especially in South America and the Middle East. This has resulted in the escape of hundreds and the death of dozens of prisoners.
The typical initial response ...
