by Matt Clarke
An investigation by the Dallas Morning News into the Christmas Eve 2016 death of prisoner Andy Debusk at the Parker County jail revealed that not only did the guards at the privately-operated facility contribute to Debusk’s death, but several were untrained and employed under temporary licenses. The ...
by Matt Clarke
In May 2019, a federal district court issued an amended judgment awarding $300,000 to a former employee of the Idaho Department of Correction (DOC) in a lawsuit over sexual harassment and a hostile work environment for women.
Cynthia Fuller worked for the DOC for eight years. Hired ...
by Matt Clarke
At a September 2019 hearing, a U.S. District Court judge threatened to throw officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) into the same excessively hot prison cells that the agency had failed to air condition.
Despite agreeing in 2018 to install cooling at the Wallace ...
by Matt Clarke
Cutting the U.S. prisoner population by half is the goal of the #cut50 and End Mass Incarceration movements, and of the criminal justice reform group JustLeadershipUSA, but that will not be possible for at least 75 years unless the issue of long sentences for violent offenses is ...
by Matt Clarke
New York federal jury awarded a former state prison teacher $9.19 million after she proved that a guard had sexually harassed and stalked her – both at work and at home – and that high-ranking prison officials who were informed of the problem retaliated against her and ...
by Matt Clarke
On May 7, 2019, Maricopa County, Arizona agreed to pay a prisoner $175,000 to settle claims related to jail guards reading his legal mail, sharing it with the Attorney General and FBI, and failing to deliver his letters to his attorney.
Thomas Orville Bastian, who represented himself ...
by Matt Clarke
Although the website of the Congressional Black Caucus states that banning private prisons is part of its agenda during the current congressional session, the legally separate but affiliated Congressional Black Caucus Institute (CBCI) has accepted donations from CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America, and the Institute’s 21st ...
by Matt Clarke
On April 18, 2019, a federal district court sanctioned the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) for failing to comply with a prior order and judgment requiring prison officials to provide a state prisoner incarcerated in Virginia with envelopes and postage so he could send legal requests and ...
by Matt Clarke
After the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) settled a lawsuit over excessive heat filed by prisoners at the Wallace Pack Unit, by agreeing to air condition the facility and move heat-sensitive prisoners to cooler cells, many thought the issue of heat-related deaths in Texas prisons had ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 27, 2019, private prison operator The GEO Group, based in Boca Raton, Florida, announced that it would stop operating the Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton.
The company cited inadequate compensation in its contract that made it impossible to recruit and retain staff in ...
