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Articles by Matthew Clarke

Unusually High Rate of Prisoners Suicides at San Antonio, Texas Jail

In 2009, all five of the Bexar County Adult Detention Center's (the jail) prisoner deaths were suicides by hanging and a sixth Bexar County prisoner being held in the Crystal City jail due to overcrowding at the jail, committed suicide. That was the year Bexar County Sheriff Amadero Ortiz took ...

Caseloads Vary Widely Among U.S. District Judges

The Transactional Records Clearinghouse (TAC) performed an analysis of available data on U.S. district judges' criminal caseloads from October 2006 through July 2012, excluding judges who resigned, retired or were appointed during the analysis period, TRAC found disparities in criminal caseloads among judges assigned to the same courthouse with some ...

Texas Need Not Prove Ability to Pay Probation Fees Before Revocation

In a November 14, 2012 opinion, The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that the prosecution is not required to prove that a probationer was able to pay fees before he was revoked for nonpayment. The court also held that the court of appeals must determine whether the error raised ...

Department of Justice Publishes Report on Federal Pretrial Release

In November 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice statistics published a report on pretrial release of criminal defendants in federal district courts between 2008 and 2010. The report analyzed how many defendants were released, the type of release, the conditions of release and how much misconduct they ...

Department of Justice Publishes Report on Non-Federal Law Enforcement Hiring

In October 2012, the bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice published a report on the hiring and retention of state and local law enforcement officers in 2008. The report showed a strong growth in the number of such law enforcement officers--about 25% between 1992 and 2008--resulting ...

Avalon Correctional Services Settles Suit Over Alleged Corporate Irregularities

On November 16, 2012, Avalon Correctional Services, Donald Smith and Tiffinay Smith agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Ravenswood Investment Company and Ravenswood Investments III (Ravenswood) over alleged corporate irregularities by the Smiths. The settlement calls for Avalon to purchase all the common shares of stock held by Avalon's ...

Texas Ramps Up Medical Paroles

Recently, Texas has increased the use of medically-recommended parole. The parole board approved over twice as many medical releases in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 than it did in FY 2009. Even so, the 85 Texas prisoners approved to be released for medical reasons in FY 2011 were but a drop ...

New York Federal Court Holds Victim's Hearsay Accusation Insufficient in Prison Disciplinary Case

On April 13, 2012, a New York federal court held that prison officials were liable for convicting a prisoner in a disciplinary action based solely on a victim's hearsay statement and upholding that disciplinary conviction.

Carl Molano, a New York state prisoner, was on the prison's recreation yard when another ...

Sixth Circuit: Requiring Admission of Guilt to Participate in Mandatory-for-Parole SOTP No Fifth Amendment Violation

On April 4, 2012, the Third Circuit court of appeals held that requiring an admission of guilt to participate in an in-prison sex offender treatment program (SOTP) did not violate the Fifth Amendment prohibition against compulsory self-incrimination even if refusal to participate in SOTP was grounds for denial of parole. ...

Federal Consent Decree Bans Isolation at Mississippi Youth Prison

In February 2012, the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) agreed to stop housing juveniles at a privately-run prison in Leake County, Mississippi and enact multiple reforms to protect both the juveniles and the adult prisoners who will remain behind from abuse by prison employees.

The Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility ...