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. ...
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 ...
On February 23, 2012, a Washington State court certified as a class action a challenge to the failure of the prisoner telephone service in some Washington State prisons to provide rate information.
Sandy Judd, Tara Herivel and Columbia Legal Services are class representatives for persons who received phone calls from ...
It is well known that restrictions on where registered sex offenders (RSOs) are permitted to reside in Miami resulted in the creation of an RSO camp under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. PLN recently reported that the RSOs who were removed from that camp and offered temporary housing leases were thrown ...
In 2007, when Texas became the last state in the union to allow prisoner phone calls, the limit on phone usage was 120 minutes a month. In 2009, the Texas Board of Criminal Justice (TBCJ) responded to requests by prisoners' families and doubled the monthly phone minute allotment to 240. ...
A June 2011 report by the Justice Policy Institute entitled "Gaming the System: How the Political Strategies of Private Prison Companies Promote Ineffective Incarceration Policies reveals how private prison companies (PPCs) use political campaign donations, political lobbyists and relationships with government officials to increase their profits by promoting policies that ...
Despite federal legislation aimed at preventing the rape of prisoners and the adoption of "zero-tolerance" policies toward sexual assault of prisoners by many jurisdictions, the sexual assault of prisoners by jail and prison employees continues to be prevalent throughout the United States. This is demonstrated by the multitude of media ...
On February 9, 2016, a Texas court held that a person adjudged delinquent for capital murder as a juvenile and later transferred from the Texas Youth Commission to the adult prison system is not subject to the extraordinary parole review requirement set forth in §508.046, Texas Government Code (TGC).
Zahir ...
On March 2, 2015, a California Court of Appeal held that the blanket enforcement of California’s residency restrictions against all registered sex offender parolees (RSOPs) in San Diego County was unconstitutional.
This case involves four RSOPs who are representative of the over 150 RSOPs in San Diego County who filed ...
A Texas man, Michael Phillips, 57, recently became the first person to be cleared of a crime by DNA testing he did not request.
Phillips was accused of raping a white teenage girl at a Dallas motel in 1990. The victim, who had partially removed her attacker’s face mask during ...
