Skip navigation

Articles by Matthew Clarke

Two Reports Find at Least 54 Countries Complicit in Secret CIA Prisons

Two Reports Find at Least 54 Countries Complicit in Secret CIA Prisons

by Matt Clarke

The Central Intelligence Agency operated a network of prisons around the globe where suspected terrorists were routinely tortured, and in some cases the agency secured funding for foreign governments to pave the way for greater ...

Vermont Newspaper Defends Hiring Reporter with Sex Offense Conviction

Vermont Newspaper Defends Hiring Reporter with Sex Offense Conviction

by Matt Clarke

The publisher of a Vermont newspaper and its sister publication defended the hiring of a registered sex offender as a reporter covering the police and court beats after facing criticism from a rival paper and national media watchdog ...

Texas Prisoner Held in Prison 35 Years after Conviction Vacated

Texas Prisoner Held in Prison 35 Years after Conviction Vacated

by Matt Clarke

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas denied a bid to halt the retrial of a mentally challenged prisoner whose original conviction was overturned but who remained incarcerated almost 35 years later. In ruling ...

Terrorism Suspect Moves to Suppress Statements Made to FBI due to Torture Threats

Terrorism Suspect Moves to Suppress Statements Made to FBI due to Torture Threats

by Matt Clarke

A former British citizen with ties to the U.S.-designated terrorist group al-Shabaab asked a court to suppress statements he gave to FBI agents on the grounds that he was illegally pressured into making them ...

Controversy Surrounds Shackling of Dying and Comatose Prisoners in UK

Controversy Surrounds Shackling of Dying and Comatose Prisoners in UK

by Matt Clarke

Authorities at Great Britain’s HM Prison Frankland pledged to change the way ill and dying prisoners are shackled in the aftermath of a scathing report by the UK’s prison ombudsman concerning a prisoner who died while chained ...

Two Names Added to Monument Memorializing Slain Prosecutors

Two Names Added to Monument Memorializing Slain Prosecutors

by Matt Clarke

Two more names will be added to the National Prosecutor Memorial in Columbia, South Carolina to mark the deaths of two Texas prosecutors, murdered within months of each other by a former Justice of the Peace who sought vengeance ...

Nebraska Returns Ex-Offenders to Prison after Sentence Miscalculation Scandal

Nebraska Returns Ex-Offenders to Prison after Sentence Miscalculation Scandal

by Matt Clarke

Nebraska authorities have re-incarcerated nearly two dozen state prisoners who were released early because officials miscalculated their release dates. The state decided not to pursue hundreds of other offenders who had also been released prematurely.

Two Nebraska Department ...

$750,000 Settlement in New Mexico “Controlled Seating” Lawsuit

On September 2013, a proposed settlement was filed in a lawsuit over forcibly seating prisoners “nuts-to-butts” for hours at a time at a New Mexico state prison – a practice also known as “controlled seating.” The settlement provides $750,000 to be divided among the class members after incentive payments to ...

West Virginia City Settles Suit over Jail Prisoner’s Death for $460,000

West Virginia City Settles Suit over Jail Prisoner’s Death for $460,000

by Matt Clarke

On June 10, 2013, following a $460,000 settlement, a West Virginia federal court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the estate of a prisoner who died at the Bluefield City Jail.

According to the complaint in the ...

Texas Prisoners Face Annual Shortage of Hygiene Items in Prison Commissaries

Texas Prisoners Face Annual Shortage of Hygiene Items in Prison Commissaries

by Matt Clarke

It’s a regular routine for Texas state prisoners – commissaries running out of hygiene supplies and other items as purchasing contracts are renewed.

The contracts for Texas prison commissaries expire at the end of August, when ...