During its six years of operation, the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility has been criticized over abuse, suicide attempts, and a policy of filling beds at the maximum-security prison with low level offenders. But even after its closure, the privately run prison continues to poison the community and divide the government. ...
Even though suicide and homicide rates among prisoners have been falling since the 1980s, thousands still die in U.S. prisons and jails every year. During 2001 and 2002, 5,824 state prisoners died in custody, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) report released in August 2005. Another 2,843 prisoners ...
At yearend 2004, nearly 7 million adults were in prison, on parole, or on probation in the U.S.--2.5 million more than in 1990--according to a study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics released on November 2, 2005.
Put another way, roughly 1 in every 31 adults were under some form ...
Laura Woolseys biggest fear was dying in jail. But thanks to the inept care provided her at New Yorks Schenectady County Jail, that fear was tragically realized.
Woolsey, 39, died at the jail on August 3, 2005, three hours after complaining of chest pain. She had been returned to the ...
The U.S. reached a new milestone in 2004: the imprisonment of nearly 2.3 million citizens, according to a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released in October 2005.
On December 31, 2004, 2,267,787 men, women, and children were held in the nations prisons and jails. The number represents ...
During the Civil War, General William Tecumseh Shermans devastating march through the South was a blight on Georgia and all who lived there. Today, the safety of many Georgians particularly the 50,000 confined in the states 37 prisons is just as precarious.
At one state prison guards are accused of ...
More than two-thirds of U.S. jail, prisoners in 2002 were found to be dependent on drugs or alcohol or to abuse them. But many never get the help they need, a study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reveals.
According to the July 2005 report, Substance Dependence, Abuse, and ...
In September 2004, the Georgia Department of Corrections (CDOC) settled for $15,000 a prisoner lawsuit alleging that understaffing at the maximum-security Georgia State Prison (GSP) compromised prisoner safety. The GDOC also agreed to increase staffing levels in prisoner housing areas at the prison.
GSP prisoner Gregory M. Lamb claimed that ...
The virtual elimination of overtime pay for guards--a cost-cutting move by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ)--has contributed to rising turnover rates and probably comprised safety in the state's chronically understaffed prisons.
In March 2003, TDCJ began awarding comp" time for the first 240 hours of overtime worked during ...
A 500-bed federal detention center may have caused more problems than it solved for cash-strapped Willacy County, Texas. Three county commissioners have already been convicted of accepting kickbacks from companies involved with the prison, and a state senator's ties to three contractors has raised ethical questions. The detention center is ...
