The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a preliminary injunction prohibiting an Arizona sheriff from displaying live video of prisoners in the Maricopa County Jail on the internet.
This case arises from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's latest publicity stunt. Already known for humiliating prisoners by dressing them ...
It's a state already steeped in heritage--birthplace of The Star Spangled Banner, home to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, and site of the bloody Civil War battle at Antietam. But now Maryland is raising a new legacy: a system of dangerous and deadly prisons.
Much of the scrutiny directed ...
In a strongly worded opinion chastising Massachusetts officials for over 1itigating a case in which a prisoner's constitutional right of access to courts was clearly violated, a federal district court awarded attorneys' fees and costs of $99,981 to the plaintiff. Plaintiff's counsel, a commercial law firm, had volunteered to represent ...
Texas prisoners can sell artwork over the internet and retain the proceeds as long as the value is not increased because of their notoriety, an opinion by Attorney General Greg Abbott has confirmed.
The Attorney General's January 25, 2005, opinion was in response to a judicial inquiry by state Representative ...
By Michael Rigby
Most people will accept that certain perks are available to a state’s top lawmakers. What is unacceptable, however, is that these perks often continue even after the public trust has been violated. The case of former New York Senator Guy Velella, a once powerful Republican convicted of ...
Efforts to implement the data collection requirements of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) have begun, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) report.
Signed into law by President George W. Bush on September 4, 2003, the Prison Rape Elimination Act [Public Law 108-79] calls for a wide range ...
The Washington Department of Corrections has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a contempt action stemming from alleged violations of a consent decree governing medical care at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW). Pending approval by the court, roughly half of the money will be used to pay attorneys' ...
By Michael Rigby
Federal prison guards and other employees who have sex with prisoners are rarely prosecuted, and when convictions do result the punishment is often trivial, according to a report by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). The April 2005 report, Deterring Staff Sexual Abuse of Federal ...
Award-winning prison journalist and civil rights figure Wilbert Rideau, once described as “the most rehabilitated prisoner in America,” is free after spending more than four decades behind bars. Ironically, Rideau’s freedom came not from being exonerated, but from being found guilty a fourth time.
Rideau was a 19-year-old, virtually illiterate, ...
In August 2004, two teenage girls raped by guards at a Colorado juvenile prison settled their lawsuits for $165,000 apiece. Both girls had been imprisoned at the Youthful Offender System (YOS), which is operated by the Colorado Department of Corrections. Their lawsuits were identical and involved the same defendants. The ...
