By Michael Rigby
Three female prisoners have died after contracting a deadly strain of Staph infection while confined in Pennsylvania jails. All of the deaths occurred in March 2005. Two of the women, originally said to have inhaled toxic fumes while cleaning one of the jails, died within hours of ...
More than two years after the closure of its DNA division, the Houston Police Department (HPD) crime lab remains a lesson in how not to run a forensics unit. Recent developments include the discovery of 280 boxes of misplaced evidence and a revelation that an analyst from a private laboratory ...
The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) will pay $1.45 million to settle a federal lawsuit arising from the 2003 death of Omar Paisley at the Miami-Dade Regional Juvenile Detention Center, the Miami Herald reported on November 2, 2004. A separate settlement was reached with Miami Children's Hospital, the prison's ...
Texas: "Prison-Rape Capital Of The Country"
by Michael Rigby
Despite reputed efforts by officials in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to curb prison rapes, the number of reported sexual assaults has increased 160% in the past 4 years, from 234 in 2000 to 609 in 2004.
Some prisoner ...
Following news that a disproportionate number of paroled sex offenders were concentrated on Chicago’s South Side, Illinois officials instituted more rigid oversight of transitional group homes and returned 55 parolees to prison.
The Chicago Tribune reported on January 3l, 2005, that 10.5% (158) of the state’s 1,503 currently paroled sex ...
Texas: Prison-Rape Capital Of The Country
by Michael Rigby
Despite reputed efforts by officials in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to curb prison rapes, the number of reported sexual assaults has increased 160% in the past 4 years, from 234 in 2000 to 609 in 2004.
Some prisoner ...
Problems Plague Illinois Jails And Prisons,
Employees Watch Television for Pay
by Michael Rigby
While Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was using Department of Corrections (DOC) resources to monitor his image on television, sex, drugs, and violence reigned supreme in the state's jails and prisons.
In 2002 and 2003, Illinois was ...
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it does. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, Jr., resigned his seat, leaving President Bush to name an even more reactionary successor. Not only will the pro-choice Roe v. Wade ruling fall by the wayside, making life for women increasingly difficult, but ...
by: Michael Rigby
Emotional and physical distress...restricted diets... "greeting beatings" ...high rates of mental illness...a reliance on warehousing instead of treatment. This is the troubling reality of disciplinary confinement in New York, according to a 54-page report released on October 22, 2003, by the New York Correctional Association (NYCA), a ...
