Prisons
Nebraska prison doors open too soon
“The examination of prison records revealed that Nebraska Department of Correctional Services officials had released or were set to release dozens of prisoners years before their sentences were supposed to end. All told, state officials had carved at least 750 years off the collective sentences of more than 200 of the state’s worst criminals. The…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: Nebraska releases prisoners early; Koch brothers hold secret summit; Missile defense system proves unreliable
$40-billion missile defense system proves unreliable | Los Angeles Times The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, or GMD, was supposed to protect Americans against a chilling new threat from “rogue states” such as North Korea and Iran. But a decade after it was declared operational, and after $40 billion in spending, the missile shield cannot be relied…
Read MoreAttorney General emails detail discussions before botched Oklahoma execution
In the weeks leading up to a botched execution, an Oklahoma assistant attorney general referred to defense attorneys’ warnings that the execution could go awry as “hysterical speculation,” records released to the Tulsa World show. Assistant Attorney General John Hadden also wrote in a March 21 email that he was “not eager to answer a…
Read MoreStudents without legal representation jailed in Knox County, Tenn.
In Knox County, Tennessee some students are ending up in jail even though they haven’t committed any crimes. Federal and state laws are supposed to keep juveniles who have committed status offenses – like truancy or running away – out of jail. An investigation by the Center for Public Integrity has found evidence that Knox…
Read MoreVirginia paroling violent, mentally ill patients
But what happened in Apartment 433 was more than just another murder. It was a window into today’s mental health care: a system as dysfunctional as the clients it serves. So gutted it has little power to put away even the most dangerous for any real length of time – and almost nowhere to keep…
Read MoreMilwaukee County jail guard stalked, videotaped female co-workers
When former Milwaukee County jail guard Aron Arvelo was charged recently with two felonies accusing him of secretly recording female co-workers, it wasn’t the first time he had run into trouble for harassing women. Just 2 1/2 years earlier, officials tried unsuccessfully to fire Arvelo after he was caught stalking a co-worker. But a five-member…
Read MoreCalifornia’s $840-million medical prison beset by waste and mismanagement
California’s $840-million medical prison — the largest in the nation — was built to provide care to more than 1,800 inmates. When fully operational, it was supposed to help the state’s prison system emerge from a decade of federal oversight brought on by the persistent neglect and poor medical treatment of inmates. But since opening…
Read MoreInmate suicides bring attention to South Carolina’s treatment of mentally ill prisoners
A class-action lawsuit could soon change the way an estimated 3,500 inmates with severe mental illnesses are treated in South Carolina’s prison system. The case exposed numerous stories of mentally ill inmates being gassed, locked in solitary confinement for years at a time, denied effective treatment and caged naked, alone and cold in makeshift crisis…
Read MoreEscape dilemma at Avalon
A Tulsa World investigation found that officials at Avalon Correction Center marked serious offenses such as escape attempts and substance-related offenses as minor misconducts, instead of X-level offenses. Avalon is a halfway house, which are among the lowest-security facilities for Department of Corrections inmates, where some inmates who committed nonviolence crimes finish the end of…
Read MoreTennessee inmate execution details kept secret
The state of Tennessee doesn’t want you to know how it will kill the condemned. It doesn’t want you to know who will flip the switch, sending a lethal dose of pentobarbital through the veins of death row inmates. And it doesn’t want you to know how it obtained that pentobarbital — which isn’t available…
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