Prisons
Lax prison policies questioned after Pa. guard’s killing
Attorneys for an inmate accused of murdering a federal correctional officer cited a Citizens’ Voice investigation into the case as they laid the groundwork Wednesday to spare him from the death penalty. For a December story the paper obtained closely guarded prison documents that showed a stark shift in the way the inmate Jessie Con-ui was disciplined. Treatement ranged from…
Read MoreGuards may be responsible for half of prison sexual assaults
Jail and prison officials are reporting an increase in allegations of sex abuse, according to a new report from the Justice Department. ProPublica broke down the numbers and found some disturbing trends. The vast majority of sex abuse allegations are deemed “unfounded” by prison officials. Officials often allowed abusive staff members to resign, preventing the…
Read MorePrivate Prisons: Profit, Politics, Pain
“Patterns of rape, riots and squalor are found in lockups. Some incidents are tied to too few and often inexperienced guards. Some examples: An inmate left alone in horticulture class attacks another with a chunk of concrete. One inmate was so poorly fed, he ate crumbs off the floor.”
Read MorePretrial detainees on the rise in New York
WNYC News reports that “over the past decade, as New York City’s backlog of felony cases has grown, so too has the time defendants are spending behind bars before trial. The average pretrial detention in a felony case was 95 days in 2012.”
Read MoreNew York Promised Help for Mentally Ill Inmates — But Still Sticks Many in Solitary
“In New York, inmates diagnosed with ‘serious’ disorders should be protected from solitary confinement. But since that policy began, the number of inmates diagnosed with such disorders has dropped,” according to a ProPublica report.
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: Mentally ill inmates, sex predators unleashed, civil liberties violations
Sex Predators Unleashed | Sun-Sentinel“Another child is dead. This time, a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl, a year younger than Jimmy Ryce. A 1999 law passed after Jimmy was raped and murdered at age 9 is meant to protect Floridians from sex offenders by keeping the most dangerous locked up after they finish their prison sentences. But…
Read MoreLocked in Terror
The Fresno Bee reports: “The Fresno County Jail has been a place of terror and despair for mentally ill inmates who spiral deeper into madness because jail officials withhold their medication. About one in six jail inmates is sick enough to need antipsychotic drugs to control schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and other psychiatric conditions, but many…
Read MoreSan Diego law enforcement relied on troubled nonprofit to teach corrective behavior
For community service and corrective classes, San Diego law enforcement has sent defendants to organizations like the Corrective Behavior Institute for community service. In doing so, it has “sent people who haven’t followed the rules to a nonprofit that hasn’t followed them either,” according to an investigation by the Voice of San Diego, which found shoddy…
Read MoreSyria’s Unspoken Crimes
There have been reports that in war-torn Syria, rape has become an epidemic as both sides seek to destabilize, frighten and ruin the other. But unearthing the stories of these widespread atrocities is difficult, and often impossible. Women in Syria face dire political, personal and familiar consequences if they admit to being victims — no…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: informants allowed to commit crimes, programs covered up, travel rules bent at UCLA
UCLA officials bend travel rules with first-class flights, luxury hotels | The Center for Investigative ReportingOver the past several years, six of 17 academic deans at the Westwood campus routinely have submitted doctors’ notes stating they have a medical need to fly in a class other than economy, costing the university $234,000 more than it…
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