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Criminal Law

The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

News, commentary and analysis on prisons: government proposals with the aim of stemming overcrowding and recidivism; inmate living conditions and changing demographics; sentencing issues.
By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Post Frequency: 33.9/day

Last Entry: March 27, 2011 at 18:14:51

PA considers sending prisoners to MI

Posted on August 13, 2009
State Department of Corrections officials confirmed Tuesday that Pennsylvania has approached Michigan about off-loading(!!!!) some of its prison population, which has grown from 48,000 to 51,000 since December. Wednesday, August 12, 2009 Pa. considers sending inmates to Mich...

Vera Institute: At least 23 states spend less on prisons

Posted on August 12, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 At least 23 states spend less on prisons By John Gramlich, Stateline.org Staff Writer http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=418338 A survey of 33 states by the Vera Institute of Justice found that 23 have slashed funding for corrections this year:...

MA: County Sheriffs Reform Law

Posted on August 12, 2009
From Senator Stan Rosenberg's email report: August 12, 2009 County Sheriffs Reform Law On Aug. 6th, the governor signed a bill that completes a set of reforms that I initiated when I chaired the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The...

Review: "When a Heart Turns Rock Solid" probes Lives of 3 Springfield MA brothers

Posted on August 12, 2009
Review: 'Rock' probes the lives of three Springfield brothers By THE DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE Wednesday, August 12, 2009 "When a Heart Turns Rock Solid" (Pantheon Books), a window into the lives of three Puerto Rican brothers in Springfield slides open...

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States Can't Afford Prison System Boom

Posted on August 12, 2009
NEAL PEIRCE States Can't Afford Prison System Boom August 12, 2009 In a season of deep deficits and alarming program cuts, why aren't states more seriously focused on reducing their swelling prison populations? The Vera Institute of Justice reports unusual...

IL: Cook county Commissioners pass ordinance to decriminalize 10 grams of marijuana

Posted on August 11, 2009
Posted in the Unshackle List serve by: Catherine Christeller Executive Director Chicago Women's AIDS Project Here is some good news about changes in the marijuana policy in Cook County, Illinois. Evidently this was inspired by a drug policy conference...

NY Times Editorial: The Chino Prison Riot

Posted on August 11, 2009
Editorial: The Chino Prison Riot The New York Times Published: August 10, 2009 Around 200 inmates were injured, 55 seriously, over the weekend in an 11-hour prison riot in California that appears to have had strong racial overtones. Officials are...

PA: Unions Favored On Prison Projects

Posted on August 11, 2009
Unions Favored On Prison Projects By BRADLEY?VASOLI, The Bulletin Monday, August 10, 2009 The state expects to build two new prisons in place of Graterford in Skippack Township, Montgomery County, and is prepared to allow only union labor in the...

Iowa Spends Second Least Per Capita On Prisons

Posted on August 11, 2009
Iowa Spends Second Least Per Capita On Prisons Posted: 10 Aug 2009 02:47 PM PDT Iowa taxpayers are getting a bargain on spending for state prisons and community corrections programs, a state official said Friday, as reported by the Des...

Prisoners and Workers Poisoned by Prison Reycling at UNICOR are suing

Posted on August 11, 2009
Prisoners Exposed to Toxic Dust at UNICOR Recycling Factories by Brandon Sample Prison Legal News https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/20750_displayArticle.aspx Federal Prison Industries (FPI), the largest legal sweatshop in America, has jeopardized the lives and safety of untold numbers of prisoners and staff working...

Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor? By BARBARA EHRENREICH

Posted on August 10, 2009
August 9, 2009 OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor? By BARBARA EHRENREICH IT'S too bad so many people are falling into poverty at a time when it's almost illegal to be poor. You won't be arrested...

Hundreds Hurt at Riot in Chino (CA)

Posted on August 10, 2009
Hundreds Hurt in California Prison Riot By SOLOMON MOORE Published: August 9, 2009 NY Times LOS ANGELES ? Rioting inmates smashed and burned a large California prison on Saturday night and Sunday morning, injuring 250 prisoners and hospitalizing 55. The...

Mentally Ill Youth Strain Juvenile System

Posted on August 10, 2009
Mentally Ill Offenders Strain Juvenile System By SOLOMON MOORE Published: August 9, 2009 NY Times FRANKLIN FURNACE, Ohio ? The teenager in the padded smock sat in his solitary confinement cell here in this state?s most secure juvenile prison and...

Opinion--Prisons bursting at the seams, destroying our future By Rev. Al Sharpton

Posted on August 08, 2009
"In order for us to truly amend our incarceration culture where one in four prisoners in the entire world are in the United States, we have to take a look at the root causes of the dilemma. Why is it...

CA: Free 40,000 California prisoners? Not so fast. A federal judicial panel orders the state to come up with a plan to cut prison populations. But any such plan would be carried out over two years ? and any actual release order challenged.

Posted on August 08, 2009
Free 40,000 California inmates? Not so fast. A federal judicial panel orders the state to come up with a plan to cut prison populations. But any such plan would be carried out over two years ? and any actual release...

Time Magazine: Reforming Crack-Cocaine Laws, but Leaving Injustice Intact?

Posted on August 07, 2009
Reforming Crack-Cocaine Laws, but Leaving Injustice Intact? By Theo Emery / Washington Friday, Aug. 07, 2009 In early 2006, a young man named DeJarion Echols stood in a federal courtroom in Waco, Texas, and pleaded for leniency. After police found...

44 years after landmark act, voting rights still needed. 5.3 Americans still disenfranchised due to felony convictions

Posted on August 07, 2009
44 years after landmark act, voting rights still needed By Erika Wood 08/06/2009 Today marks the 44th anniversary of the landmark Voting Rights Act. It was passed to reverse Jim Crow laws, which effectively denied African Americans the right to...

ICE will revamp prisons for holding immigrant families

Posted on August 07, 2009
"Barbara Hines, an attorney who oversees the University of Texas immigration law clinic and was one of the first nonprofit attorneys to visit the Hutto facility, praised ICE's addition of monitors to oversee daily operations at larger immigration facilities...

Overhaul of detention centers could include new "centers" built and run by the government

Posted on August 07, 2009
"Asked if his vision could include building new civil detention centers, he said yes. The current 32,000-bed network costs $2.4 billion a year, but the agency is not ready to calculate the cost of a revamped system." U.S. to Reform...

Video: Children Given One Strike: A Lifetime Without Redemption

Posted on August 07, 2009
Link to a documentary about Juvenile Life Without Parole produced by a group of University of Pennsylvania Law Students which featured interviews with Anita Colon and Bradley Bridges from the Defender's Association. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsZ1gpPZEIU...

TX: After 15 years, waiting list ends for prison drug treatment programs

Posted on August 05, 2009
After 15 years, waiting list ends for prison drug treatment programs New facilities helped curtail backlog. By Mike Ward AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Wednesday, August 05, 2009 For the first time since the Texas prison system's substance-abuse treatment programs began nearly 15...

Non-union contractors organize against Project Labor Agreements for the building of the new Graterford in PA

Posted on August 05, 2009
http://www.thetruthaboutplas.com/2009/08/04/graterford-prison-pla-confirmed/ from the website.... August 4, 2009 ? 5:19 pm The Bulletin is reporting and www.thetruthaboutPLAs.com sources confirmed that the Pennsylvania Department of General Services (DGS) will require a wasteful and discriminatory union-only PLA on the Graterford prison reconstruction project...

Report is critical of immigration detention centers

Posted on August 05, 2009
Report is critical of immigration detention centers Gainesville FL Times August 5, 2009 BY STEPHEN GURR Link to report below. Attorney David Kennedy says clients of his who have been held in immigration detention centers in South Georgia and eastern....

CA: Federal judges call conditions in the prisons 'appalling' and unconstitutional. A reduction plan is due by mid-September.

Posted on August 05, 2009
Federal judges call conditions in the prisons 'appalling' and unconstitutional. A reduction plan is due by mid-September. By Carol J. Williams- LA Times August 5, 2009 California must shrink the population of its teeming prisons by nearly 43,000 inmates over...

Marilyn Clement: June 30, 1935 to August 3, 2009

Posted on August 05, 2009
Marilyn Clement: June 30, 1935 to August 3, 2009 From Healthcare-NOW! "...working for the common good is a wonderful way to live a wonderful way to spend a lifetime." - Marilyn Clement, June 7, 2003 Marilyn Clement Marilyn Clement, founder...

NY: Justice Department Finds That Erie County Jails Abuse of Prisoners Violates Their Constitutional Rights

Posted on August 04, 2009
U.S. probe finds abuses at Erie County jails By Matthew Spina Buffalo NEWS STAFF REPORTER July 29, 2009 A pregnant inmate thrown to the floor while being booked. Guards looking the other way when inmates fight. Jail deputies beating inmates...

Prisons not the answer to crime problems: Attorney General

Posted on August 04, 2009
Prisons not the answer to crime problems: Attorney General August 3, 2009 BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter- Chicago Sun Times More prisons are not the answer to America?s crime problems, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told the nation?s lawyers...

CA: Panel of Federal Judges Orders CA to reduce prison population by 44,000 prisoners

Posted on August 04, 2009
State ordered to shrink prison population by 44,000 inmates dwalsh@sacbee.com PUBLISHED TUESDAY, AUG. 04, 2009 Sacramento Bee In a historic move, a panel of three federal judges today ordered the state of California to reduce its prison population by more...

CT: Prison Life 'After Cheshire' Suspicions increase, parole opportunities decrease and understanding is stalled

Posted on August 03, 2009
Prison Life 'After Cheshire' Suspicions increase, parole opportunities decrease and understanding is stalled Published on 8/2/2009 in The Day By Chandra A. Bozelko Cheshire changed us. The July 23, 2007, murders of Jennifer, Hayley and Michaela Petit in Cheshire, allegedly...

Part 2 of series on Tamms: Trapped in Tamms: Inmates in Illinois' only supermax prison face battle proving mistreatment

Posted on August 03, 2009
Monday, Aug. 03, 2009 Trapped in Tamms: Inmates in Illinois' only supermax prison face battle proving mistreatment BY BETH HUNDSDORFER AND GEORGE PAWLACZYK - News-Democrat Anthony Gay always fought back. Even in first grade he was quick with his fists,...

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