Tag Archives: prisons

The Texas Tribune reports: Shouting, screaming and crying with raw desperation, dozens of prisoners’ relatives and former inmates gathered at the state Capitol Tuesday begging, once again, for state officials to install air conditioning in Texas prisons. “They’re cooking our babies alive!” wailed a grieving mother, whose 36-year-old son died unexpectedly in an uncooled prison last month. As a seemingly …

CNN reports: Former Alabama corrections officer Vicky White has died from injuries after she and escaped inmate Casey White were arrested in Indiana earlier Monday, Sheriff Dave Wedding of Vanderburgh County told CNN. She was hospitalized earlier with self-inflicted gunshot wounds after being taken into custody following a car chase in Evansville, Indiana, US Marshals previously told CNN. Her wounds …

The Birmingham News reports: Casey White is in custody and Vicky White is in a hospital with a self-inflicted gunshot wound suffered during a police chase in Indiana, according to U.S. Marshal Marty Keely. During the chase, a vehicle overturned, Keely said. Vicky White’s condition was not available. No law enforcement officers fired their weapons, Keely said. “We got a …

CNN reports: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law Friday a number of prison infrastructure bills that will use coronavirus relief funds to build new prisons in the state, calling it a “pivotal moment for the trajectory of our state’s criminal justice system.” Ivey, a Republican, had convened a special session of the Alabama Legislature to discuss how to fix …

The Washington Post reports: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) is hitting back after criticism over plans to use coronavirus pandemic relief funds provided by the federal government to finance the construction of new prisons in the Southern state. “The Democrat-controlled federal government has never had an issue with throwing trillions of dollars toward their ideological pet projects,” Ivey said in …

Gothamist reports: The Department of Justice will close an infamous federal jail in Lower Manhattan, at least temporarily, in an effort to address brutal and decrepit conditions that have long plagued the facility. Human rights experts, public defenders, and judges have long criticized the MCC for exposing defendants to harrowing conditions, including filth, vermin, a lack of medical care, and …

The Associated Press reports: The two Bureau of Prisons workers tasked with guarding Jeffrey Epstein the night he killed himself in a New York jail have admitted they falsified records, but they will skirt any time behind bars under a deal with federal prosecutors, authorities said Friday. The prison workers, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, were accused of sleeping and …

Politico reports: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey pledged $10 million Monday to help U.S. prisons battle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as inmates living in confined quarters remain particularly vulnerable to the disease. The donation to REFORM Alliance, a criminal justice advocacy group led by CNN analyst Van Jones, will buy 10 million face masks and other personal protective equipment for people …

The Associated Press reports: The response from the federal Bureau of Prisons to the growing coronavirus crisis in prisons has raised alarm among advocates and lawmakers about whether the agency is doing enough to ensure the safety of the nearly 150,000 inmates serving time in federal facilities. New figures provided by the Bureau of Prisons show that out of 2,700 …

The New York Times reports: The Cook County Jail in Chicago, a sprawling facility that is among the largest jails in the nation, has emerged as the largest-known source of U.S. virus infections, according to data compiled by The Times. At least 353 cases can be linked to the jail — more than have been connected to the U.S.S. Theodore …

NPR reports: In an effort to tamp down the COVID-19 infection rate across the nation’s corrections system, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced on Tuesday that starting Wednesday, inmates in all of its institutions across the country will be kept in their assigned cells or quarters, effectively putting them in lockdown. The order will hold for at least 14 days, …

Bloomberg News reports: The Justice Department will allow more older, nonviolent federal inmates to be placed in home confinement in order to cope with rising coronavirus cases affecting the federal prison population, Attorney General William Barr said. Barr told reporters Thursday that he’s directed the Bureau of Prisons to increase the use of home confinement for elderly prisoners following infections …

The Associated Press reports: West Virginia plans to begin training its corrections department staff about the Holocaust after a photograph of correction officer cadets giving Nazi salutes led to dozens of firings and widespread outrage, officials said Tuesday. A spokesman for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety said the leader of the regional Anti-Defamation League chapter …

CBS News reports: West Virginia’s governor fired a group of recently graduated corrections officers Monday, after they made a gesture resembling a Nazi salute in their class photo. Governor Jim Justice also fired a staffer Monday at the state’s corrections officer academy, the third staffer terminated in the scandal, and suspended four instructors without pay for failing to report the …

USA Today reports: The use of private prisons to detain immigrants is not new, but the business has exploded under Trump. At least 24 immigration detention centers and more than 17,000 beds were added in the past three years to the sprawling detention system run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A USA TODAY Network investigation found that the …

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports: A number of West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation employees are suspended and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is calling for some terminations after a photo surfaced that shows more than 30 participants in a basic training class doing a Nazi salute. The cabinet secretary for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public …

The New York Times reports: One 886-bed jail will tower over shops and restaurants in Downtown Brooklyn. Another will be next to a subway yard in Queens. In the Bronx, a jail will replace a Police Department tow pound. And another jail will rise in the shadow of City Hall in Manhattan. That is at the heart of a plan …

Courthouse News reports: As the clock ticks on a deadline for the New York City Council to vote on a controversial new borough jails plan, legislators voted Thursday to pass a proposal they say would force lawmakers to shutter the notorious Rikers Island jail complex by 2026. The council faces an Oct. 17 vote over whether to build four new …

The New York Times reports: When Jared Kushner hosted a high-profile summit meeting on federal prison reform at the White House last Friday, some in attendance noticed that the man who was ostensibly in charge of the federal prison system, Mark S. Inch, a retired Army major general, was nowhere in sight. Only Mr. Kushner and a few others knew …

Via press release from hate group leader Tony Perkins: It doesn’t take a genius to realize that criminals, especially men, would do anything — including lie about their gender identity — to gain access to women. As someone who used to work in the prison system, let me tell you: that’s a recipe for disaster. Mixing populations in a cell …