Are you looking for a worthy cause to support? Our good friends at Prisology have launched a creative campaign to ensure that the U.S. Sentencing Commission makes any revisions to the federal sentencing guidelines retroactive, thus helping not only current and future criminal defendants, but current federal prisoners, too. This project concerns T-shirts and selfies.
On Monday in Austin, President Barack Obama reflected on Lyndon B. Johnson’s legacy 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. He spoke too about the policies his own administration has overseen and the civil rights victories of recent years. But one thing President Obama has not been able to tackle is the
By Bina Peltz / NJ.com PRINCETON — Students at Princeton University have mentored inmates at New Jersey correctional facilities and worked to advocate prison reform throughout the state. This weekend they are launching their first conference on prison reform. “This is the biggest civil rights issue that I can think of at this time, and
Political activist and author Angela Davis, professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, spoke to a standing-room-only audience about feminism, prison abolition, and civil rights at the Statler Auditorium, Cornell University. The focal point of Davis’ speech was the abolition of what she termed the “prison-industrial complex.” Professor Davis supports prison reform and cited
By Dianne Frazee-Walker
Leave it to the baby-boomer generation to be a primary contributor of a new paradigm for criminal justice reform. After years of punitive legislation in an effort to cut-back on crime, young law-makers are having an epiphany about what really works when it comes to challenging high crime rates and lowering the recidivism rate.
Two major reasons for these changes are the almighty dollar and the fact that the current legislation is the first generation that hasn’t experienced the impact of Prohibition and totalitarian regimes.
Welcome to an era where for the first time in political history the right and left wingers are merging together with efforts to mend the present condition of the criminal justice system.
The current economic status of the United States is partially responsible for legislature to take a more serious look at how mass incarceration is causing state and federal budgets to continue a growing deficit.
The 2008-2009 recession forced conservatives to consider a more effective approach to incarceration.
Between baby-boomers who are tired of punitive approaches for controlling crime and generation X-er’s (born 1965-1979) fresh philosophies around criminal justice legislation, it is an exciting time to witness the most significant criminal justice overhaul in American history.
In a perfect world, prison generally has three purposes: prison acts as a deterrent to instant and repeat crimes, prison punishes the wrongdoer, and prison ideally treats or rehabilitates the wrongdoer so they no longer engage in crime. This article will address these three purposes of prisons and show how the instance of recidivism can
Springing retrievers and puppies are not the first thing one envisions when thinking about prison. A Texas women’s prison is reforming inmates and lowering recidivism rates as disabled veterans receive specially trained dogs to assist their every need. This is all taking place because a retired rural mail carrier had the desire to train dogs
The women of Topeka Correctional Facility in Topeka, Kansas, are an interesting sort. While some sweep, mop, wipe down tables, or engage in wholesale janitorial work assignments, a special group of 8 female prisoners makes dentures for low-income patients through an innovative partnership between the Kansas Department of Corrections, Kansas Correctional Industries, and the Southeast
There is a plague in the prisoners’ rights community that will destroy us all, from the inside out, if we don’t find a cure. Slowly it creeps into our minds, then our interactions and advocacy, and finally, our organizational policies. It’s like institutional racism, just of a different breed. This is the disease of selectivity,
By Christopher Zoukis Image courtesy newblackman.blogspot.com
For many years prisoners and their families have bemoaned the exorbitant rates charged by companies that provide telephone services to the incarcerated. Prisoners and their families, two groups chronically economically disadvantaged, have been abused and taken advantage of time and time again when merely trying to stay in contact. This is plainly unacceptable from a prisoners’ rights standpoint and a social morality standpoint, too. But it gets worse. As we delve into the murky waters of prison phone contracts, those who do not yet understand how insidious and extortionate these contracts truly are, will come to demand for change, not for their own sakes or for society’s, but based upon a moral conviction and the desire to help keep families together, a term of incarceration notwithstanding.
The problem with prison phone contracts ironically enough doesn’t hinge on the various departments of corrections or the Federal Bureau of Prisons. It isn’t even promulgated by prison phone providers either. The issue, instead, has to do with the awarding of prison phone contracts.
Prison phone contracts are awarded based on a profit share model. Companies such as Global Tel Link agree to charge prisoners and their families high phone rates and to share profits with either the local jail or prison, or the central administration of the prison system. As such, the incentive to lower phone rates is actually reduced. Instead, both corrections’ departments and prison phone providers strive to tack on as many fees and increased prison phone rates as much as possible to increase profits, as has been reported frequently in Prison Legal News and at the Prison Law Blog. Often, these contracts are awarded to the prison phone company which offers the largest kick-back rate. In fact, prison phone companies are known to also give premiums away to encourage contracts. Local jails have been known to receive free booking computer systems. Sheriffs have been known to receive campaign donations. And police departments have received free police cruisers.
We have profiled every prison within the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Learn about each prison’s location, security level, educational and recreational offerings, and much more.
Elizabeth Franklin-Best P.C.
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