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Praise the Lord for Theology in Prison

Religion is a touchy subject, so what happens when religious education takes place behind prison walls? The goings-on at Nash Correctional Institution (NCI) gives us some insight. Currently, at NCI, 24 inmates are studying for a bachelor’s degree in pastoral ministry. Most of these men will be in prison for life, and the rest have

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Florida Voters Restore Ex-Felons’ Voting Rights

In the November mid-term election, Florida voters approved Amendment 4, the Voting Restoration Amendment, a ballot measure amending the state’s constitution to eliminate a provision that permanently removed the voting rights for well over a million state residents convicted of felonies. The new amendment becomes Article VI, sections 4(a) and (b) of the state constitution,

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Boston Mobster Slain Within Hours of Entering New Prison

Notorious Boston gang chief James “Whitey” Bulger was found murdered in his cell on October 30 at the high-security federal prison in Hazelton, West Virginia, the morning after arriving from FTC Oklahoma City, a Bureau of Prisons transfer center in Oklahoma City. Bulger was New England’s chief organized crime figure, partly by informing federal law

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DOJ IG’s Report: BOP Fails to Meet Needs of Female Inmates

A report issued September 18 by the Inspector General (IG) of the Department of Justice (DOJ) identifies shortcomings in how the leaders of DOJ’s Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the correctional facilities it operates fail to meet the needs of its female inmates. Women are about 7% of all sentenced federal inmates (10,567 out of

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Conditions at Federal Prison in California Draw Various Probes

Federal Correctional Institution Mendota, located near Fresno, California, houses about 800 inmates. Opened in 2012, the medium-security male prison in California with an adjacent minimum-security camp has recently been the focus of numerous investigations into whether conditions there pose serious dangers to the health of inmates and staff. According to published reports, complaints about temperature

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Nebraska High Security Prison Chaos After All Cell Doors Open

Shortly before 10:00 a.m. on September 7, 16 single-occupancy cells in a restrictive housing section of Nebraska’s top-security prison, the Tecumseh State Correctional Institute, unexpectedly opened. The cause of this irregularity was not specific, but a computer error in the system that controls the cellblock doors was suspected. The restrictive housing unit is home to

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Texas Non-Profit Helps Felons Start Their Own Businesses

The Prison Entrepreneur Program (PEP), a Texas-based non-profit formed in 2004, assists inmates convicted of felonies to prepare for life after prison by developing skills and character, finding post-release employment, and eventually making a success with their businesses. The group’s current CEO, Bryan Kelley, is a program graduate. Nearly finished serving a 20-year sentence for

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Drugs Suspected for Five Inmate Deaths in Four Days in Arkansas

Five inmates were found dead in their cells at southeastern Arkansas’ Varner Unit prison during a four-day period in late August, three of them in a single day. The Arkansas Department of Corrections (DOC) announced that, between the morning of Sunday, August 26, and the early hours of the next day, inmates Edward Morris, 34,

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Slicing and Dicing the Prison Commissary Business

The Prison Policy Initiative, a non-profit advocacy group, recently released a study examining how state prison commissaries operate. One observation made in the report is that commissaries often exploit incarcerated persons by shifting the costs of incarceration from the state to inmates and their families. The central problem, according to the report, isn’t the prices

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Litigation Heats Up Over Extreme Temperatures in Prisons, Jails

During a heatwave in the summer of 2017, dozens of protesters gathered outside the Medium Security Institution in St. Louis, Missouri. They chanted “Shut it down,” after a video showing prisoners at the jail begging for relief from soaring temperatures went viral. But in Texas and elsewhere, prisoners have taken their complaints of extreme –

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