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
More than 130 female prisoners at two California facilities were sterilized over a four-year period without required state approval, and some of the women have claimed they were pressured, harassed and even tricked into signing forms agreeing to the sterilizations. The procedure, known as tubal ligation, involves severing a woman’s fallopian tubes to prevent eggs from reaching the uterus; the operation requires general anesthesia and is considered permanent.
The surgeries were performed from 2006 to 2010 at outside medical facilities by doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for California Correctional Health Care Services – the federal court-appointed receiver over CDCR medical care – said the procedures violated state regulations that restrict tubal ligations not deemed medically necessary. They did not, however, violate state law.
According to public records, doctors were paid $147,460 to perform the sterilizations on female prisoners from the California Institution for Women and Valley State Prison in Chowchilla. The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), which first reported the story on July 7, 2013, initially identified 148 prisoners who were sterilized from 2006 to 2010, but that number was later revised downward to 132 after a further review indicated some of the women had been counted twice. “Perhaps 100 more” prisoners were reportedly sterilized between 1997 and 2006.
Although they signed consent forms, several of the women complained they were pressured into agreeing to the procedures by medical staff and doctors, especially the OB-GYN at Valley State Prison, Dr. James Heinrich.
Not pleased with their perpetual need to keep expanding their prison’s capacity, local leaders and officials in Northampton County, Pennsylvania have been searching for a comprehensive strategy to reduce the county’s high levels of recidivism. In 2012, the recidivism rate for inmates being released from Northampton County Prison was 58 percent, a full 18 points
Reviewed by John E. Dannenberg In short, Arrest-Proof Yourself is a colorfully-written manual on how to avoid being arrested. The book’s principal thesis is a hypothetical “electronic plantation” where all persons who are arrested – even if later exonerated – must serve an irrevocable life sentence of being blacklisted from future employment, socially ostracized, etc.
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 It’s a typical dreary January winter morning at a Colorado state penitentiary. Sounds of shackled feet are heard shuffling down a long dark hallway that leads to solitary confinement, also known as Ad Seg. The only background noise is the chilling sound of howling disgruntled inmates. His arms handcuffed and his legs
Here at the Prison Law Blog, our goal is to expose issues as they relate to prisoners’ rights, prison law, and violations of civil rights in American prisons. Our goal is to be a hub of information so that criminal defense attorneys, politicians, and the families of prisoners have the opportunity to find out what
The Center for Prison Education has received a grant of $300,000 from the Ford Foundation, supporting the continuation of the program, which has delivered a Wesleyan education to Connecticut prisons since 2009. The grant will not only help fund the classes taught at the Cheshire and York Correctional Institutions but also support CPE’s re-entry services,
By Prison Legal News The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that an Illinois prisoner’s religious rights were not violated when prison officials required him to cut off his dreadlocks to be transported to a court hearing. Peter A. Lewis, incarcerated at the Dixon Correctional Center, is a member of a religious sect called
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.