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Prison News in Brief: France through Mexico

Feb 21, 2014 No Comments

By Prison Legal News

This installment of Prison News in Brief concerns news from France through Mexico and is brought to us by our friends at Prison Legal News.

  • France Prison News

Members of the UFAP-UNSA prison guard union gathered to protest in front of more than 100 jails on June 18, 2013.  The action by the union, whose members are banned from striking, was to bring attention to overcrowding and safety concerns in French prisons.  Protestors set fire to wooden pallets, tires, and other objects, and blocked deliveries to the facilities.  “This is a shot across the bows, to make the powers be aware of the urgency of the situation,” said Union Secretary General Ste’phane Barraut.

  • Hawaii Prison News

John Joseph Kalei Hall was sentenced to thirteen months in prison on June 27, 2013 after receiving an estimated $10,000 to $30,000 in one year for smuggling cartons of cigarettes into Halawa Correctional Facility.  Federal prosecutors said Hall sold the tobacco to the United Samoan Organization, a prison gang, and tipped them off to contraband searches.  U.S. District Court Judge Helen Gillmor said Hall deserved prison time because he promoted criminal activity he was hired to prevent.

  • Honduras Prison News

On August 2, 2013, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a report stating that control at the nation’s 24 prisons had “been ceded into the hands of the prisoners themselves.”  The next day, Honduras President Porfirio Lobo ordered military troops to take control over the National Penitentiary following a violent disturbance that resulted in three deaths and 15 injuries.  Prisons in Honduras are extremely overcrowded and have been cited for poor conditions.

  • Illinois Prison News

Timothy Ware, a 20-year-old veteran guard at the Decatur Correctional Center, was suspended without pay in June 2013 and charged with eight felony counts of official misconduct.  Ware allegedly solicited phone numbers from two female parolees, called them repeatedly to pursue personal or social relationships, and then lied to investigators about obtaining the women’s numbers and the nature of the calls.  DOC regulations prohibit employees from socializing with parolees.  Ware was released from custody after posting a $2,500 cash bond.

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Texas Study on Postsecondary Correctional Education

Feb 20, 2014 No Comments

In the field of correctional education, there are numerous tools, different types of prison education programming which can be used to teach and treat our incarcerated students.  These include basic literacy, high school equivalency (often in the form of GED classes), Adult Continuing Education, Adult Basic Education, vocational training, college in prison, and more.  All

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Prison News in Brief: Alabama through Florida

Feb 20, 2014 No Comments

By Prison Legal News

This installment of Prison News in Brief concerns news from Alabama through Florida and is brought to us by our friends at Prison Legal News.

  • Alabama Prison News

On July 29, 2013 there was a break-in at the Draper Correctional Facility.  According to the Department of Corrections, three sections of the prison were burglarized in the early morning hours, and laptop computers and multiple weapons were discovered missing when employees started arriving around 5:00 AM.  The facility’s farm office, radio shop, and dog kennels, which are located apart from the prison population, were reportedly breached.

  • Arizona Prison News

Newly-hired Maricopa County jail guard Rachel Harris, 22, was attacked on June 24, 2013 by prisoner Bobby Ruiz as she entered his cell at the Lower Buckeye Jail, and during the assault Ruiz bit off part of one of her ears.  Two other prisoners rushed in to help Harris, pulling Ruiz off her and restraining him until other guards arrived.  Sheriff Joe Arpaio told reporters that the missing piece of Harris’ ear could not be found and that Ruiz had presumably swallowed it.

  • Arkansas Prison News

Steven Mitchell, 39, died in a crash on July 30, 2013 after leading police on a chase through the state of Missouri.  He had escaped from the Jacksonville County Detention Center in Arkansas two days earlier with another prisoner.  A Nissan Sentra driven by Mitchell’s wife, Jessica, with Mitchell as a passenger, was pulled over.  When the officer asked Jessica to step out of the car, Mitchell jumped into the driver’s seat and sped away.  Sheriff David Lucas told ABC News that “During the pursuit, Mitchell wrecked his vehicle and sustained fatal injuries.”

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A solitary prisoner in a dimly lit cell, sitting on a bed in deep thought, evoking a sense of isolation and introspection.

Hearing On Solitary Confinement in California Prisons

Feb 19, 2014 No Comments

On February 11, 2014, the Public Safety Committees of the California legislature held their second hearing on the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) solitary confinement policies and practices. This hearing was partly prompted due to the massive and historic work and hunger strikes of over 30,000 California state prisoners late last year. The

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America On Probation

Feb 18, 2014 No Comments

By Dianne Frazee-Walker

There is good news about the condition of America’s criminal justice system. Both conservatives and liberals are agreeing that the time has come to revamp the prison system. Everyone is on the same page about how mass incarceration is costing the country too much money. For some reason when an out of control problem hits people’s pocketbooks, collaboration happens. When incarcerating a prisoner for a year reaches the same cost as student tuition at Harvard University, it is time to make a change.   

 Realization that American prisons are being financed to perpetuate social insufficiency, recidivism, and desperateness has caused legislation to reconsider the high cost of incarceration. The result is crime rates have decreased and the public is beginning to support non-violent offender reform as opposed to long-term prison sentences.

Over the last three years prison doors have been shutting on the outside instead of the inside. The prison population is not large enough to fill America’s prisons and they are gradually going out of business. From academics, progressive law enforcement groups, innovative rehabilitation programs and victim crime advocates to even fundamentalists, all have been struggling to repair our broken justice system, which has turned into a perpetual misery machine.    

America’s mass incarceration dilemma has forced society to take a long hard look at what can be done to transform criminals into productive citizens.

Even states that use punitive law-and-order approaches in an attempt to conquer crime are now desperate enough to embrace tolerant rehabilitation programs once thought of as bleeding heart liberalism alternatives only a few years ago. 

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Postsecondary Correctional Education: College for Prison Inmates

Feb 18, 2014 No Comments

Studies have consistently shown that those imprisoned tend to have lower levels of formal, academic education.  Some have suggested that as many as half of U.S. prisoners are functionally illiterate — implying an inability to read at a 6th-grade reading level.  While the effects of providing basic literacy classes to prison inmates have the potential

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3 Reasons to Reinstate Prisoner Eligibility for Pell Grants

Feb 14, 2014 No Comments

There are many “smart on crime” reasons to reinstate prisoners’ eligibility for Pell Grants and other need-based financial aid.  When we look at the benefits of educating prisoners, we see reductions in recidivism, increases in pro-social thinking, enhanced post-release employment prospects, and strengthened ties to children and communities.  The list goes on and on.  Today,

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The Snow Continues, and the Prison Yard Remains Closed

Feb 13, 2014 No Comments

Day Two of the Arctic Snow Bombardment — at least, that’s how it probably seems for the birds — has left icy snow covering the ground.  All last night, pigeons displaced due to the snow, huddled together wherever they could find a dry spot out of the wind.  Many congregated under outdoor stairwells.  In fact,

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The Numbers: Who’s in American Prisons, and for What Crimes?

Feb 13, 2014 No Comments

American prisons are currently experiencing a shortage of space and an abundance of prisoners; in a word, overcrowding.  The United States incarcerates 25 percent of the world’s prisoners despite accounting for only 5 percent of the world’s population.  The Federal Bureau of Prisons alone is experiencing overcrowding at a rate of 40 percent in its

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