Inability to pay for court-related costs, fees for mandated tests, fines, and other costs can mean youth will be denied bail and remain in juvenile detention. Lower-income and racial and ethnic minority youth are far more likely to face incarceration or probation because of an inability to pay debts imposed by the justice system, according
Virtual reality technologies could have a wide range of applications for the education and rehabilitation of prisoners. Already a hot topic in the gaming world, virtual and augmented reality technologies are slowly spilling into other venues, such as museum exhibits and educational institutions. But could these technologies someday be used behind bars? In prisons, where education
Prisoners who participate in educational programs have 43 percent lower odds of returning to prison compared to those who don’t. Evidence is overwhelming, prisoners benefit in myriad ways when they have access to books and education. An increase in education of any kind is connected to reducing recidivism, as reported by the 2013 Rand Corporation
The Alabama prison system has been targeted in numerous lawsuits claiming denial of inmate rights. The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched a statewide probe on whether conditions in Alabama’s 14 prisons for men violate the rights of inmates. The investigation is under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons
Michael Bosse killed Katrina Griffin and her two children in 2010. The Supreme Court has thrown out his death sentence based on testimony it deemed “unconstitutional.” In a brief, unsigned opinion handed down October 11, the U.S. Supreme Court has thrown out the death sentence an Oklahoma jury gave Shaun Michael Bosse after convicting him
A report on for-profit private prisons indicates the model has serious problems. Recently the US Department of Justice announced they would be closing all privately run federal prisons, declining to renew contracts, or significantly reducing the scope of private prison contracts. This comes following a report from the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General
The murder conviction of a former prison guard at the Federal Correctional Institution Lompoc for shooting a co-worker in a drug-fueled incident in 2012 was recently upheld by the California Court of Appeals. Timothy Sean McNally, then employed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, was tried and convicted in Santa Barbara County Superior Court for
Privately-operated federal prisons, also known as contract prisons, have more violence, use-of-force incidents, and contraband seizures than facilities run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), among other findings in an August 2016 report by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The 86-page report examined data from 14 private prisons
A study published in the September 2014 issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior found much higher rates of significant health and behavioral problems among children of incarcerated parents as opposed to children with similar demographic, socioeconomic, and familial characteristics. The research, conducted by Prof. Kristin Turney at the University of California, Irvine,
The much-anticipated second edition of The Habeas Citebook: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel, by Brandon Sample and Alissa Hull, is the fifth book to be published by PLN Publishing. As with the previous four titles, The Habeas Citebook is an excellent, professional, and informative publication. Former federal prisoner Brandon Sample, who attended law school after his