For several minutes on Wednesday afternoon, the world slowed down for those of us who act as advocates of prisoners’ rights. As each second crawled by, we waited with bated breath to hear the news as to whether Richard Glossip, convicted of the killing of Barry Van Treese in 1997, would take his final breaths
A North Carolina guard was ordered to serve three months in jail after being found guilty of beating to death a prisoner who had been arrested on an open container charge and minor drug violation. Video footage from the Wake County Detention Center showed guard Markeith Council, 28, pick up Shon Demetrius McClain and slam
Sesame Street has a new muppet character: Alex, whose father is incarcerated. “My dad’s in jail,” he says in an online video. “I don’t like to talk about it.” Alex is featured in Sesame Street’s online teaching kit, “Little Children, Big Challenges,” which is a series of resources for children and their parents dealing with
The family of Oklahoma prisoner Clayton Lockett, whose botched execution caused international outrage, filed a federal lawsuit that accused the doctor who oversaw the April 29, 2014 execution of “human medical experimentation in torturing [him] to death.” The district court dismissed the case, and the family filed an appeal. David Lane, a civil rights attorney,
Charges against a Washington man awaiting trial on felony drug and stolen property charges were dropped by a Yakima County Superior Court after an investigation found that a prosecutor and sheriff’s detective had listened to phone calls made to his lawyer. Superior Court Judge Douglas Federspiel dismissed the charges against Daniel Woolem following a two-day
Important changes may be ahead for juvenile offenders convicted of murder in the state of Iowa. The Iowa Supreme Court will decide whether sentences of life in prison, without the possibility of parole, for juvenile offenders fall under the category of cruel and unusual punishment under the state’s constitution, thus prohibiting such practices. The case
Some years ago an inmate at SCI Gratford Prison Pennsylvania conceived of an entirely new approach to prison education, designed not only to enlighten its participants intellectually but socially as well. Through its implementation, it’s succeeded in providing prisoners with hope and breaking down barriers between social groups. Called “Inside-Out classes,” an inmate by the
By Kyla Elizabeth Sentes The Federal Bureau of Prisons houses 206,760 prisoners in 193 federal institutions and 14 private contract facilities. While the exact figures aren’t readily available, it is estimated that tens of thousands of federal prisoners will be subject to prison disciplinary procedures annually. Some are even subject to several such proceedings each
News out of Iran’s criminal justice system last week could not be more surprising. One Judge, Qasem Naqizadeh, in the city of Gonbad-e Kavus, is adopting an alternative sentencing mechanism for juveniles that the rest of the world would do well to pay attention to. Juvenile offenders with no previous records, having committed relatively minor
A new memoir has been released from a former candidate for the Democratic party turned inmate, and its timely release is poised to bring another voice to the current debate on prison reform and, in particular, the lack of education available in American penal institutions. Jeff Smith spent a year in prison for conspiracy for