By Casey Harper In a New York prison, one convict is asking for a college education behind bars. John J. Lennon, an inmate at Attica Correctional Facility, says inmates are constantly inundated with television and that what flashes on the TV screen is a focal point of prison life. While watching TV is hardly punishment, Lennon
In a rare public rebuke of a prosecutor found to have engaged in a “deliberate pattern of misconduct,” the Connecticut Appellate Court vacated a defendant’s murder conviction based on the prosecutor’s improper remarks during closing arguments. Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Terence D. Mariani, Jr. was chided in an opinion by Judge Michael R. Sheldon, writing
By Joseph Erbentraut When San Francisco-based venture capitalists Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti walked into San Quentin State Prison in 2010 to speak with a group of inmates that a friend was mentoring, they didn’t know what exactly to expect. But the men behind bars, whom Redlitz described as “the most engaged audience I’ve ever
When one thinks about a traditional classroom, he or she might envision rows of desks, chalkboards, or computers, maybe windows overlooking a school campus.Arizona State University’s Prison Education Awareness Club invites the public to learn about a different type of classroom – one enclosed by walls, fences, and prison bars.On March 27, the club hosts
By Editor of Radio WPSU Prison is perhaps the last place anyone would expect to learn about investing and money management. But at San Quentin Prison, Curtis Carroll’s class is a hot item. The 36-year-old has gained a reputation for his stock-picking prowess. He’s even earned the nickname “Wall Street.” Carroll and prison officials have
Reginald “Reggie” Griffin, 53, was sentenced to death for the July 12, 1983, stabbing of James Bausley in a yard at the Moberly Correctional Center (then known as the Missouri Training Center for Men). In August 2011, the Missouri Supreme Court vacated Griffin’s conviction after finding the state had withheld evidence related to another prisoner
By Christia Mercer On a recent Friday night, a student and I were playing dead on the cold linoleum floor of a prison. The woman standing over us was proudly proclaiming the cold-blooded murder of her no-good husband and his unwilling mistress. As a professor at Columbia University, I’ve asked lots of students to act
When Americans think of prison censorship, images of prison guards throwing away letters come to mind. So too, do images of books and publications like Prison Legal News being rejected for being a “threat to the good order, orderly operation, and security of the institution,” which covers about any number of theoretical penological objectives. And
Petersburg, Virginia: At approximately 2:30 PM on February 24, 2015, Federal Correctional Institution Petersburg Medium inmate Ashley Jean Arnold (given name: Steven Roy Arnold), 32, ended her life by hanging herself in her prison cell. Arnold had sought medical and psychological care for her gender dysphoria in the two years leading up to her death,
By C. Clagett It has been about five weeks since the original Norovirus started in Wake Unit and then spread entirely through the Low Custody Institution, as well as the FCI 1. This infectious virus was very poorly handled by the institution. The evidence of contamination was there from the outset, but there was no