The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the denial of a death row prisoner’s habeas corpus petition that contended he was denied a fair trial by an impartial judge and jury because the jurors gave inappropriate gag gifts to the judge and one of the bailiffs. The habeas proceeding involved Georgia death row prisoner
By Sajad Shakoor The Tayba Foundation offers a correspondence program for prisoners desiring to study the Islamic sciences. On the website, Tayba Foundation lists over 20 courses complete with texts, supplementary ready materials, quizzes, essay prompts, and accompanying CD commentaries and/or DVD’s. All of it is in a semester format convenient to students. Currently, the Tayba Foundation has about 400 students
Oklahoma teachers would receive a $2,500 across-the-board pay raise under a budget proposal approved Thursday by the State Board of Education, but they shouldn’t plan to spend the money any time soon. “It is time we as a state offer better compensation to these dedicated and talented individuals who give so much of themselves in
The government of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu is expanding a program that allows prison industries to compete in the open marketplace under the ironic brand name “Freedom.” Prison industry programs already exist at nine central prisons, three women’s prisons and nine district jails scattered across Tamil Nadu, located in the southern tip of the Asian nation. The facilities hold a combined total of about 11,000 prisoners.
Prison authorities are adding open-air bazaars to market fresh produce grown by prisoners to shoppers from neighboring communities. The bazaars are in addition to current prison industries that include the production of soap, leather, textiles, books and baked goods. Traditionally, those products have been sold only to other government agencies and are considered substandard.
“So far, we were manufacturing goods for the police and other departments. Such government clients are not very demanding in terms of pricing, delivery schedule and quality, although we ourselves try to maintain this,” said S.K. Dogra, Additional Director-General of Police in Tamil Nadu. “But once you operate in the open market, you have to adopt the best commercial practices. So, naturally the entire process of manufacturing will have to move up the scale in terms of efficiency and quality.”
Providing prisoners with skills they can use to obtain jobs after their release is a major objective of the program. Prison officials said they have identified individuals who are qualified to provide training to prisoners in the use of modern manufacturing technology. Additionally, a portion of the revenue generated by the sale of prison-made goods on the open market is earmarked for prisoners’ accounts.
By The State Journal Inmates at West Virginia’s regional jails will soon be able to sign up for a financial education course designed to help them avoid becoming repeat offenders. The course, developed by Financial Peace University, will stress critical skills such as eliminating and avoiding debt, maintaining a monthly budget, keeping checkbooks balanced, and
On the evening of May, 15, 2010, 17-year-old Kalief Browder had no idea his life was about to change. The chain of events that led to Browder’s bizarre life change began when he and his friend were walking through the Bronx coming home from a party and were stopped by police. Browder soon found himself surrounded by a police squad with a spot light blinding him. You would have thought he was being accused of murder, but in actuality he was framed for stealing a back pack.
The police informed Browder and his friend that a Mexican individual claimed they stole his back pack. Browder revealed to the police his personal items in the back pack he carried and insisted he did not steal the back pack. A police officer stepped away to speak with the alleged victim who was sitting in a police car. When he returned he informed Browder the accuser had changed his story to indicate his back pack was stolen a few weeks ago. Apparently, the information was enough to warrant a trip to the Bronx precinct. The police officer promised Browder his visit to the precinct would be short lived, but the nightmare was just beginning.
Browder was interrogated and strongly encouraged to take a plea deal if he wanted to go home soon. Browder adamantly refused to accept a plea bargain and insisted on his innocence. His friend was released, but Browder was retained because he was currently on probation for being present during an auto-theft and accident. Bail was set at $3000, which Browder’s family was unable to post.
Browder was soon on his way to Rikers Island. He was held without bail while the case literally crawled through the system. Browder was continually pressured to plea out, but he didn’t give in because he was innocent. Browder was adamant about getting a trial to prove his innocence, but every time he went before the judge the trial was delayed for various reasons. One of the main reasons for a trial failing to transpire was the overload of cases in the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, which was clogging-up the court system, making it impossible for a short staffed judicial system to deliver.
By Estefania Florez / The Daily Illini The Education Justice Project is hosting a symposium on higher education programs in prison until Sunday. “Our mission is to build a model college-in-prison program that demonstrates the positive impacts of higher education upon incarcerated students, the family, the neighbors to which they return, the host institution – the
Alabama’s prison system is the first – and currently only – in the nation to require visitors to be fingerprinted. In late 2012, the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) implemented the new policy due to what officials claimed was a need for greater efficiency. A new computer system had the capacity to scan fingerprints, something
By The Daily Freeman Bard College’s Max Kenner, the executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), received a 2014 Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in Education. The award recognizes 10 of the year’s most amazing achievements and the innovators behind them in nine different categories. Kenner created the initiative as an undergraduate at Bard in
On May 23, 2014, the Medical Examiner’s Office in Nashville completed an autopsy report on Tennessee state prisoner Jeffery Sills, 43, who was murdered at the South Central Correctional Facility in Clifton, Wayne County on March 28. The facility is operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit prison company.
Sills’ death was classified as a homicide caused by “blunt and sharp force injuries.” He was allegedly beaten and stabbed to death by his cellmate, Travis Bess, who was later transferred to the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
Jeffery Sills was at least the second prisoner murdered at the CCA-run prison since September 1, 2013, when Gerald Ewing, 28, was killed during a series of fights at the facility. Comparably, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction there were no homicides at state-run prisons in calendar year 2013 and to date this year.
Jeffery Sills’ death was particularly brutal, according to the autopsy report. He suffered lacerations, abrasions and contusions to his head and neck, fractured cheek and nasal bones, cutting and stab/puncture wounds, and hemorrhages in the “posterior cervical spinal muscles” and “skeletal muscle of back and intercostal muscles of posterior thorax.”
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