The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/corrections/prisons/)
Roman Shankaras, an inmate accused of leading a riot at Delaware’s maximum-security prison during which a guard was killed and other staffers taken hostage was acquitted of all charges Thursday and will soon be freed.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee this week signed a bill requiring that people in state prisons will be counted as residents of their home addresses when new legislative districts are drawn. Previously, the state used Census Bureau counts that listed incarcerated people as residents of their prisons.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Georgetown University law Prof. Paul Butler are challenging the Arizona prison system’s ban on his book “Chokehold,” which charges that the justice system targets black men and calls for the abolition of prisons.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law reforming the state’s historic three-strikes-and-you’re-out law, but it wasn’t made retroactive. That means 62 inmates must continue serving life terms.
The most prominent one may be that prisons are full of nonviolent drug offenders, writes Fordham University law Prof. John Pfaff in a column for the Washington Post. Under 15 percent of inmates are behind bars for drug crimes.
Manchester Bidwell Corp. may buy 137-year-old closed prison in Pittsburgh for a “world-class training facility.”
The state has closed the notorious “Camp J” at Angola Prison and is cutting back the use of administrative segregation in other facilities. But a report by the Vera Institute of Justice makes clear there’s a long way to go.
North Carolina Department of Public Safety Secretary Eric Hooks got a pay raise to $179,400 while prison officers earning $32,000 are leaving. Eighteen percent of prison officer jobs were vacant as of December.
The grants to the Urban Institute and the Vera Institute of Justice are aimed at transforming prison environments and “the culture of incarceration” in selected state facilities.
A federal appeals court considers whether denying the surgery to a transgender inmate is cruel and unusual punishment. The state says the operation is not medically necessary.