Prisons
Compassionate Releases Rise Under First Step Act
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Some 145 federal offenders were released from prison last year under a change in the law making it easier for them to ask courts for compassionate release.
Prisons
WA Official Proposes 30% Cut in Prison Population
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Washington has been a leader in tough-on-crime policies, enacting the nation’s first three-strikes law. Now the prison system, forced to make a 15 percent budget cut, is proposing to shrink the inmate population.
Prisons
Oklahoma Pilot Program Aims to Detect Prison Cellphones
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All offenders at one prison will be required to wear an ankle bracelet that alerts prison officials when a cellphone is in use.
Prisons
U.S. Prison Officers Not Charged For Inmate Sex Abuse
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Six officers at the Coleman federal prison in Florida admitted sexually assaulting inmates and were allowed to resign or retire. Some still receive benefits.
COVID-19
OR Inmates Moved to Avoid Fires Now Fear Virus
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As wildfires have torn through huge swaths of Oregon, prisoners were hurried away from the flames to an overcrowded state prison, where they slept shoulder-to-shoulder in cots, and in some cases on the floor. Saved from one catastrophe, they fell victim to another: the coronavirus pandemic, which has spread at an alarming rate in prisons.
Prisons
Body Cameras Ordered for Officers in California Prison
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“Body cameras have never been used in California prisons. This is a very important order to help put an end to physical abuse and broken bones of those with physical disabilities at this most dangerous of prisons,” said a lawyer for inmates.
Prisons
Cellphones Enable Extortion in Alabama Prisons
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Inmates have used contraband phones to issue threats, demand money and transmit photographic evidence of what happens when payment is not made. The chairman of a legislative committee has received threatening calls and text messages from inmates.
COVID-19
COVID-19 Death Rate in Prison Twice That of General Population: Study
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The COVID-19 mortality rate in state and federal prisons is twice that of the death rate for the general population, according to a new study. A separate report found that local jail populations decreased by an average of 31 percent in March before rising again in May.
Prisons
Federal Prisons to Allow Visitors Next Month
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The federal Bureau of Prisons will begin allowing inmates to have visitors again in October, almost seven months after visits were suspended at the 122 federal prisons. Some 118 inmates have died of COVID-19 since late March.
Prisons
Arizona Limits News Media Contact With Prisoners
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Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Arizona said journalists could interview inmates only by mail. “I could see why you wouldn’t want inmates taking to the press” with 20 percent of inmates testing positive, says one reporter.