Criminal Justice : Incarceration |
Issues concerning the efficacy of imprisonment in deterring crime, the equity or inequity of its application, prison conditions including inmate abuse and jailor corruption
2/12/10
INTERNATIONAL
Websites: Stop Prison Rape: http://www.spr.org/index.html Global Bibliography of Prison Systems: http://www.uncjin.org/country/GBOPS/gbops.html
Analysis & views: 6/19/08 Mandatory sentencing policies in Canada are increasing the number of prisoners and the costs of housing them. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080619.wsentence19/BNStory/National/home 5/3/08 International Film Festival in unlikely setting: prison in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7381840.stm 12/31/07 Jihadist torture in Moroccan jails? Not! : Detainees charged with jihadist activities have, by their protests, been able to secure special privileges, like the use of conjugal visiting rooms, that are not available to "your average" prisoner. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/world/africa/31prison.html?th&emc=th 12/8/07 Suicide of teen girl in an Ontario jail highlights deplorable conditions for many women in Canadian prisons. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071208.Smith08/BNStory/National/home 10/9/07 A privately-operated prison in Britain is described as "fundamentally fragile" and calls are made for public sector intrusions on its operation. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article3041052.ece 8/2/07 Employers and the general public in Denmark show a high and increasing tendency toward acceptance in the work-place of ex-prisoners. http://www.cphpost.dk/get/102914.html 6/4/07 Prisoners in overcrowded UK jails are protesting the lack of availability of pre-release rehabilitation programs the completion of which is a condition of their early release. http://society.guardian.co.uk/crimeandpunishment/story/0,,2094706,00.html
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NATIONAL
Websites: 360 Degrees: Perspectives on the U.S. Criminal Justice System: American Probation and Parole Association: Corrections Connection: Prison Alternatives: From CS Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0730/p08s03-comv.html Urban Institute: Corrections and Prisoners (abstracts of published articles papers): http://www.urban.org/justice/corrections.cfm
Analysis & views: 12/11/09 11/24/09 8/8/09 6/10/09 Harris County (Houston) Texas officials are scrambling to make improvements in living conditions and rights protection of county jail inmates as Justice Department issues a threatening report on those conditions. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6467918.html 2/2/09 When Guantanamo closes, will some of its detainees wind up with the Unabomber and shoe bomber at Colorado's super-max prison?: Some Colorado politicos are resisting this idea, complaining that housing the "worst of the worst" would spoil the "nice atmosphere" of the prison, and endanger local populations if they escaped. This despite the fact that the prison was built at a level of security that virtually precludes either escape or violent acts of inmates against other inmates or guards, and that prisoners like a killer with 30 murders on his records reside "comfortably" in the facility. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/31-0 9/29/08 As critical resistance meets in Oakland, Z-Net interviews anarchist leader on the "prison/industrial complex." , Isaac Oniveros lays out the radical critique of that system, noting that its "privatization" is but a small part of the problem associated with that industry. Publications like The Abolitionist push for the abolition not the reform of that "complex," as it advocates for a society in which crime and punishment are not generated as a mechanism of feeding the profits of those associated with the administration of same, whether the actual instruments of oppression (the prisons) happen to be "publicly" or "privately" owned. http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18949 7/25/08 After death of an inmate in Prince Georges County Maryland, prison officials giving closer scrutiny to arrest backgrounds of prison employees. 4/10/08 Allegations of widespread abuse of inmates by Maryland corrections officers are sparking the largest investigation in many years of conditions in the state's prisons. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.roxbury10apr10,0,6054780.story 3/25/08 "We're Americans, and we don't do torture." Excuse me, but take a look at Tamms Correctional Facility in southern Illinois, one of a number of "super max" prisons to which the "worst of the worst" of U.S. domestic prisoners are sent. Inmates are kept there in conditions not that different than other "caged animals" like those in chicken factory farms and are deprived of any modicum of humane treatment. Indications are that these inmates have "qualified" for this "super" treatment by doing "trouble-making" things like complaining about conditions in the prisons from which they have been transferred. http://www.alternet.org/rights/80440/ 2/29/08 Like never before, America is an incarcer-nation:. 1 of every 100 U.S. adults are in prison. For young black males, it is 1 in 9. One law professor sees a good side to this, noting the recent decline in crime rates. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/28cnd-prison.html?8au&emc=au 2/20/08 North Carolina lawmakers face a choice because of booming prisoner population: give shorter sentences or build more prisons. http://www.newsobserver.com/1565/story/953354.html 1/6/08 Deaths of 101 inmates in 6 years in Harris County Texas jails raises questions about the quality of treatment of inmates. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4562346.html 12/22/07 Omaha grand jury's call for consolidation of city and county jails recalls a similiar proposal 9 years ago. http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10215667 12/17/07 "They still treat kids like dirt " is the assessment by one member of a Texas watchdog group, his own son the victim of abuse in a West Texas facility of the Texas Youth Commission, of the progress of "reforms" in the state's juvenile detention system mandated in legislation passed 7 months ago by the Texas legislature. Critics call any changes "minute" while TYC touts such indications of progress as that the system no longer has "management raping kids." 12/11/07 Supreme Court: U.S. Sentencing Commission guidelines are not holy writ: By 7-2 vote (Thomas and Alito dissenting), Court uprights right of federal judges to impose less than the sentences indicated in the guidelines, opening the way to lessening the disparity in the sentences for crack as opposed to powdered cocaine (the different drugs of choice of the poor and the rich). http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/washington/10cnd-scotus.html?8au&emc=au 11/23/07 Criminal justice research group report calls the U.S. prison system a "costly failure." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7102054.stm 10/21/07 Opinion: "A society that gives up on its youngest has run out of ideas and given up all hope." - So writes an editorialist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, on recent news that the U.S. is the world's leader in lifetime incarcerations of juvenile criminals and that the country's justice system is bankrupt of ideas on how to treat wayward children except by harsh punishment. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/336139_prisoned.html 10/17/07 The U.S. stands alone on teenager incarceration: A UN resolution condemning lifelong imprisonment of children without possibility of parole is passed 185-1 with U.S. the lone dissenter. In its incarceration practices the country leads the world in this dubious category, with 73 people who committed crimes when they were 13 or 14 serving such sentences. Now a Montgomery-based organization, Equal Justice Initiative, is seeking to have courts do periodic "second chance" reviews of their sentences. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/us/17teenage.html?th&emc=th 8/27/07 New "federal receiver" appointed to implement court order to improve medical care for California's prison population is moving aggressively to fulfill the court's mandate. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/us/27prisons.html?th&emc=th 8/20/07 Mass incarceration in America: Just think of it as "The GI Bill in reverse": A number of recent books examine the causes and consequences of the massive expansion in the number of jailed and "supervised" people in America. One of them compares it to the GI Bill, which created opportunities for masses of Americans that had multi-generational consequences. In contrast, the huge number of (especially) black Americans in prisons isolated from their families may be creating a situation in which the deprivations of the fathers are being visited on their children. http://www.alternet.org/rights/60065/?page=3 7/29/07 As the crime rate in America has dropped, the "punishment rate" has increased, accounting for the extremely high levels of incarceration of the U.S. as opposed to about any other country. http://www.bostonreview.net/BR32.4/loury.html 5/12/07 Plans for an Alaskan "mega-prison" are scaled back by new Governor. http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/matsu/prison/story/8877957p-8777151c.html 4/30/07 California's solution to overcrowded prisons: build more prisons. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0430/p01s02-usju.html 3/18/07 Stabbing of a corrections officer at a maximum-security prison in Jessup MD leads the state to shut down the violence-prone facility. 2/6/07 Faced with staffing shortages, California is about to begin out-sourcing some of its inmates to jails in Mississippi, Arizona and Oklahoma. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/03/BAGE0NU3QB1.DTL 1/11/07 In jail, a person can catch a bad case of death: study in Washington state shows that those recently-released from incarceration have many times the rate of death as those in the civilian population, especially deaths from drug overdose. Experts cite lack of mental health and rehabilitative services in prison and lack of programs to facilitate inmates' reentry to civilian life. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003519531_prisonerdeaths11m0.html 12/27/06 Tension in a crowded Nebraska jail: flatulence of one inmate sparks an assault on him by another inmate. http://www.examiner.com/a-475671~Flatulence_Allegedly_Sparks_Jail_Fight.html 12/12/06 Federal judge in D.C. allows a civil suit of prisoners charging violation of their civil rights in the process of transferring them between jails to go forward. http://www.examiner.com/a-450005~Judge_allows_abuse_claim_by_D_C__prisoners_to_go_to_trial.html 12/11/06 A faith-based night in the slammer: GOP presidential hopeful Sam Brownback has himself imprisoned in a Kansas jail to dramatize his support of privatized operation of prisons under religous auspices. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,235727,00.html 12/9/06 In Illinois and in states around the country, there is a "wave" of efforts being made to replace incarceration of juvenile offenders with a variety of rehabilitation programs. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1208/p02s02-usju.html 10/7/06 Youths held at the state-run Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center "suffer significant harm and risk of harm" from violence because there isn't enough staff on hand, and behavior management and treatment plans are inadequate, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Justice. 8/10/06 Pittsburgh jail opens a family activity center to make children's visits to their incarcerated parents more congenial. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06222/712430-85.stm 8/4/06 Severe crowding in Albuquerque jails results from longer prison terms and housing those arrested for public intoxication in jails rather than treatment centers. http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_local_state_government/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19859_4894260,00.html 8/4/06 California prison disciplines inmate who used M&Ms to create paintings which he donated to a charity to help the children or prisoners. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/us/04artist.html?th&emc=th 7/6/06 Former Florida Department of Corrections officials Cosby and Clark plead guilty to kickbacks on scheme to furnish concessions to state prisoners, vow to help further investigation, which includes insurance agent in Gainesville, Eddie Dugger. http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/070606/met_22270494.shtml 7/5/06 New prison for female inmates in Massachusetts is touted as providing women with a "space of their own." Critics say that's a guise to justify an expensive new facility and evade addressing the problem of the forces behind the rising incarceration rate. http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3379/continued/308#continued 6/11/06 California's prison system, once the crown jewel of the nation's penal system, is in crisis with severe overcrowding and near-elimination of rehabilitation services. Factors in the crisis include state's "get tough" laws with longer sentences and the overall deterioration of education and other social services in the state. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/10/AR2006061000719.html?referrer=email 5/26/06 Protests by Yale University students leads to the University's disvestment in a for-profit prison corporation. http://campusprogress.org/tools/924/prison-for-profit-loses-its-appeal 5/24/06 Severe overcrowding in California prisons is leading to calls for prison and criminal justice reform, including shorter, constructive sentences and prison environments for lesser crimes, and, the old standby, bigger and scarier prisons: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/24/MNGLAJ16051.DTL 5/22/06 Number of inmates in America jails is increasing, it remains predominantly black in racial composition and 63% are unconvicted people awaiting trial. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Prison_Population.html 3/2/06 Prisons often shackle pregnant inmates while they are in labor: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/national/02shackles.html?th&emc=th 3/1/06 Citing administrative costs, Census Bureau won't count prisoners by their communities of origin, with huge loss in government expenditures for poorer communities: http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/002483.php 2/20/06 In LA County Jail, inmates were stripped naked to deter riots: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021806C.shtml
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FLORIDA:
STATEWIDE
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Analysis & views: 2/12/10 8/10/09 3/22/08 For Florida prisoners, will economic necessity accomplish what compassion could not touch? As Florida legislature struggles with finding ways to cut public expenditures for prisons, one idea being floated is that prisoners who are chronically ill or dying be released to make room for other prisoners without additional staffing or bed construction. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2008/03/20/a16a_xgr_prisons_0320.html 3/1/08 State prisoner "amenities" (like food) maye be low-hanging fruit for Florida budget cutters: As state legislature reconvenes and has to deal with a revenue shortfall. some are suggesting paring the diets of inmates and housing some of the short-time ones in tents rather than cells http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2008/02/25/m1a_XGRBUDGET_0225.html 10/13/07 Prison guards and nurse found not guilty in boot camp death case: All white male jury returns verdict as Justice Department vows to investigate case for possible civil rights violations. http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/270152.html 10/9/07 It was another "day at the office" for the boot camp guards whose beatings resulted in the death of Martin Lee Anderson:So says a defense attorney for one of the guards, noting that aggressive dealing with violent felons is a part of guards' everyday routine. Also, Anderson had a "red dot" beside his name indicating that he was violence-prone. (His actual charges resulting in his confinement were trespassing and stealing his grandmother's car.) 4/21/07 Florida lawyers trying to determine division of responsibility for a teenager's death in a "boot camp" incarceration facility in a looming multi-million dollar settlement. 12/3/06 Lucy Hadi, director of Florida Department of Children Families, having survived a threat by a Judge to jail her if she could not find mental health treatment for inmates, announces her retirement, saying it has nothing to do with the controversy. 8/14/06 Admission of former Department of Corrections head James Crosby that he was in alcoholic rehab highlights a pattern of "macho drinking" that may afflict "high stress" employees of prison system. http://www.tdo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060717/COLUMNIST03/607170317/-1/CAPITOLNEWS 4/26/06 Florida House approves "anti-murder" measure which would allow immediate detention of probationers for violent crimes who violate their probations; proponent says probations should lead lives as if they were "at the foot of the cross." http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD04LEG042606.htm 2/23/06 Investigations of corrupt actions lead DOC chief to freeze employee club operations in state prisons: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060223/LOCAL/202230364/1078/news 2/21/06 State legislator wants juvenile boot camps shut down until standards of treatment can be established: http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060221/NEWS02/602210341/1011 2/21/06 New state Department of Corrections is stymied by employee resistance to its first "reform": an effort to ban "casual Friday" for prison workers: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060221/LOCAL/60221001/1078 2/18/06 New Florida prisons chief hopes to restore code of ethics 2/18/06 Corrections experts say firing of DOC head won't cure problems of Florida's prison system: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060218/LOCAL/202180333/1078 2/17/06 Following Miami Herald expose, state legislative committee considers overhauling system of treatment of sexual predators: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13893112.htm 2/16/06 Growing movement toward closing Florida's juvenile justice boot camps: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2006/02/16/m1a_bootcamp_0216.html 2/16/06 Bootcamps for kids should be given the boot http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13883103.htm 2/15/06 Black legislators demand shutdown of a juvenile justice boot camp where a teenager died: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/13874069.htm 2/11/06 Former director of state prison privatization board pleads guilty to fraud charges: http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060211/NEWS01/602110317/1010 2/7/06 Florida's prison population continues to grow: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060207/LOCAL/202070317/1078 2/1/06 Two Florida Department of Corrections officials accused of beating inmate at softball banquet restored to payroll after charges dropped: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060131/LOCAL/201310332/1078/news 2/1/06 Lack of therapy for sexual predators in Florida prisons: http://www.miami.com/multimedia/miami/news/archive/sexpred/part4/1.html
Other information sources:
FLORIDA LOCALITIES
Websites:
Analysis and views: Orlando: 1/30/09 New report on Orlando jail "fight club" in which guards bet on fights between inmates says this was a guard's "joke" and didn't really happen. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-fightclub3009jan30,0,4999388.story Orlando: 8/21/08 Orange County FL Sheriff declines to press charges against jailers who allowed inmates to participation in a "fight club," saying their action was a "policy violation," not a criminal action. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-fightclub2008aug20,0,4802781.story Orlando: 8/10/08 At a funeral service for 2 or 3 black teenagers shot to death in an "execution-style" murder in Pine Hills, near Orlando, bishop of Empowerment Ministries Church issues passionate plea for drug dealers and "thugs" present at funeral to renounce their further violence, which is not murdering whites but "foolish Negroes" like themselvdes. "Dozens" of such come forward crying, praying and holding one another." http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-funeral1008aug10,0,5352108.story Flagler Co: 5/3/08 Contracted mental health services for inmates of Flagler County jail are described as inadequate as contract renewal is considered. http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/newWEST04050308.htm Jacksonville: 3/30/08 "Outrage" being expressed at suggestion from Duval County Sheriff's office, to a panel to deal with violent crime in Jacksonville, that funding for more police on the streets could be realized by reducing the number of people in the county's jails. http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/033008/met_263132477.shtml Hastings: 10/21/07 Hastings (St. John's County) facility for troubled youth has a troubled history of its own. http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/102107/met_210437545.shtml Lauderdale Lakes: 7/27/07 What does it mean for a prison to be a "limited access public place"? In Lauderdale Lakes FL it means a prisoner can be convicted of indecent exposure in a public place when he masturbates in his cell under the observation of a prison monitor. The woman who monitored him acknowledged the frequency of prisoner masturbation but says that other prisoners do it "under the blankets." She is asked satirically by one juror if she had called for a SWAT team to deal with the "crime," and she says "I wish I had." The story was picked up by the UK Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2135251,00.html Daytona Beach: 7/26/07 Jail psychiatrist walks out of meeting on issue of Volusia County inmates denied medications, saying the presence of news media "policizes" the issue. http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD03072607.htm Daytona Beach: 4/28/07 Activists protesting "buck naked cells" in Volusia Couty jails in which mentally ill patients on suicide watch are confined without clothing in solitary confinement. http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD03042807.htm Umatilla: 3/24/07 NIMBY in Lake County FL: City of Umatilla turns down a proposal to locate a 70-bed facility for care of mentally ill inmates. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-lmental2407mar24,0,2300530.story?coll=orl-news-headlines Deland: 3/10/07 Saying that a Volusia County FL inmate doesn't "deserve the luxury of a nursing home," a judge orders that he be kept in jail until he is "competent" to understand the proceedings to transfer him to the home; those at jail say his mind is deteriorating and he will never be competent. http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/newWEST01031007.htm Jacksonville: 2/9/07 Do-it-yourself bunk construction is one device used by inmates of over-crowded jails in Duval County FL to create living facilities for themselves. http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/020907/met_7564736.shtml Palm Beach Co.: 1/21/07 Illegal immigrant in Palm Beach County who died in prison remains unidentified for a month as he concealed his identity because of his immigrant status. Orlando: 12/12/06 Some mentally ill inmates have languished as long as 5 months in Orange County FL jails. Miami: 12/3/06 Mentally ill inmates in Miami-Dade jails are not receiving the treatment they need. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16151697.htm St. Agugustine: 6/29/06 7th Circuit State Attorney says the Sheriffs of the 4 counties in his circuit (Flagler, Volusia, St. John's and Putnam) have put up a "blue wall" to impede his investigation of abuses within prisons of these counties http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/062906/met_22222111.shtml Tampa: 4/2/06 New probation violation court in Tampa relieves jail crowding by allowing accused violators to stay home awaiting court action, or be quickly shipped off to state prison; some question their fairness: http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBNKIAWILE.html 3/20/06 A 'zero-tolerance' policy against violent crimes has put more Miami-Dade students in handcuffs--for fighting, graffiti and other minor offenses. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14132386.htm
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