January 18, 2013

Texas Lawmakers Finally Considering Medical Parole

It's taken a major budget crisis and numerous examples of million-dollar cases, but the Texas Legislature is actually looking at the stringent procedures that keep terminally ill patients within the cells. Head of the parole system, Rissie Owens, is frequently quoted as saying these prisoners are known to have miraculous recoveries and commit new crimes; perhaps the legislature can investigate how many do actually pick up their pallets and walk into crime. http://www.texastribune.org/2013/01/18/lawmakers-look-medical-parole-cut-prison-costs/
January 17, 2013

Controversy: Inmates Working While Incarcerated

Should inmates work while they're in prison? Some critics of work programs see them as modern slave factories, where an inmate earns, perhaps, $0.81/hr. In California, one program that teamed with trades unions taught the inmates a skill, and helped them get employed upon release. But the State has run out of money, so the program is being discontinued. The recidivism rate for inmates who succeed in the program is astonishing low; perhaps critics should re-think their position and urge the states to offer them everywhere. http://www.corrections.com/news/article/31972-california-prison-industry-authority-report-to-the-prison-insustry-board
January 16, 2013

Washington’s New Transition Program

Washington state has opened new programs to help those in isolation units earn their way out. "At Clallam Bay, the path out of isolation runs through the color-coded tiers of the Intensive Transition Program (ITP), housed since 2006 in a unit originally built for juveniles. About 30 inmates, all volunteers, agree to a nine-month program stocked with coursework such as "moral recognition therapy" and "self-repair," gradually earning more freedoms."  Some are former gang members;  some are mentally ill. http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020081649_prison08m.html
January 15, 2013

Judge Agrees that Mentally Ill Are Mistreated

U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt decided that Indiana's treatment of mentally ill inmates is not constitutional. The issue, again: isolation units. When human beings are separated from all interaction with other humans, they develop symptoms of insanity. When inmates were already having mental troubles, the isolation confounds the problem. And then the inmates are released into society. The judge stopped short of requiring specific cures to the problem but will be monitoring the system. http://www.indystar.com/article/20130102/NEWS05/130102011/Judge-State-violated-rights-of-mentally-ill-inmates-at-Indiana-prisons?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1
January 4, 2013

Journalists Barred from Prisons?

Policy varies from state to state, from Warden to Warden. Despite the First Amendment, Public Information Officers of prisons can ban the public from knowing what is happening inside prisons, and that can't be all good now, can it? Jessica Pupovac, investigating prison journalists' access to prisons for her master's thesis, uncovered a wild array of policies and yet, and yet taxpayers spend approximately $74 BILLION on state and federal prison systems annually. Yet the public can't know how the dollars are spent? http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/inside-criminal-justice/2013-01-the-battle-to-open-prisons-to-journalists?goback=%2Egde_65622_member_200791595
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