The Armed Career Criminal Act (AACA) prohibits convicted felons from owning firearms. IN general, it can get a felon up to 10 years in prison. But: if the offender has 3 or more earlier convictions for 'serious drug offense' or 'violent felony,' the ACCA increases his prison term for a minimum of 15 years, and a maximum of life. Pretty tough stuff! But recently the Supreme Court has held that a district court does not have the power to increase a sentence under the ACCA's residual clause. Now courts will grapple with the state and federal definitions of 'violent' before applying more draconian years to a felon's sentence.

Sentenced at 16. Left to rot until he was 24. But Reginald Dwayne Betts Jr. took a book with him, and he found others. Some books found him. Today he is in higher education, and publishing essays and books and poetry. It can happen. Dwayne is now finishing Yale Law School Send a book to someone Inside today and see what will happen. Dare you

Texas prisons do not have air conditioning despite record-setting heat 6 months each year. Until recently, few have cared outside the prison family circles. Now, though, with a renewed interest in prison architecture, prison sentencing, prison solitary, prison abuse of juveniles and the mentally ill--now inmate problems have attracted the attention and study of academics who are joining in the national cry to fix prison conditions. A major step forward is the paper just published by Colombia Law School visiting scholar Daniel Holt. Heat in U.S. Prisons and Jails: Corrections and the Challenge of Climate Change traces the problems caused by both rising temperatures and lower interest in prison populations.

Michigan jail found guilty of suppressing legal mail. Livingston County jail now required to allow ACLU mail and Prison Legal News.

A recent Supreme Court decision allowed Justice Kennedy to wax eloquently about the horrors of solitary confinement. He mentioned youth and also the mentally ill--and those who become mentally ill after being deprived of human contact. Most of us already knew the consequences. But now...now an authority with real power has brought the subject into the open and into the court rooms. Let's hope this barbaric practice is declared illegal and unconstitutional. Soon.

The law doesn't distinguish between sex offenders, and, well, sex offenders who attack children. We need a new vocabulary, and we need better laws. The law does not distinguish between those who watch pornography an those who profit from it, or who watch child porn. When viewers get caught in these stings, they go down. Way down. We need a better vocabulary, and better laws.

Blog reveals life behind the bars: prisonvitality.wordpress.com

#collegeforconvicts offers both an expansive argument for educational opportunities plus appendices of useful information to help inmates find those opportunities.

Mississippi private prison corporation tries to trick federal judge. He notices...

Texas inmate with Stage 4 cancer throughout denied parole for 10th time.