Jails Paid Per Prisoner? That’s Perverse, Say NOLA Advocates

by Noelle de la Paz on December 1 2011, 9:45AM

Orleans Parish Prison receives money based on how many inmates are detained each day. And go figure, it’s got the largest county jail per capita of any major U.S. city.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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Calif. Prison Hunger Strike Ends at Pelican Bay, Continues Elsewhere

by Jorge Rivas on October 14 2011, 3:44PM

Prisoner advocates say a three-week hunger strike protesting long-term solitary confinement has ended at the “supermax” Pelican Bay. But reports say it’s ongoing in at least two other state prisons.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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Prisoner Health Deteriorates as California Clamps Down on Strike

by Julianne Hing on October 13 2011, 10:13AM

One participating striker at Pelican Bay reportedly had to be taken to an Oregon hospital after suffering a heart attack

Topics: Criminal Justice

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Arizona Now Charges Families $25 to Visit Loved Ones in State Prisons

by Jorge Rivas on September 6 2011, 11:46AM

Prisoner advocates consider this the latest frontier for in the billion-dollar private prison industry.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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From Attica to Pelican Bay: A Brief History of Prison Rebellions

by Bryan Gerhart on July 27 2011, 10:00AM

With news that California’s prison hunger strike may have ended, we take a look back at seminal prison rebellions that have called for similar changes.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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Thousands of CA Inmates Show Solidarity With Prison Hunger Strike

by Bryan Gerhart on July 8 2011, 11:13AM

Over 6,000 strikers are participating so in an effort that’s reached across counties and states to call for more humane treatment in some of the country’s harshest prison units.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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Five Prison Reform Ideas Being Ignored on Capitol Hill

by Shani O. Hilton on July 8 2011, 10:20AM

There’s no shortage of ideas for fixing the damage done by decades of drug war.

Topics: Criminal Justice, Drug War

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Evaluating the Drug War on Its 40th Birthday, by the Numbers

by Akiba Solomon, Stokely Baksh on June 17 2011, 11:40AM

Forty years and $1 trillion in, the war on drugs hasn’t worked—unless locking up a massive number of black and brown people was the plan all along.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Criminal Justice, Drug War

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Supreme Court Demands California Release 30,000 Inmates

by Julianne Hing on May 24 2011, 9:32AM

Just how bad is the state’s prison overcrowding? More than 40 inmates had to share one toilet. And that’s just the beginning.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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Mumia Abu-Jamal Gets New Sentencing Hearing

by Jamilah King on April 27 2011, 11:41AM

A U.S. Appeals court has ruled that the prolific writer and activist must be granted a new sentencing hearing within six months.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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NAACP and Newt Gingrich Agree: Too Much Money for Prisons

by Asraa Mustufa on April 7 2011, 4:58PM

A bevy of conservative politicos line up alongside the NAACP to talk about criminal justice reform.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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California’s Adult State Prisons, in Pictures

by Hatty Lee, Jamilah King on March 4 2011, 11:53AM

When it comes to California’s prisons, Josh Begley makes a big statement with simple visuals.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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Georgia Prison Guards Arrested for Retaliatory Abuse of Inmate

by Julianne Hing on February 25 2011, 3:48PM

The fallout continues from last December’s massive prison strike.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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NPR Investigation: Private Prison Companies Helped Write SB 1070

by Seth Freed Wessler on October 28 2010, 1:00PM

Industry saw model bill to create “enhanced opportunities” for driving profits.

Topics: Criminal Justice, Immigration

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Before SB 1070, Arizona Sold Prisons to Highest Bidders

by Jamilah King on August 25 2010, 11:18AM

Before SB 1070, lawmakers had all but turned the state’s prisons over to private companies. Now they’re getting cheated.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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Groups Press Justice Department on Prison Rape

by Michelle Chen on August 18 2010, 11:23AM

Groups call for an end to the culture of impunity that looms over the incarcerated.

Topics: Criminal Justice, On Gender

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For ICE Prisons, a Blank One-Year Progress Report

by Michelle Chen on August 6 2010, 10:45AM

Today marks one year since ICE promised to fix the detention system. So far, there’s little to celebrate.

Topics: Immigration, On Gender

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Prison System Chains Women in Childbirth

by Michelle Chen on July 20 2010, 10:30AM

In many places around the country, it’s still legal to keep incarcerated women shackled while they go through labor.

Topics: Criminal Justice, Gender & Sexuality, On Gender

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You Can’t Fix Juvenile Justice and Ignore Race

by Dom Apollon on July 16 2010, 12:31PM

It’ll take more than a cost-benefit analysis to stop locking up so many black and brown kids.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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Feds Take Over New York’s Troubled Youth Prisons

by Naima Ramos-Chapman on July 16 2010, 11:19AM

Advocates say it’s a start, but kids with mental health needs ought to be in treatment, not lock up.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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