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Punishment by Designnew

Solitary confinement illustrates the power of architecture over the human mind.
SF Weekly  |  Rachel Swan  |  08-21-2013  |  Crime & Justice

Oregon's Jails Are its Biggest Providers of Mental Health Servicesnew

The jail spends half of its annual $600,000 drug budget on psychiatric medications for the inmates who will consent to taking them. But jails can't force the inmates. Far from solving our state's mental health problems, the current situation is probably making them worse.
The Portland Mercury  |  Matt Davis  |  01-14-2010  |  Crime & Justice

New Mexico Jail-Based Charter School is First of its Kind in the USnew

Named for a man who worked to promote literacy and education in the jail (and who wore a Santa suit during Christmas family days there), the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center aims to graduate some of the estimated 40 percent of inmates without diplomas.
Weekly Alibi  |  Marisa Demarco  |  07-29-2008  |  Crime & Justice

Allan Parmelee, the Inmate Who Won't Shut Upnew

Parmelee spends his days in a cell, carefully hand-printing lawsuits, motions, records requests, and legal appeals on a pad of lined paper. Known to fellow inmates as the "jailhouse attorney," he's filed dozens of lawsuits in state and federal courts.
Seattle Weekly  |  Laura Onstot  |  07-07-2008  |  Crime & Justice

Too Many Pregnant Addicts Call Salt Lake County Metro Jail Homenew

With treatment-center beds so hard to come by, judges hand pregnant women jail sentences to provide them at least with safety and some prenatal care. But most of the babies will still be born into a world where drug withdrawal is one of their first sensations.
Salt Lake City Weekly  |  Eric S. Peterson  |  06-30-2008  |  Crime & Justice

An Inmate Beating Brings Up Issue of Transgender Discrimination in Memphisnew

A video leaked from the Shelby County Correction Center shows Officer Bridges McRae repeatedly punching Duanna Johnson inside a waiting room at the jail. The 18-minute video has no audio, but Johnson claims McRae assaulted her after she refused to respond to homophobic slurs of "he/she" and "faggot."
The Memphis Flyer  |  Bianca Phillips  |  06-27-2008  |  LGBT

Locked Down: What It's Really Like Inside Philly's Overcrowded Prisonsnew

The city's prisons woefully overpopulated and have been for several decades. Efforts to fix this problem have come up against the seemingly immutable fact that, on an average day, 108 people enter the six-prison system while only 105 leave it.
Philadelphia City Paper  |  Tom Namako  |  06-24-2008  |  Crime & Justice

Private Jailer CCA Faces Heightened Scrutiny After a Year of Heinous Controversiesnew

Since its inception in 1983, CCA has become accustomed to criticism, but it is now mired in a series of scandals, embarrassments and public-relations catastrophes that may tar its reputation for years to come.
Nashville Scene  |  Matt Pulle  |  06-20-2008  |  Crime & Justice

Grant Will Fund Education for Santa Barbara's Inmatesnew

A longtime supporter of Santa Barbara City College donated $278,000 to create a designated classroom at the County Jail so that City College adult education instructors can soon provide educational opportunities for inmates.
Santa Barbara Independent  |  Nick Welsh  |  06-10-2008  |  Crime & Justice

Another Dubious Death at a Downtown Seattle Jailnew

Details of the incident, based on public records and interviews, fit into a three-year pattern of preventable deaths at the King County Jail.
Seattle Weekly  |  Rick Anderson  |  06-02-2008  |  Crime & Justice

Putting a Face on Texas' Death Row Populationnew

Shooting through the glass of interview cubicles, photographer and investigator John Holbrook has made eloquent portraits of some of the men -- and one of the women on Texas' Death Row.
Fort Worth Weekly  |  Gayle Reaves and John Holbrook  |  05-08-2008  |  Crime & Justice

What Has Happened to Our Country?new

Nothing the Bush administration has done has damaged America as much as the torture and murder of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay.
Illinois Times  |  Rod Helle  |  02-05-2005  |  Commentary

A Private Prison Firm's Dark Daysnew

Hostages, riots, angry protestors, a $60 million lawsuit and a federal investigation plague Corrections Corporation of America. How many "operational incidents" does it take to make a disturbing trend?
Nashville Scene  |  John Spragens  |  12-16-2004  |  Crime & Justice

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