Across the Country

ARIZONA
December 5, 2007-A jail inmate may have a multidrug-resistant strain of tuberculosis, which would be only the second such Pima County case in a decade. The 49-year-old inmate has been housed in a special isolation cell since November 20 on a civil commitment complaint filed by the county health department, according to the corrections captain. (A.J. Flick and Heidi Rowley, Tucson Citizen)

December 8, 2007-A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ordered the sheriff's office to restore full visiting hours at county jails for attorneys and other court personnel until a mediator can work out a permanent solution to the staffing dispute. The judge ruled that sheriff's office budgetary problems were not sufficient grounds for curtailing defendants' right to counsel, and she appointed a retired judge to broker an agreement between the sheriff's office and the attorneys. At issue was Sheriff Joe Arpaio's November 12 decision to limit so-called privileged visits to the hours of 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (Michael Kiefer and Judi Villa, The Arizona Republic)

December 12, 2007-A hearing on a second Mohave County prison proposed near Dolan Springs drew dozens of people, most in opposition to it. The Mohave County Planning and Zoning Commission narrowly denied a change to the county's general plan and the Dolan Springs Area Plan for a private prison. The commissioners also denied rezoning the property from agricultural residential to general manufacturing. The proposed detention facility near Dolan Springs would have housed 1,500 to 2,000 inmates and employed about 300 people. (Jim Seckler, The Daily News)

CONECTICUT December 7, 2007-The ACLU is raising questions about what it calls potentially dangerous and inhumane conditions from prison overcrowding in Connecticut. The civil liberties organization is asking prison officials for a response to complaints about conditions. The ACLU sent a letter to the state's corrections commissioner Theresa C. warning about alleged unconstitutional treatment of prison inmates. (Associated Press)

LOUISIANA
December 6, 2007-There is a serious problem with rape in the US prison system, experts said. While it is difficult to get a true picture of how often inmates suffer assaults from their fellow criminals and by prison staff members, anecdotal evidence shows that rape is an all-too common experience in the growing US prison complex. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were more than 6,500 inmate allegations of sexual assault reported in 2006 to authorities. That is a rate of 2.9 claims per 1,000 prisoners, an estimate based on a sampling of prison facilities. (Allen Johnson, Associated Press)

MARYLAND December 9, 2007-Spacious? Hardly, but at just over 60 square feet, cells at the maximum-security North Branch Correctional Institution are bigger than those at Supermax, the prison in Baltimore it was designed in part to replace. The high-tech prison just south of Cumberland will double in size to hold up to 1,400 inmates when two new housing units open next year, completing the $171 million structure, state corrections officials said. North Branch began opening in phases in 2003, and is taking inmates from aging facilities such as the House of Correction in Jessup, which was closed in March after months of violence. (Cumberland Times-News)

NEBRASKA
December 10, 2007-For the second time in less than two months, a Lincoln Correctional Center employee has been sent to a hospital after being assaulted by an inmate. The public information officer for the Nebraska Department of Correction said an LCC staff member was assaulted in a housing unit and treated for minor injuries. She also said she did not believe a weapon had been used in the assault that involved one inmate. (Lori Pilger, Lincoln Journal Star)

NEVADA
December 6, 2007-The American Civil Liberties Union released a report claiming a pattern of "gross medical abuse" at Nevada's maximum-security Ely State Prison, and called Thursday for a meeting with the state's governor and prison director. The ACLU's letter to the governor said the report concludes at least one convict at the prison, which houses Nevada's death row inmates, "has already died an unnecessary, slow and agonizing death," and more such deaths and unnecessary suffering is likely without prompt health care changes at the prison. The letter also states that "prolonged litigation against the state may still be avoided" if there's a united effort to reform "the crisis in delivery of medical care" at the Ely prison. (Brendan Riley, Associated Press)

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