Prison Study
September 20, 2009
Study: Poor mental health treatment contribues to California inmate suicides
Suicide rates inside California's prison system continue to exceed national rates, partly because state prison officials provide inadequate treatment, intervention and assessment of troubled inmates, a new report concludes.
The report, filed in federal court as part of a pending suit against the state seeking to remedy unconstitutional mental health care for prisoners, studied all 34 inmate suicides from 2007 and found some who should have been placed under mental health care screening but were not and cases where cardiopulmonary resuscitation was not performed quickly enough or properly.
Some inmates assessed as having "severe" suicide risks were not handled properly, and documentation on some of the suicides was so sloppy that required reporting on them still has not been completed, the study found…
LINK - SacBee.com
August 5, 2008
Private Prison Co. Again Accused of Human Rights Abuses
A publicly traded company that runs private prison facilities across the country is again facing accusations of human rights abuses against inmates in its facilities.
Immigrants at a Washington State detention center run by the GEO Group, Inc. are being held in conditions that violate both international and U.S. law, says a new report released by the Seattle University School of Law and the human rights group OneAmerica.
The report concludes that immigrants at the Northwest Detention Facility, including refugees and asylum seekers, are being held in "an atmosphere of intimidation" which includes verbal abuse, sexual harassment, strip searches, and poor to non-existent mental and physical health care…
LINK - ABCNews.GO.com
July 15, 2008
Report says Calif. should end juvenile prisons
A state watchdog commission has recommended that California phase out its antiquated juvenile prisons by 2011, replacing them with regional lockups run by the counties. The regional centers would hold only the most dangerous offenders under the proposal unveiled Monday by the watchdog Little Hoover Commission. Less serious offenders would be housed at local juvenile halls.
Commissioners said the state also should end its three-year experiment with combining youth and adult prisons under the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Authority over youth prisons would be placed under an Office of Juvenile Justice reporting to the governor until the state ends its involvement.
The report also suggests that the youth prisons do little in the way of rehabilitation, saying three of four freed young offenders commit new crimes within three years…
LINK - LasVegasSun.com
March 3, 2008
Prison count and priorities (Editorial)
California's governor and lawmakers needn't look to the Department of Corrections for help with the budget crisis. That's a growth industry that will only get bigger - and hungrier for tax dollars.
A study by the Pew Center tells us that one in every 99.1 adults in the United States is currently behind bars, either in federal or state prisons, or in county or city jails. That's more than any other country in the world.
The reasons for the explosive inmate growth are varied, but primarily it's because Americans grew weary of being victims of crime, and got tougher on criminals.
LINK - SantaMariaTimes.com
March 2, 2008
AP finds 13,000 claims of abuse in juvenile detention centers
The Columbia Training School - pleasant on the outside, austere on the inside - has been home to 37 of the most troubled young women in Mississippi.
If some of those girls and their advocates are to be believed, it also is a cruel and frightening place.
The school has been sued twice in the past four years. One suit brought by the U.S. Justice Department, which the state settled in 2005, claimed detainees were thrown naked in to cells and forced to eat their own vomit. The second one, brought by eight girls last year, said they were subjected to "horrendous physical and sexual abuse." Several of the detainees said they were shackled for 12 hours a day…
LINK - AP.org (Associated Press)
February 29, 2008
Nevada: Prison crowding targeted in state
Inmates at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City will begin moving into a 240-bed modular housing unit Monday as part of the state's efforts to ease crowding in the bulging prison population, officials said Thursday.
The move coincides with the release of an unprecedented national report from the Pew Center on the States showing that one out of every 99.1 American adults is in jail or prison, the highest ratio of any country in the world. "We're at capacity and more," said Greg Smith, a planning specialist with the state Department of Corrections. "We've had to utilize some public areas such as classrooms and foyers (within prisons) for housing. We are very much looking forward to the new buildings."
Nevada's penal system, a $296 million annual institution, is designed to handle 12,753 inmates, Smith said. It currently holds 12,959, or roughly one of every 200 state residents, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Nevada Department of Corrections.
LINK - RGJ.com (Reno Gazette-Journal)
February 29, 2008
Video: No Way Out of the California State Prison Merry-go-round?
This article originally ran in December, 1998, but may of the observations and issues remain.
December 1998 Atlantic Monthly
Interviews with prisoners and inmates illustrate a clear need for change in the California prison release program that is under consideration now. Prisons are run on fear. The gangs rule. Most inmates have no skills. They want and need education and training before they hit the streets.
David Rocha went into Section A at SAC (California State Prison outside of Sacramento) to talk to inmates and guards about the control gangs have over the lives of prisoners in prison and on the streets. The inmates in Section A are "no good" former gang members who have left their gangs and are in protective custody within the prison system. Some have release dates and hope for a new crime-free life outside of jail. Is there a way out for them?
LINK - IndyBay.org
February 28, 2008
One in 100 American Adults in Jail or Prison: Report
A new report finds that for the first time, more than one in every 100 adults in America are in jail or prison. At the start of 2008, 2, 319,258 adults were in American prisons or jails, or one in every 99.1, according to a report released by the Pew Center on the States' Public Safety Performance Project.
Pew researchers worked on the report with the collaboration of correctional authorities and other prison researchers. They also obtained data from U.S. justice and census reports. Last year, states spent more than $49 billion on corrections, up from $11 billion 20 years earlier, the report stated. While spending grew, the national recidivism rate is virtually unchanged.
LINK - IBTimes.com (International Business Times)
