The Supreme Court opens its new 9-month term today with arguments in a case that considers what the meaning of the word “and” is in a provision of the First Step Act, an esoteric English lesson with real-world impact for thousands of federal prisoners (view full article).
The beleaguered federal Bureau of Prisons said Monday it will close a women’s prison in California known as the “rape club” despite attempts to reform the troubled facility after an Associated Press investigation exposed rampant staff-on-inmate sexual abuse (
FBI agents on Monday raided a federal women’s prison in California so plagued by sexual abuse it was known among inmates and workers as the “rape club.” The action coincided with the ouster of the new warden from the federal correctional institution in Dublin (view article).
A new investigation by The Appeal brings to light what many criminal defense practitioners have known for years, price gouging in prison commissaries allows companies and prisons to prioritize financial gains at the expense of incarcerated individuals and their families.
Baltimore County, Md. jail oversees a "work detail" program under which detainees work for various arms of the county, including the county's recycling center, where they are paid $20 per day despite regularly working nine-to-ten-hour shifts sorting recycling. Former detainee files a class action, alleging that he's owed unpaid minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Fourth Circuit: Maybe so. The FLSA doesn't apply to work in or for the prison directly, but it might apply here. Case un-dismissed.
The federal Bureau of Prisons is closing the notorious Special Management Unit at Thomson penitentiary in Illinois, after frequent reports of violence and abuse. View full article and previous coverage.
NPR and The Marshall Project have uncovered violence, abuse and a string of inmate deaths at a new penitentiary in Thomson, Ill (access audio and article).
There have been at least 167 recorded assaults at Thomson between January 2019 and October 2021, according to data provided by the bureau. But this is an undercount, as it doesn’t include more serious incidents or deaths that were dealt with outside the prison disciplinary system.
The leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee are demanding Attorney General Merrick Garland take immediate action to reform the beleaguered federal Bureau of Prisons in response to Associated Press investigations that exposed widespread problems there, serious misconduct involving correctional officers and rampant sexual abuse at a California women’s prison (view full article).
Michael Carvajal, the director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons whose tenure at the agency was marred by scandals and pandemic-induced struggles, will resign after nearly two years in the top position amid heavy criticism of his leadership of the agency, the Justice Department said Wednesday (view full article).
Inside one of the only federal women’s prisons in the United States, inmates say they have been subjected to rampant sexual abuse by correctional officers and even the warden, and were often threatened or punished when they tried to speak up (view full article).
Prisoners and workers at the federal correctional institution in Dublin, California, even have a name for it: “The rape club.”