9Mar 2016

Shortage of prison guards a big problem in many states

In 2015, Idaho, North Carolina, Texas, and Oklahoma started programs to try to combat serious shortages and high turnover in prison staff. Now several more states, including Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, and West Virginia, are working on the problem. The states are trying to increase the

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26Feb 2016

Tennessee Sheriff Blames Two Suicides on Overcrowding, Understaffing

Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold maintains that his jail is safe, in spite of recent events that suggest otherwise. In a period of eight days, two inmates committed suicide. Additionally, the Sheriff’s department is facing a $20 million lawsuit because of injuries received by a former inmate

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26Feb 2016

Overall Prison Population Shows Decreasing Trend

A recent report from The Sentencing Project, a criminal justice advocacy organization, shows an overall 2.9% decline in the number of prisoners in both federal and state prisons from 1999 to 2014. This has been accomplished by various changes in practice and policy that have been implemented

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26Feb 2016

New Yorkers Discuss Closing City’s Infamous Rikers Island Jail

New York City Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito had proposed closing the jail complex on the 400-acre Rikers Island. She believes the city would be better served by smaller neighborhood jails. The city currently houses about 10,000 inmates, nearly 8,000 of them at Rikers. The

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