LGBTQ Students More Likely to Be Disciplined, Contributing to School to Prison Pipeline

Unfortunately, the school to prison pipeline has become all too familiar, particularly for those students who may be people of colour, impoverished, or otherwise disadvantaged by the current system. LGBTQ students, and particularly transgender students, are also more likely to be disciplined at school, including suspensions and expulsions. As in other cases, these disciplinary actions

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Arkansas Jail Finally Begins Serving Hot Meals

By Chris Zoukis Arkansas’ Benton County Jail has, for years, served its prisoners three cold meals a day.  It has been doing so despite several lawsuits and renewed requests that it serve hot meals, from the community.  The jail had no plans to serve its prisoners hot food, especially since the jail has been told

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Justice Department Sets Course For Private Prison Phase-Out

Part I: What DOJ and the Bureau of Prisons Have Planned Reversing a 20-year policy, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced the Department of Justice will phase out federal use of private prisons, saying they “compare poorly” in safety and effectiveness to federal correctional facilities run by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). This column will

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How to Get Books Into the Hands Of Prison Inmates

By Christopher Zoukis Young Tyler Fugett from Tennessee recently used his allowance money to buy books for local prisoners, scouring clearance sales at local book stores. The boy, 9, donated more than 100 books to the Montgomery Sheriff’s Office in hopes they would go to the local prison, and has been collecting more, along with

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Court Rules Against Seizure of Prisoner’s Wiccan Medallion

By Christopher Zoukis A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Chicago has blocked an Illinois prison warden’s confiscation of a small pentacle (a five-pointed state within a circle) medallion worn by an inmate as a symbol of his Wiccan faith. The July 13 preliminary injunction issued by the 7th Circuit reversed a district

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State Supreme Court Strikes Down Delaware’s Death Penalty Law

By a 3-2 margin, the Delaware Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional the state’s death penalty law, because it allows a presiding judge to disregard a jury’s recommendation on whether the death penalty should be imposed. The state’s high court held that violates the Sixth Amendment’s right to a jury trial. The Delaware ruling follows the

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Former inmates could have voting rights restored

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley has signed legislation effective September 1 that will ostensibly allow former inmates to register to vote. This hopefully paves the way for other states to follow suit as the presidential election campaign enters its final stretch. The state requires government action or petition before suffrage is restored to those who were

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Prison Tobacco Bans Reduce Smoking-related Deaths

By Chris Zoukis Tobacco use and secondhand smoke kill over 480,000 people in the United States annually. The mortality rate of smokers is three times higher than those who have never smoked, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and smoking reduces an average smoker’s life expectancy by 10 years compared to non-smokers.

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