Posts Tagged ‘solitary confinement’
Virginia Pays $100K to Settle Suit over Inmate Suicide
On November 8, 2014, 19-year-old Dai’yaan Longmire was an inmate in Virginia’s Indian Creek Correctional Center in southern Chesapeake, placed in solitary confinement during the third year of a four-year term. He was serving time after pleading guilty to a total of five felonies and two misdemeanors. The charges included burglary, grand larceny, theft of…
Read MoreHarvard Students Demonstrate Against Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons
By Christopher Zoukis In April 2018, students from Harvard University held a 24-hour demonstration protesting the conditions of solitary confinement in prisons. The protest consisted of a student sitting inside an area boxed off with tape. The 7 x 9 foot square showed how small solitary confinement cells are. Four locations on the Harvard campus were selected…
Read MoreNew York: Inhumanity in the Guise of Education at Rikers Island Jail
The New York City Board of Correction (BOC), which provides oversight of the city’s jails, has approved the use of controversial “restraint desks” for violent prisoners aged 18 to 21 held at the Rikers Island jail complex. The desks – used in classrooms where programming is provided – allow for free movement of the hands…
Read MorePennsylvania Ruling Confirms No Death Row after Death Sentences Vacated
The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled against two Pennsylvania prisoners who were held in solitary confinement on death row for years after their death sentences were vacated. In the course of its opinion, however, the appellate court made it clear that in the future the state may not subject prisoners to…
Read MoreCommunity Funds, Federal Legislation Challenging Bail System from Different Angles
Kalief Browder was a 16-year-old arrested in New York City in 2012 on charges of stealing a backpack. The charges were later dismissed, but not before he sat in jail on Rikers Island for three years—part of which was spent in solitary confinement—because he couldn’t afford to post $3,000 bail. He committed suicide after his…
Read MoreNew Charges Against Inmate-Author: An Attempt to Muzzle Him?
By Kamea Zelisko How about these for credentials for an authority on prison issues: authoring a handbook on prison life, three books on subjects examining ways education can benefit inmates, plus a steady stream of articles in national magazines, newspapers and blogs on a wide range of legal and other incarceration-related topics. No less…
Read MoreDOJ Report Slams Housing of Mentally Ill Inmates
In a sharply critical report, the Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz takes issue with how the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) houses mentally ill inmates in the federal prison system. The report, “Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Use of Restrictive Housing for Inmates with Mental Illness,” issued July 12,…
Read MoreFederal Bureau of Prisons Censors Incarcerated Writer
Counter-Terrorism Unit Tasked with Prison Censorship The life of an incarcerated writer is anything but ordinary. While my fellow prisoners are working out on the yard, playing cards, or watching television, I am often at the desk in my cell or in the law library working on my next project. It’s long and hard work,…
Read MorePrison Writer Slammed with Another Stint in Solitary
By Jean Trounstine and Christopher Zoukis It shouldn’t be surprising to hear federal prisoner and prisoner rights advocate Christopher Zoukis, who has written four books and produced countless articles for outlets such as the New York Daily News, Prison Legal News, and the Huffington Post, is under fire once again for his writing activities.…
Read MoreFederal Bureau of Prisons Director Denies Use of Solitary Confinement in Testimony before Congress
By Christopher Zoukis Numerous federal prisoners have voiced strong condemnations of the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Charles Samuels, after Samuels told a Senate committee that the BOP does not use solitary confinement at a hearing on August 4, 2015. The inmates dispute Samuels’ comments as false, and part of a continuing pattern…
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