Sacramento—A bill designed to allow inmates in Security Housing Units to keep pictures and make a phone call after three months of good behavior died in the state Legislature because of concerns that Gov. Jerry Brown would veto it, said a representative for State Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, in a report by Reuters.
Sacramento—California lawmakers sent Gov. Jerry Brown a pair of bills to sign. The first bill would require law enforcement agencies to inform defendants when they have evidence that could be tested for DNA and allow judges to order DNA evidence to be run through the FBI’s database for a match, reports The Associated Press. The second bill would allow deliberating juries to consider a prosecutors’ failure to disclose information favorable to the defendant that would have supported reasonable doubt.
Sacramento— Corrections officials agreed to house mentally ill inmates in separate specialized housing units with more treatment, reports The Associated Press. The decision came after a federal judge ruled that treatment of the state’s mentally ill inmates violates constitutional safeguards against cruel and unusual punishment.
Long Beach—The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that deputies could not probe a detainee’s anal cavity without medical assistance, reports Nicole Flatow of ThinkProgress. Pulling things out of an individual’s body cavity without medical assistance poses particular danger to the inmate, the court concluded.
Williston, N.D.—Court delays are causing an increasing amount of detainees who are awaiting trial behind bars to be in jail longer than the typical sentence for their alleged crimes, a county sheriff told the Williston Herald. The court delays result from the oil boom in North Dakota which has rapidly increased the population.
Oklahoma City—The Oklahoma Observer, the Guardian US, the national office and the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and freelance journalist Katie Fretland have filed a lawsuit contending that closing the blinds midway through the execution of Clayton D. Lockett kept the media, and by extension the public, from witnessing what they say is the most powerful governmental procedure: the taking of a life.
Peoria, Ill.—The housing of 600 mentally ill inmates in segregated housing units at several prisons throughout the state prompted a doctor to testified in federal court that the Illinois is lagging behind in improving conditions to comply with a May 2013 lawsuit over the conditions, reports The Associated Press.
Chicopee, Mass.—A federal judge agreed with female inmates that their right to basic human dignity was violated when male guards routinely videotaped them during strip searches. The court ruled that the searches serve no legitimate purpose and therefore are unconstitutional, reports Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress.
Detroit —“Michigan spends more money on corrections than on higher education — about $2 billion annually, or $35,000 per prisoner,” according to a Detroit News editorial. It’s one of just a few states that continue to spend so much, despite data over the past several years that shows decreasing the number of people in prison correlates to decreased crime rates.
Kalkaska, Mich.—DNA testing cleared Jamie Peterson of the rape and murder of 68-year-old retired schoolteacher Geraldine Montgomery, reports The Associated Press. Peterson spent 16 years in prison before the DNA evidence cleared him of the crime.
Frankfort, Ky.—An alternative sentencing law for lower-level drug crimes passed three years ago has helped reduce the state’s prison population and is saving the state money, reports The Associated Press. However, the law also gives drug offenders a way out of a rigorous two-year treatment program provided by a drug court. Kentucky’s Chief Justice John D. Minton, Jr., is urging lawmakers to give offenders a reason to choose the drug court: erase their criminal charge if they complete the program.
New York—A federal judge has approved New York City’s $41 million settlement with the five men who were wrongly convicted in the 1989 rape and beating of a Central Park jogger. Mayor Bill de Blasio called the settlement an “act of justice” that’s “long overdue,” reports The Associated Press.
Columbia, S.C. —The number of prisoners age 55 and older has more than doubled in the past decade, reports Cassie Cope of The State. About 9 percent of South Carolina inmates now are 55 or older. In 2013, the average cost to incarcerate an inmate in the state was $16,542 a year, up from $12,353 in 2003. The California cost is $60,000 per inmate per year.
Raleigh, N.C.—Henry and James McCollum were freed after spending more than 30 years in prison for a murder that DNA evidence showed they didn’t commit, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Montgomery, Ala.—An Alabama appeals court has ruled that a U.S. Supreme Court decision about juvenile murderers is not retroactive, reports The Associated Press. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Eighth Amendment forbids a sentence of mandatory life in prison without parole for juvenile offenders.
