1. Texas — The Death Penalty Information Center re- ports that Texas has scheduled 13 executions between August and December, which is more than the rest of the U.S. combined. Two of the men have strong claims of innocence; two, authorities know did not kill anyone, and eight that show serious mental health problems.

2. USA — The Death Penalty Information Center re- ports that there have been 1,506 executions in the U.S. since 1976. The race of per- sons executed: 55.8% Black, 34.1% White, 8.5% Hispanic and 1.6% other. The race of the victims of those executed: 76% White; 15% Black, 7% Hispanic, 2% other. As of April 1, 2019, there were 2,673 people on Death Row in the U.S.: 42% Black, 42% White, 13% Hispanic, 3% other.

3. Missouri — Russell Bucklew was executed on Oct. 1 by lethal injection for killing a man in 1996.

4. Tennessee — The state’s attorney general has petitioned the state Supreme Court to set execution dates for nine Death Row prisoners, The Associated Press reports. The state has executed five people since it restored executions over a year ago. There were three people executed in the state last year.

5. Juneau, Alaska — A federal judge has signed a settlement agreement between the state’s correction department and two Muslim prisoners. Prison officials agreed to change the department’s policies to accommodate Muslim prisoners during the holy month of Ramadan and to perform Friday religious services and hold study groups, The Associated Press reports. The department also agreed to pay $102,500 in damages, costs and attorneys’ fees.

6. Michigan — A bill was introduced to prohibit the state from housing its prison- ers in private prisons. In an interview with The Center Square, state Sen. Jeff Irwin said, “The private prison industry was inherently im- moral because their financial incentive doesn’t match with the rehabilitation goal of the criminal justice system.” Ir- win also said that since the state has instituted criminal justice reform, the prison population has declined from a high of about 53,000 to around 38,000, and he intends to continue pushing the trend.

7. Madison, Wisconsin — There are 23 counties in the state that charge inmates for room and board for the time they are incarcerated, The Associated Press reports. At least 40 other states also mandate incarcerated people to pay daily room and board fees.

8. Nevada — Slightly more than 12% of the state’s prisoners were in solitary confinement from January 2016 through September 2017, the Las Vegas Sun reports. The Vera Institute of Justice reports that the state’s use of solitary confinement is more than double the national average.

USA — A new report Can’t Pay Can’t Vote by the Civil Rights Clinic at Georgetown Law shows that 30 states still keep people from voting by use of what can be called a poll tax. Eight states include explicit payment requirements within their election laws, two states retain permanent disenfranchisement laws and require payment of legal debts for clemency eligibility, and 20 states require completion of parole and or probation for voting rights restoration and payment of legal debt is included as a condition of one’s parole or probation.

NYC— Mark Denny was awarded $9.75 million by city officials for the 30 years he spent in prison for a rape and robbery that he did not commit, the New York Post reports. Court papers showed that “The NYPD’s fabricated and/or coercive evidence, which was presented to the prosecution prior to trial through false written and oral reports and to the jury through their false testimony at trial, was the sole basis of Mr. Denny’s conviction.”

St. Paul, Minn. — Prison officials sent a record number of more than 8,000 people to solitary confinement in 2018, according to WCCO/CBS. Last June, corrections officials implemented new regulations that increase the maximum time allowed in solitary from 90 days to a year.

Oakland, Calif. — Civil rights lawyer, Anne Butterfield Weills, known for ending the use of indefinite solitary confinement in California prisons, has been banned for life from communicating with prisoners amid allegations that she talked to incarcerated clients with contraband cell phones, The Mercury News reports. Weills alleged in a lawsuit, filed last March, that the ban is retaliation against her for joining a 2009 federal lawsuit against the state’s use of segregated housing units in the state’s prisons.

Chicago, Ill. — Cook County jail detainees are playing round-robin chess against detainees around the world, including England and Russia, CBS Chicago reports. The program began in 2012 as a way to help people develop critical thinking skills, patience and other qualities needed to navigate life behind bars and move inmates in the right direction when they get out of jail, officials say.

Chicago, Ill. — A new report by Reclaim Chicago, The People’s Lobby, and Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice shows during Kim Foxx’s second year in office, the number of sentences of incarceration decreased by 19%, reports of violent crime decreased by 8%, and that incarceration generally made communities less safe. The report recommends raising the thresh- old for felony retail theft charges to $1,000, increased use of resolving felony convictions that do not lead to incarceration by connecting people to mental health and substance abuse programs and improved training of prosecutors to use discretion in seeking alternative prosecutions and reasonable plea deals.

Mississippi — A lawsuit claims that the opportunity to win seats in the state’s legisla- ture are weakened for Black candidates by arbitrary voting rules, such as lifetime voting bans for a number of felonies that are mostly applied to Blacks, such as limber larceny and writing bad checks, according to the Starkville Daily News.

Tennessee — Death Row inmate, Stephen West, told prison officials that he wants to be executed by electric chair, News Channel 5, Nashville reports. West was convicted in 1986 for kid- napping and killing a woman and her teen daughter. He was sentenced to death the following year.

Hartford, Conn. — Corrections officials say they will begin testing prisoners for the Hepatitis C virus to avoid a lawsuit, the Harford Courant reports. State lawmakers estimate the cost for treatment at up to $158 million, depending on how many of the 13,000 prisoners have the virus.

Phoenix, Ariz.— The state’s incarcerated population has asked a federal judge to take over all healthcare operations in the state’s prisons, The Associated Press reports. Attorneys representing 34,000 prisoners claim that the state has not made improvements that were promised nearly five years ago in a previous settlement

Huntsville, Texas — Billy Jack Crutsinger, 64, was executed by lethal injection on Sept 4 for the 2003 killing of two women in their Fort Worth home. Crutsinger was the fifth person executed in Texas this year and the 14th executed in the US this year.

Alabama — In response to a call to action from a coalition of prisoners, including the Free Alabama Movement and Unheard Voices OTCJ, Kinetik Justice and Swift Justice, four prisoners went on a hunger strike at the Limestone Correctional Facility in protest against corruption, abuse, and the lack of accountability for the inhumane conditions in the state’s prisons, Truthout reports.

Pennsylvania — As part of the Clean Slate law passed last year, state officials began seal- ing 30 million records that did not result in convictions, summary offenses and low-level misdemeanors committed by people who have not had any other charges within 10 years, The Philadelphia Inquirer report.

California — Detainees at the Yuba County Jail have gone on a hunger strike for the third time in 10 months, the Sacramento Bee reports. The immigration detainees are demanding newer facilities, better medical care and they are complaining that they should not be treated as criminals, like other inmates in the jail.

California — San Francisco-based Parole Agent Super- visor, Martin Figueroa helps former incarcerated people re-enter society through Peer Re-Entry Navigator Network, KPIX reports. PRNN provides life skills such as money management, job placement and addiction recovery support. Figueroa says he’s served about 700 people with a 95 per- cent success rate for keeping people from returning to jail.

Kansas — Over the past 15 years, prison officials have banned about 7,000 books, including A Clockwork Orange, Invisible Man, Twelve Years a Slave as well as issues of Bloomberg Businessweek, Us Weekly and Elle, KCUR reports.

Arizona — Because Choke- hold: Policing Black Men criticizes the U.S. criminal justice system corrections officials considered it “unauthorized content,” National Public Radio reports. However, in the face complaints and lawsuits, prison officials reversed the ban.

Georgia — Marion Wilson Jr. was executed on June 20 by lethal injection. Wilson was the 1,500th person to be executed in the United States since the return of the death penalty in 1976 according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Kentucky —A proposed amendment on crime victims’ rights was voided by the state’s Supreme Court last June The Associated Press reports. The court ruled that the General Assembly is required to submit the full text of a proposed constitutional amendment to the electorate for a vote.

Florida — There have been more exonerations of death row inmates than any other state in the country – “in fact, there’s been one exoneration of a death row prisoner for every three Florida executions over the past four decades,” Florida Phoenix reports. Clifford Williams Jr., was sentenced to death and spent 42 years behind bars for a crime prosecutors now say he didn’t commit. His nephew was also exonerated. After his re- lease, the 76-year-old Williams earned a new ranking: He is the 29th person to be exonerated from Florida’s death row since the 1970s.

Washington, DC — Thousands of sick, dying, and elderly federal prisoners who are eligible for early release will now have access to free legal representation in court through the newly established Compassionate Release Clearinghouse. The clearinghouse, a collaborative pro bono effort between FAMM, the Washing- ton Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), is designed to match qualified prisoners with legal counsel should they need to fight a compassionate release denial or unanswered request in court.

Nevada — Gov. Steve Sisolak signed into law a bill which would ban the use of private prisons for services, such as housing and custody. Nevada now joins Iowa, New York, and Illinois in establish- ing this type of prohibition, The Laughlin Nevada Times reports.

New York — The state has been leading the way with respect to the private prison industry, having taken three actions against private prisons, Forbes contributor, Morgan Simon reports. First, prohibit private prisons from operating within the state; divesting state pension funds from the largest private prison companies, GEO Group and CoreCivic, and passing a bill that would prohibit NY State-chartered banks from “investing in and providing financing to private prisons.”

Utah — The state’s prison population growth rate is among the highest in the nation, despite recent criminal justice reform efforts aimed at diverting both adults and juveniles to alternative programs, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. In the past 18 months, the prison population has grown by 362 inmates, bringing the total count to 6,766 people. Accord- ing to prison officials, the state only has 199 beds available within the prison system.

1. Vermont—The ACLU of Vermont and the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School filed a class action lawsuit challenging the state’s refusal to treat hundreds of inmates with Hepatitis C, Vermont Business Magazine reports. The law- suit claims that the inmates are systematically denied medication that would cure their chronic Hepatitis C, which they claim violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment as well as the Americans with Dis- abilities Act. The inmates are asking the court to end prison officials’ policy of categorically denying effective, efficient and medically appropriate treatment.

2. Michigan, Jackson— Hakim Crampton was charged with homicide in Milwaukee in 1991 on an- other person’s false confession. Crampton spent 15 years in prison before he was granted parole, after working to prove his innocence, WLNS reports. More than 10 years later, he’s collaborated with schools across Michigan and built a curriculum called SLAM that helps kids stay engaged with their work through poetry and lyrics.

3. Illinois—In late January, prison staff removed dozens of books from the Danville prison library Illinois Pub- lic Media reports. The titles include “Visiting Day,” a children’s book about visiting a parent in prison by author, Jacqueline Wood- son; two titles written by Black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., a book by philosopher Cornel West, “Up From Slavery” by Booker T. Washington, and “Map- ping Your Future: A Guide to Successful Reentry 2017- 2018” written by the college in prison program’s reentry team. A majority of the books removed from the program’s library are about race.

4. Michigan —A federal judge ruled that the state’s sex offender registry is unconstitutional — the registry lets the public see local offenders in their area, CNN reports. The judge gave officials until September to bring the registry to constitutional levels.

5. Arizona—Prisoners are billed for medical procedures that should be billed to the state, KJZZ reports. The charges show up on credit reports, which add to returning citizens’ challenges.

6. New York— Prison officials cite a drop in crime as well as incarceration rates for the closure of two prisons, the Daily News reports. The Lincoln Correctional Facility, located at the northern edge of Central Park is scheduled to close before September. The Livingston Correctional Facility in upstate New York is also scheduled to be closed, prison officials say.

7. Oklahoma—Mother Jones reports that last year, Oklahoma beat out Louisiana for the label the “world’s prison capital” by incarcerating a higher proportion of its residents than any other state or country. Lawmakers and concerned Oklahomans seek to reform the state’s criminal justice system. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt campaigned on a promise to reduce the prison population, however, the state’s prison population is expected grow by 14% over the next decade, according to an analysis by FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy group co-founded by Face- book CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

8. Oregon—A judge last May ordered the state to house a transgender female inmate in a cell separate from male inmates and to protect her from harassment, Oregon Live reports. The decision is believed to be a first in the state at a men’s prison.