Juneau, Alaska — State officials predict the Alaska prison population could reach capacity by 2016, so plans are in the works to build a new prison, according to The Associated Press. However, officials say a new prison may be delayed because they are focusing on reducing the number of released offenders re-committed to prison.
District of Columbia — New job training, health care and social services are being provided for all of the nearly 2,000 offenders who return to the district annually, after being released from prison. Services are provided by the Office of Returning Citizens Affairs in coordination with Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency and the U.S. Parole Commission. ORCA is the only office in the country that is mandated by law to help released offenders, according to the Washington Post.
Atlanta — A new sentencing law intended to keep non-violent drug and property offenders out of prison made its way out of the state’s House of Representatives, according to The Economist magazine. Offenders would be diverted to drug courts, day-reporting centers, mental health court, geared toward treatment and rehabilitation, instead of punishment.
Lansing, Mich. — Gov. Rick Snyder (R) recently the signed legislation designed to reduce the state’s $1.9 billion corrections budget by privatizing its prisons. The GEO Group is expected to profit from the legislation as it anticipates filling a 1,725-bed prison that has been vacant since 2005, according to the Huffington Post.
Richmond, Va. — Nine bills intended to automatically restore voting rights to nonviolent felons were rejected by a House panel, even though Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli supported the measures. Under current law, felons must appeal to the governor to have their voting rights restored. McDonnell has restored more voting rights to felons than any of his predecessors, according to the Washington Post.
Charleston, W.Va. — A nonpartisan panel reported that the state could save more than $100 million by 2018 by expanding community-based substance abuse treatment programs. The recommendations are: requiring post-release supervision for all prisoners, including those who have served their entire sentence, and not placed on parole upon release, and improve community-based supervision of prisoners on probation or parole, including expanding day report center programs, according to the Charleston Gazette.
Brooklyn, N.Y. — A federal judge overturned the conviction of William Lopez, who spent 23 years in prison for murder. The judge said the trial prosecutor was “overzealous and deceitful,” Lopez’s lawyers were “indolent and ill-prepared,” and the trial judge’s decisions were “incomprehensible,” reports the New York Times.
Dallas — County District Attorney Craig Watkins is known for fighting for wrongfully convicted prisoners, according to The Associated Press. Watkins said he wants lawmakers to think about the Racial Justice Act, which is designed to allow defendants to introduce evidence into trial contending their case is influenced by race. “The issue that we’re bringing to light is to make sure that everything is fair, no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, and you’re treated like anyone else,” Watkins said.
Montgomery, Ala. — A 2012 Justice Department study found Alabama’s only prison for women is rampant with sexual misconduct by workers, reports The Associated Press. Prisoners who reported sexual abuse did not have their complaints treated properly, the study finds. As an example, rape complaints were not always reliably investigated with the process often kept secret, according to the AP report.
Jefferson City, Mo. — More than 12,000 criminal defendants have successfully finished treatment programs in the past 20 years, says the state’s chief justice, according to The Associated Press. Jackson County opened the state’s first drug court to divert nonviolent, substance abuse offenders to drug court supervision instead of prison. The state currently has drug courts in all but two of its 45 judicial circuits, the AP reports.
Vandalia, Ill. — News media access to the state’s prisons became a major issue when the prison population reached near-record highs and a prison worker’s union filed a lawsuit to prevent Gov. Pat Quinn from closing several prisons. Recently, journalists were given access to a southern Illinois prison in the wake of reports of overcrowding, flooding, crumbling and unsanitary basement dormitories, reports The Associated Press.
Corsicana, Texas — Randolph Arledge, 58 served nearly 30 years in prison for a murder conviction that has been overturned by DNA evidence, reports The Associated Press. Arledge was convicted for the 1984 stabbing of Carolyn Armstrong. Arledge’s attorneys, prosecutors, and the Innocence Project agreed he should be set free after the DNA matched another person.
New Mexico — Treating substance abuse prisoners and former offenders is possible and cost effective, the League of Women Voters of Central New Mexico says. “In 2009 the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said that on average $1 invested in treating addiction yields a savings to the public of $12 in medical and criminal justice costs. Dealing effectively with addicted persons requires recognizing the chronic nature of their brain disease either in incarceration or in the community. Failure to do so means that the problem is likely to continue its ruinous course and cost the taxpayers a great deal of money,” the group said.
Burlington, Vermont — A grassroots campaign is under way to curb Vermont from sending felons to a for-profit prisons, according to Jonathan Leavitt, a journalist and community organizer who teaches college classes about social movements. Vermont spent more than $14 million last year to lock up Vermonters in for-profit prisons like Lee Adjustment Center in Kentucky.
South Burlington, Vermont — A state-run prison has been given the Facility of the Year award for 2012 by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. The Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility was recognized for its variety of programs and features nearly 500 prisons, jails and juvenile facilities were examined by the commission.
