Sacramento—Ralph Michael Yeoman, 66, died while awaiting execution at San Quentin State Prison for a 1988 murder in Sacramento County, reports The Associated Press. Yeoman was sentenced to death in 1990 for the first-degree murder, kidnap and robbery of 73-year-old Doris Horrell. Since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, 13 California inmates have been executed, while 66 have died from natural causes and 23 by suicide, the AP reports.
Nevada—Elko County now permits the sheriff to charge detainees for food and medical care. The county jail charges $6 a day for meals, $10 for each doctor visit and $5 for initial booking into the jail. Those without funds would accrue a negative balance even after they are released.
Texas—State prison reforms have eliminated the need to build 17,000 more beds, saving taxpayers some $3 billion, reports Chuck DeVore of the Austin-based Texas Public Policy Foundation. DeVore said the reforms have been achieved without reducing sentences.
Dallas—Police officials report 10 consecutive years of crime reduction in the city. According to Police Department numbers, violent crime has dropped 50 percent since 2003. Murders dropped from 154 in 2012 to 142 in 2013. In 2003, there were 226 murders in the city. Burglaries and thefts were also down. However, sexual assaults went up 13 percent in 2013 after significant drops during the last 10 years.
Missouri—A federal appeals court ruled that “if the inmates’ lawyers can’t point to a more humane execution than lethal injection – such as hanging or firing squad – they are not entitled to discover more about the pharmacy hired by Missouri to make the drugs for the injections,” reports Jeremy Kohler of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Chicago—Homicides fell 18 percent from 503 in 2012 to 415 in 2013, according to The Christian Science Monitor. Shootings dropped 24 percent.
Columbus, Ohio—The inmate population is projected to reach a record 51,601 by June 30, 2014, reports Cleveland.com. That figure is 4,100 more than officials predicted in 2012. By 2019, the population is expected to reach 53,484. As of March 2, 2015, Ohio’s inmate population was 50,166.
Charleston, W.Va.—The state was seeking to send as many as 400 inmates now in its jails to an out- of-state private prison in Beattyville, Kentucky, owned by Corrections Corporation of America, according to West Virginia MetroNews Network. CBS affiliate WOWK reported on Jan. 26, 2015, that West Virgina officials said they will not house inmates out of state.
Montgomery, Ala.—As a result of “a history of unabated staff-on-prisoner sexual abuse and harassment,” as reported by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Alabama is bringing in a nationally recognized consulting group to implement reforms, reports The Associated Press. The DOJ report claimed guards “assaulted inmates, coerced inmates into sex, inappropriately watched inmates in the showers and bathrooms and were verbally abusive to inmates,” according to the AP.
Cranston, R.I. —The Americans Civil Liberty Union (ACLU) of Rhode Island has filed suit against the city of Cranston, claiming that the city’s redistricting plan is counting incarcerated people in its prison as if they are all residents of Cranston, reports the ACLU. The lawsuit alleges, “Because those incarcerated were counted as Cranston residents, three voters in the prison’s district have as much voting power as four voters in every other city district, according to Census Bureau data.”
Vermont—Of the state’s approximately 2,000 incarcerated people, the private prison firm Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) houses 450 inmates in Kentucky and 30 in Arizona. The state authorized up to $61.7 million from 2011 to 2015 to house Vermonters in private prisons, according to Rutland Herald and Times Argus Newspapers.
New York City—Columbia University students are asking its administration to divest university investments of roughly $8 million in the Corrections Corporation of America, reports The Activist Lives for Knowledge, a social justice platform at Columbia University. The group is circulating a letter, which can be found by emailing columbiaprisondivest@gmail.com.
