- BUTNER, N.C. — A former California prison guard, Jose Ramon Garcia, 55 died in a North Carolina federal prison hospital while serving a six-year sentence for orchestrating fights and stabbings among prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison from July 1992 to August 1996.
- CARSON CITY, Nev. — Legislation to reform Nevada’s parole system has been introduced by a Democratic assemblyman and prison reform advocates. The bill, AB424, would amend the existing parole system which considers the severity of an inmate’s crime as the chief factor in parole decisions, to a more broad determination, which includes allowing prison staff to contribute in inmate parole determinations.
- SACRAMENTO — Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate has revealed a plan to expand three existing prisons. The plan will add space at Kern Valley, medium-security North Kern, build a re-entry center in Stockton for 500 inmates, and convert a juvenile center close to Paso Robles into a prison for 1,000 older men. The funding would come from $7.8 billion in bonds approved by the Legislature in April 2007 for prison and jail expansion.
- ARIZONA— Sen. John McCain made a visit to the “Hanoi Hilton” prison where he spent more than five years as a POW during the Vietnam War. McCain’s A4 fighter bomber was shot down by the North Vietnamese while on a mission over Hanoi. The crash resulted in severe injuries to McCain, including breaking both arms and a leg. According to McCain, he was captured, beaten and tortured.
- KANSAS — Ex-Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was transported from lock-up in Kansas to attend a bankruptcy hearing in Virginia. In July Vick filed for bankruptcy producing documentation which shows he has assets of about $16 million and debts of more than $20 million. Vick, who is serving a 23-month prison sentence for funding an illegal dog fighting ring, is expected to be released from custody in July.
- AUSTIN, Texas — The Department of Criminal Justice has ended the state of Texas’s control on prisoner phone calls which has been called the most restrictive in the nation. The new rules will allow approximately 120,000 Texas inmates to have up to 120 minutes of phone calls each month. The Texas prison system, the country’s second-largest corrections agency, will phase in the new prisoner phone access program over the next year.
- RICHMOND, Va. — The Obama administration won a request from the Supreme Court to stop a federal appeals court order which had invalidated a state law allowing for indefinite prison sentences for “sexually dangerous” offenders. At least 77 sex offenders who have served their initial prison sentences will remain in prison until the Supreme Court makes a decision on whether to hear the case.
- SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO — Gov. Bill Richardson signed legislation abolishing the death penalty in New Mexico. The state joins New Jersey as the only two states to have banned capital punishment since it was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976. The repeal affects only crimes committed after July 1, 2009. Fourteen other states do not impose capital punishment.
- LOUISIANA —The annual Angola Prison Rodeo was held April 18 and 19 at what was at one time billed as “the bloodiest prison in America.” Sellout crowds are routine at the 10,000 seat stadium located at the 18,000 acre sprawling prison which also boasts an inmate produced magazine, radio station, vocational training program and a degree program in theology. As many as 1,000 of the prison’s 5,200 inmates assist in producing the rodeo.
