- Adelanto, California — Last November, 11 U.S. senators, including 2020 presidential prospect Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, sent letters to Geo Group and CoreCivic criticizing the “perverse profit incentive at the core of the private prison business,” reports Reuters. Detainees are paid $1-a-day salary at the privately run Adelanto Detention Facility, however, a can of tuna sells for $3.25 in the facility’s commissary — four times the price at a Target store near the small desert town of Adelanto; ramen noodles sells for more than twice the Target price; and a miniature deodorant stick, at $3.35 costs more than three days’ wages.
- Rome, Italy — Last August, Pope Francis declared the death penalty morally unacceptable in all circumstances. Aliza Plener Cover wrote in The Washington Post that “This pronouncement broke from previous Catholic teaching, which permitted the death penalty in ‘very rare’ cases of ‘absolute necessity.’” The pope’s call to action may sway the American public, Cover wrote. A change in public opinion could also influence the U.S. Supreme Court, which considers society’s “evolving standards of decency” in evaluating whether a punishment is “cruel and unusual” under the Eighth Amendment, Cover concluded.
- USA — New death sentences and executions in the U.S. remained near historic lows in 2018 and a twentieth state abolished capital punishment as public opinion polls, election results, legislative actions and court decisions reflected an erosion of imposing capital punishment, the Death Penalty Information Center reports. Key Findings: Fewer than half of Americans believe that the death penalty is applied fairly; for the first time in 25 years, fewer than 2,500 people face active death sentences; and no county imposed more than two death sentences for the first time in the modern era.
- Georgia — Growth in the state’s prison population has slowed, The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. However, the inmate population is expected to rise by more than 1,200 in the next half-decade, according to a new state audit. The state pays two private prison companies almost $140 million a year to house 15 percent of its inmate population — roughly double what the state spent on private prisons 12 years ago.
- Birmingham, Ala — Since 2016, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has been conducting an investigation of “unparalleled scope” into Alabama’s 13 maximum-security prisons for men, WBRC reports. Court papers show that Alabama’s Department of Corrections (ADOC) has engaged in a pattern of delay and obstruction during the agency’s two-year investigation, refusing to turn over records regarding extraordinarily high rate of murders, assaults and suicides. Federal investigators are hearing about the incidents first hand through a toll-free hotline set up in the facilities under investigation, through which inmates can directly contact the DOJ.
- Maine — Nearly 200 inmates in the Maine State Prison system will soon have access to secure, digital tablet technology and limited texting, reports Maine Public. It’s part of a new initiative at the Department of Corrections to enhance educational programming and prepare prisoners to reenter society. More than 18 states have adopted some form of specialized tablets for its incarcerated population.
- Springfield, Missouri — Six 52-foot semi-trailers are surrounded by chain-link fence topped with swirls of razor wire where108 men are confined in a space that, per man, is less than half the size of a Ping-Pong table, according to The Crime Report. Most are awaiting trial. County officials called it the first of its kind in the country, and a cost-effective temporary solution to a jail overcrowding problem that has plagued Greene County for more than a decade.
- Leavenworth, Kansas — Jermaine Wilson served three years in prison before being elected mayor of Leavenworth, The Associated Press reports.
- Arlington, Va — Stand Together reports that a $1.25 million commitment will be made to The Last Mile and The Other Side Academy in order to assist incarcerated and formerly incarcerated men and women after release from prison.
