- Arkansas — (The Associated Press) The state of Arkansas has been given permission to continue using the sedative midazolam in its lethal injections by a federal appeals court. Midazolam has been criticized due to concerns over its use in botched executions and scientific debate over the amount of pain experienced by those receiving the sedative as part of a sequence of drugs to carry out an execution. “With no scientific consensus and a paucity of reliable scientific evidence concerning the effect of large doses of midazolam on humans, the [lower] district court did not clearly err in finding that the prisoners failed to demonstrate that the Arkansas execution protocol is sure or very likely to cause severe pain,” the court said in its ruling.
- North Carolina —(WSOCTV.com) A former corrections officer turned a school bus into a mobile prison museum to help keep teenagers from ending up in real prisons someday. Lorenzo Steele was concerned about the amount of violent crimes, especially among youth, in his Charlotte, North Carolina, community and decided to do something to help. “It’s not a scare program. It’s a program that gives you the necessary information to change bad choices and bad decisions,” said Steele. High school senior Kyra Moss, who toured the mobile prison museum, said, “It shows your actions have consequences, you know? You don’t want to do something that will put you in a position where you are in prison or in jail.”
- West Virginia — (The New York Times) Dr. Anthony Fauci has received criticism from various groups and individuals over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a West Virginia man recently received a three-year prison sentence for sending emails to Dr. Fauci threatening to kill him and his family. The man’s threats came amid a period of general vitriol aimed at health officials around the country over mask and social distancing mandates aimed at stopping the spread of the virus, a situation that worsened after former President Trump criticized Dr. Fauci. The man was reportedly upset over the isolation his mother experienced in a nursing home during the pandemic.
- Louisiana — (The Associated Press) The state of Louisiana has begun construction of the $146 million Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW) to replace a former facility that was damaged by flooding six years ago. “I know that this new and improved facility is going to enhance access to education and vocational training programs such as cosmetology, horticulture, welding and computer programing — just to name a few,” said Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards. “This new facility will provide more space for these reen-try and vocational programs than we had at LCIW before it flooded. That’s great news, and is going to help us rehabilitate a lot more women.” The new women’s prison in St. Gabriel, with a capacity of 938 beds, will be the first state prison to be built in Louisiana since1989.
- New Mexico — (The Associated Press) Concerns are being raised over New Mexico’s new policy to provide the incarcerated with photocopies of their personal mail, and not the originals, in an effort to curb the smuggling of drugs into its prisons. The policy is specifically aimed at stopping paper soaked in drugs, such as fentanyl or synthetic cannabis, from being sent to incarcerated people through the mail. However, some state legislators are worried the new policy will pose another barrier to meaningful communication between incarcerated people and their families, which is important to rehabilitation and successful reentry. “It seems so draconian to find that inmates could no longer get drawings from their kids,” said state Rep. Gail Chasey (D-Albuquerque) at a hearing concerning the Corrections Department. New Mexico is not the only state implementing such policies, but the effectiveness of such measures is inconclusive to date.
- California — (The Los Angeles Times) A California man with a 39-year sentence for assaulting a police officer in 2010 was ordered released from prison as part of the fallout from the Long Beach police officer’s arrest on perjury charges. Court records show Miguel Vargas, 34, was arrested after he was shot twice in the back by Officer Dedier Reyes, who alleged Vargas was reaching for a gun during a chase. But that changed after prosecutors accused Reyes and another police officer of lying about the circumstances surrounding the recovery of a handgun in another case, which caused the wrong person to be arrested and detained. Tiffiny Blacknell, a special adviser to Los Angeles County DA George Gascón, said prosecutors are reviewing other cases where Reyes was listed as a witness to see if those defendants’ sentences might also need to be overturned.
- South Carolina —(The Associated Press) South Carolina’s Department of Juvenile Justice has a new director as part of an effort to reform the troubled agency and its chronically dangerous juvenile prison facilities. Eden Hendrick was appointed director after two of her predecessors resigned following state audits that found major faults. She previously worked as a prosecutor on juvenile criminal cases but has pledged to make sweeping changes.“We’ve been fighting this battle for a long time,” Hendrick said. “I’m very hopeful that now that it’s actually getting some traction, and that we’ll be able to actually start to provide these youths the real services that they need.” An investigation by the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division found problems ranging from youth being held in solitary confinement in small concrete cells for months to numerous violent attacks by peers and guards on youth offenders and staff. Agreed-to remedies include installing a modern surveillance system, revising use-of-force rules, reducing solitary confinement and making sure incarcerated children get physical and recreational activity.
- Mississippi — (North-east Mississippi Daily Journal) A recent federal court ruling upheld the state of Mississippi’s Jim Crow-era provision that bars Mississippians convicted of felonies from taking part in elections. The lawsuit was brought in 2017 by two plaintiffs who argued the section of the Mississippi Constitution containing the provision was steeped in white supremacy. Mississippi denies voting rights to a higher percentage of its residents than any other state in the country — 235,150 people or 10.6% of the state’s voting-age population. “For far too long, we as a nation have willfully deprived Black people of their right to vote — with Mississippi frequently leading the way,” said Vangela Wade, CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice, which represented the plaintiffs in the suit. “This ruling doubles down on this legacy. Access to democracy should not hinge on outdated laws designed to prevent people from voting based on the color of their skin.” Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.
