"At least two of the teens in the facility harmed themselves so badly that they required medical attention. Some destroyed beds and shattered light fixtures, using the metal shards to hack holes in the cinder block walls large enough for them to escape."
Beth Schwartzapfel for The Marshall Project: "No Light. No Nothing.” Inside Louisiana’s Harshest Juvenile Lockup Tweet
03.14.2022
kids held in secret prison in Louisiana, hacked holes in concrete walls to escape; 16-y-o drill rapper will be tried as juvenile after shooting police officer
The senate quietly passed an antilynching bill, The Emmett Till Antilynching Act. It makes lynching a federal hate crime and comes after more than a century of similar legislation failing to pass. The Washington Post (Mar. 7, 2022)
Three men were killed in Alabama’s Donaldson prison in ten days, causes of death included asphyxiation and blunt force trauma to the head. One was killed in a segregation unit which is supposedly the most secure unit in a prison. EJI (Mar. 3, 2022)
The supreme court actually joined hands across the political aisle to deliver a bipartisan ruling it unconstitutional that a man was charged for multiple burglaries since he broke into multiple storage units at one time. He was charged as a career criminal and sentenced to about 14 years longer than the recommended sentence. The New York Times (Mar. 7, 2022)
As previously reported by Kaiser Health News, thousands of federal inmates have appealed for release and been denied effectively turning hundreds of prisoners sentences into death sentences as the pandemic raged behind bars. NPR (Mar. 7, 2022)
"A Bronx judge ruled drill rapper C Blu should be tried as a juvenile Tuesday on charges of shooting a police officer — after slamming his arresting officer for 'incredible and unreliable' testimony that 'had no value.' " NY Daily News (Mar. 8, 2022)
DC jail finally had to answer some questions, but the DOC’s director said he implemented specific plans to address concerns but refused to give details. Washington Post (Mar. 3, 2022)
"State lawmakers on a special committee investigating allegations of a coverup in the 2019 death of a Black motorist in State Police custody want to know more about trooper cellphones that were 'sanitized' or wiped clean of data and more recent text messages sent to Gov. John Bel Edwards." Louisiana Illuminator (Mar. 9, 2022)
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The pandemic brought tablets to roughly 50,000 incarcerated people in New York. But the price tag meant JPay projected a net profit of about $8.8 million by August 2022. The Appeal (Mar. 9, 2022)
A new study from New York State’s Correctional Association reveals the lack of success in getting incarcerated people to take the vaccine has a lot to do with general distrust of the prison system. Prison Policy Initiative (Mar. 9, 2022)
"Scrambling to respond to a wave of violence and escapes from other juvenile facilities, state officials quietly opened the high-security lockup last summer to regain control of the most troubled teens in their care. Instead, they created a powder keg, according to dozens of interviews, photos, video footage, hundreds of pages of incident reports, emergency response logs, emails and education records." The Marshall Project (Mar. 10, 2022)
Former Inmate Becomes CEO Of App That Sends Postcards To Prisoners https://t.co/LfJeGTaQus. Another example of why we must NEVER turn our backs on or lose hope for our family behind bars. ALL Black Lives Matter.@BET @flikshop @_marcus_bullock
— Michele Roberts (@MRobertsNBPA) March 12, 2022
The Des is raising funds and donations to send books to DC Books to Prisoners Donating used books No hard covers No stained or damaged
Who Speaks for Me? launches hosing pilot in D.C. for five female and LGBTQ+ returning citizens.
Liberal leaning and reform minded prosecutors must combat conservative “hard on crime” rhetoric to survive politically. An oped from Allison Pierre, an expert on using data to help DAs prove reform works.
Founder of The Des and freelance criminal justice reporter based in Washington, D.C.