South Carolina Prison Deficit
The South Carolina Department of Corrections has run up a $29 million deficit. Legislators are considering the release of nonviolent inmates early to ease budget costs. Governor Mark Sanford has stated that he is opposed to releasing nonviolent offenders.
Read more here.
Actor Spends Night at Angola
Oscar winning actor William Hurt spent a night at Angola Prison in Louisiana to prepare for his role as an ex-convict in the upcoming film The Yellow Handkerchief. According to Hurt, experiencing prison life for himself was crucial to being able to embody his character and tell the story well. Read more here.
Art Behind Bars in Florida Prison
The Monroe County Detention Center in Key West Florida has an innovative art program that has been going on for 15 years. Helping inmates by giving them healthy outlets for rehabilitation.
Founded by Lynne Vantriglia in 1994, the program is a nonprofit and claims to “significantly increase the effectiveness of incarceration at reducing the number of re-offenders, saving the tax-payers of Monroe County over $2,000,000 and increasing the availability of revenue producing Federal use units.”
You can find out more information on the website and watch this 1o min video about the project:
Juvenile Prison in California Closes
California’s largest juvenile prison has closed and will become an adult facility. Read more here.
North Carolina Innocence Panel
The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission is the only special innocence panel in the country. It was established in 2006 to review claims of innocence by prisoners in the state after several wrongful convictions were brought to public attention. Over the last four years, the Commission has reviewed hundreds of cases, but has only passed on three to a three-judge panel hearing. Of those three, only the last case, ruled on February 17, 2010, was overturned. George Taylor, who was convicted and jailed for murdering a prostitute in 1991, was found innocent, and was finally freed from prison.
Read more here.
Parents Behind Bars
Central Connecticut State University organizes day-long conference to address and identify the needs of children who are dealing with a parent who is, or has been incarcerated.
Click here to read the article.
Louisiana Sues 84 Death Row Inmates
The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections has sued every inmate on death row, in an effort to block any one of them from challenging the state’s lethal injection procedures.
Click here to read the entire story.
Glimpse into a Troubled Youth Prison
Edwin, an 18-year old teenager with emotional and behavioral problems, was recently released from the New York youth prison, Highland Residential Center. Like many of the juveniles who pass through New York youth prisons, Edwin experienced many instances of abuse and mistreatment by the prison staff. He never felt safe at Highland, and when he left, he was no more rehabilitated then when he had entered it. The operations at Highland and other youth prisons in New York have been recently brought to public attention by the media, and a state task force has concluded that the youth prisons need to be fixed.
Read more here.
Indiana Prisoners Raise Money for Haiti
Indiana prisoners have held various fundraisers, including a bake sale and a silent auction, and have raised over $11,000 for Haiti.
Read more about their efforts here.
More on Prison Wives Documentary Series
“Prison Wives,” a new documentary series on Discovery explores the stories of women who love prisoners. According this article in The New York Daily News, the show is never preachy or overly sentimental.
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