Monday Roundup
- 18-year-old dies in Florida juvenile jail: as he was dying, ”staffers at the Palm Beach Regional Juvenile Center did not call 911 for help.”
- Jail officials defend shackling women while they are giving birth: since 2000, 13 states have banned this practice; elsewhere, jail administrators oppose efforts to ban.
- The war on drugs is a war on people: Doug Berman notes this firsthand account from a woman who’s served 21 years in federal prison for six weeks of crack dealing.
- Downsizing the prison population in California: The state says it will meet the Supreme Court’s first population reduction benchmark, albeit a month late, by January 27, 2012. By that time, California aims to get its prison rolls down to 167% of design capacity.
- A recent iteration of the local TV news perennial, “Jails so crowded inmates sleeping on floor.”
- Ohio has eliminated over 1,000 prison jobs as a result of privatization.
- 12-week program lets Tennessee prisoners earn early release.
- The Museum of Crime and Punishment opens in Washington.
- Texas prison auctioned for $6 million.
- Prison overcrowding in France.
