ACU Update
A record 1.18 million people are behind bars in the U.S.
according to a June 22 report from the United States Justice Department. The report cites overcrowding as a primary concern....
Dozens of Chicago-area inmates violated a phone-in parole
that consists of calling a toll-free number once a month to verify that they are in the Chicago area. In the first three weeks of April, over 50 parolees called from other states, according to The (Springfield, Ill.) State Journal Register....
Rikers Island COs are now using electric "stun shields"
to subdue violent inmates, according to The New York Times. The New York City Department of Corrections considers this a test run....
The Juvenile Crime Control Act of 1997
passed the U.S. House of Representatives in May. The act encourages states to try as adults serious offenders as young as 13 years old....
Virginia will soon boast two new super-maximum prisons
as part of the state’s $420 million prison-building boom. The demand for cell space has risen since Gov. George Allen’s 1995 banning of parole....
Inmates at Iowa's Fort Madison State Penitentiary
began fasting at meals and refusing to report to prison jobs in the wake of a decision to cut their cable television service, according to The Des Moines Register....
Chain gangs cost too much
and do too little to thwart crime, a Maryland county board explained upon deciding not to put prisoners to work on roadside chain gangs, as was originally planned....
The reigning Miss America, Tara Holland
is on a cross-country tour of jails and prisons promoting literacy and education programs for incarcerated women, reports The Chicago Sun-Times....
Though prison is a prime place to attack AIDS
according to health care experts, the high cost of new treatments stands in the way, says The New York Times. Prisoners are infected with AIDS at six times the national rate, but budgets are tight and many prison systems are only now developing guidelines for treating AIDS or are following protocols that do not take into account the new drugs, known as protease inhibitors....
A Wisconsin truth-in-sentencing law that would eliminate parole
and require inmates to serve their full terms is "on a fast track to legislative approval," reports The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
