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September 10, 2024
Rounding up some discouraging recent prison news stories from coast to coast
A helpful reader flagged for me a recent story about inmate deaths, and that reminded me that a number of discouraging prison stories had recently caught my eye. Here is a partial round-up:
From the Chicago Cruisader, "New research links medical copays to reduced healthcare access in prisons"
From the Columbus Dispatch, "Ohio shouldn't put kids under age 14 in prisons, report says"
From the Milwaukee Courier, "Short on Fixes for Prison Problems, Wisconsin Weighs Independent Oversight"
From the Los Angeles Times, "Widespread sexual abuse of women in two California prisons draws federal investigation"
From Reason.com, "A Federal Prison Was Warned About Synthetic Marijuana. Then Inmates Started Overdosing."
From Reason.com, "Federal Judge Rules Inmate Death Records Can Remain Secret Because They Could Embarrass Prison Officials"
From WFSU, "Incarceration deaths are increasing across the country -- including in Florida"
September 10, 2024 at 12:14 PM | Permalink
Comments
I still find it disturbing that the 14-year-old Gray school shooter in Winder, Georgia is going to be tried as an adult, for 4 homicides and 9 shooting assaults. Under Georgia law, minors as young as 13 can be tried as adults. I wonder whether the results of his inevitable psychiatric evaluation might alter the decision about charging him as a adult. From what we have learned in the last week, it is clear that he has had a traumatic childhood, including a drug addicted mother and a sometimes violent father. His family changed housing and he had to change schools frequently. He was also apparently bullied in school. It will be interesting to follow this case and see how it develops and plays out. He is plainly a disturbed young man.
Posted by: Jim Gormley | Sep 10, 2024 3:23:07 PM
Bureau of Prisons official should be embarrassed by some of the deaths of inmates in their custody, including Jeffrey Epstein and Kenneth Trentadue in 1995, at the Federal Transfer Center at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The government classified the death by apparent hanging as a suicide, but the local medical examiner ruled it a homicide and has adamantly refused to change his opinion. His report says that the body was covered with cuts and bruises, indicating that he had been beaten and tortured before he died. It is believed that he was violently interrogated after being mistaken for "John Doe 2", a never identified co-conspirator in the Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 people. There is substantial support for the theory, but the Federal government has always blocked all efforts to get to the truth. Of course, Jeffrey Epstein's death was also disguised to look like a death by hanging suicide.
Posted by: Jim Gormley | Sep 10, 2024 3:57:28 PM
