Tag: prisons

AZGOP Sues Governor Hobbs Over ‘Unconstitutional’ Executive Orders Setting up Ballot Drop Boxes, Voter Registration at Prisons

Rachel Alexander
Katie Hobbs with 'Mobile Voter Outreach' van, 2019

The Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) filed a lawsuit last month against Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs over her “unconstitutional” executive orders relaxing election laws. The Petition for Special Action challenged Hobbs placing voter registration forms at prisons and designating the prisons as ballot drop-off locations, which the AZGOP stated was taking “ultra vires” actions, meaning beyond her legal power and authority.

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Budgeteers Clap Back at Arizona AG’s Threat over Opioid Settlement Money in Budget

The Center Square
Kris Mayes

Seventy-five million dollars from the federal opioid settlement is expected to head toward the state’s Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry in the latest budget proposal, but Attorney General Kris Mayes and some lawmakers are unhappy about it.

Mayes might sue over the proposed use of the money, saying it would act as a “sweep” to help with the budget deficit in an illegal fashion, according to Capitol Media Services. The budget is far from finalized as of Friday morning, but lawmakers could pass a budget on Friday night or Saturday morning. The proposed budget is the result of months of negotiations between Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office and Republican legislative leadership.

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Liberal Pennsylvania Senators Want Solitary Confinement Abolished for LGBTQ People but Not for Straight People

Bradley Vasoli

Two leftist Pennsylvania state senators are reintroducing legislation that would ban the use of solitary confinement for gay and transgender prisoners but allow its limited use on others.

Senators John Kane (D-Chester) and Katie Muth (D-Royersford) sent colleagues a memorandum describing their proposal and bemoaning the effects of isolation on prisoners’ mental health. Their bill would limit to 15 days a period of solitary confinement for any of Pennsylvania’s 37,000 state-facility inmates. LGBTQ individuals as well as pregnant women, minors and those 70 or older would be shielded from any isolated imprisonment.

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Bipartisan Proposal Would Make Pennsylvania Pardon Recommendations Easier

Bradley Vasoli

A bill is re-emerging in Pennsylvania’s new State Senate session to end the requirement that pardon and commutation recommendations from the State Board of Pardons be unanimous. 

The five-member board comprises the lieutenant governor and the state attorney general as well as experts on corrections, victims’ rights, and mental health. Once the panel issues a recommendation for an inmate to receive a pardon or a commuted sentence, the governor reviews those determinations and decides whether to sign off on them. Historically, governors have tended to follow the board’s advice. 

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Tennessee Department of Correction Announces New Security Procedures to Better Identify Smuggled Contraband

Kaitlin Housler

The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) announced a new security protocol that applies to everyone who enters TDOC prisons in 2023.

Beginning this month, all people who enter a TDOC prison will be required to be screened by a full body scanner. The scanners are meant to “act as deterrents for individuals considering bringing contraband into a facility,” TDOC explained in a recent press release.

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Florida Senate President Proposes Prison Shutdowns

Casey Owens

To combat staffing shortages and high turnover rates of correctional officers in the state, Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson proposed prison shutdowns in a recent interview. Simpson said that the Florida Department of Corrections should shut down prisons to save money, rather than ask for more resources from the Florida legislature. 

In the interview with The News Service of Florida, Simpson criticized the state prison system by blaming the staff shortages and high turnover rates on the “lack of vision” by state prison leaders. 

“We are not just going to write a bigger check because they think they need it. That is not going to happen. They’re going to have to do the right thing. We are not going to waste the taxpayers’ dollars,” Simpson said.

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Model Developed by UT Prof Claims Jails Will Act as ‘Volcanoes’ for Spread of COVID-19 as State Prison Sees Massive Outbreak

Anthony Gockowski

A new model developed by a professor at the University of Tennessee and other academics suggests that most models on the coronavirus pandemic have failed to consider one important variable: jail populations.

Most standard COVID-19 models predict that America will experience about 101,000 deaths during the course of the pandemic, but that number increases by 98 percent to 200,000 deaths when jails are accounted for, the new model claims.

The model was developed by Dr. Nina Fefferman at the University of Tennessee, Dr. Eric Lofgren at Washington State University, and Dr. Kristian Lum from the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with Aaron Horowitz and Brooke Madubuonwu of the ACLU’s data analytics team.

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