Prison

This November 4th, when Californians go to the polls, they will have the opportunity to vote on Proposition 47, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. This initiative is a criminal reform to reclassify some nonviolent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, permitting re-sentencing for prisoners serving time for crimes classified as felonies prior to its passage. California currently has a tremendous prison overcrowding problem, and the state is required to do something about this within the next two years.

Efforts to revoke illegal cell phones in prisons, including celebrated "phone-sniffing" dogs, help serve a shady cottage industry that charges outrageous amounts of money to talk to loved ones or conduct wire transfers. Meanwhile, the ACLU fights in court to cap rates on permitted calls.

A Texas woman says she was given no choice but to give birth in a solitary cell—after which her baby died.

David Horowitz, founder of an organization called the "Freedom Center," argued that blacks should not be paid reparations for the enslavement of their ancestors. Among his reasons are that:

Juwan Wickware wasn't the shooter. But he is one of more than 2,500 people nationwide who will grow from a teenager to an adult to an elderly person behind bars, only leaving prison once they've died.

Solitary was the worst thing that's ever happened to me. I was in and out of jail while I was growing up, and every time I was in solitary confinement, it felt as horrible as the first time I was locked up and left alone.
The first time I'd ever experienced extreme isolation was when I was 6-years-old. My mother was a struggling drug addict and one day she took me out to see Jurassic Park. I

The right to a fair trial effectively does not exist for federal drug defendants in the United States. So finds a 126-page report released by Human Rights Watch on Thursday entitled An Offer You Can’t Refuse: How US Federal Prosecutors Force Drug Defendants to Plead Guilty.

For nearly all serious and minor offenses, including homicide, rates among black teenagers nationally were lower in 2011 than when racial statistics were first collected nationally in 1964. Black youths’ murder arrest rates are considerably lower today than back when Bill Cosby was funny.

A California law designed to combat recidivism has caused a glut of unsentenced inmates in jails across the state. The bail industry opposes reform, because it undercuts what for them is a cash cow.

In the midst of California's continued budget woes, once again it's the mentally ill and financially troubled citizens who are getting lost in the bureaucratic shuffle.