Prison News | New York

• Education & Rehabilitation
• Executions, Death Row, & the Death Penalty
• Gangs in Prison
• Health & Medical Treatment
• Prison Classification, Placement, and Release
• Prison Conditions & Corruption
• Prison Life & Prison Culture
• Riots, Lockdowns & Escapes
• Suicides in Prison
• Workplace & Industry News and Science & Tech

Education & Rehabilitation

• College for Criminals
  
  IN February, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced plans to underwrite college classes in 10 state prisons, building on the success of privately funded and widely praised programs like the Bard Prison Initiative. Mr. Cuomo pointed out that inmates who got an education had a much better chance of finding a job and were much less likely to menace their neighbors after release. He noted that the cost — $5,000 per inmate per year — would be a bargain compared with the $60,000 it costs to incarcerate a prisoner for a year.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Thursday, April 10, 2014
  
  
• NY college for inmates to remain privately funded
  
  ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A senior official says Cuomo administration plans to expand college classes for New York's prison inmates will be privately funded and not financed by taxpayers.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Monday, March 31, 2014
  
  
• Free college courses for prisoners makes good financial and social sense, says UB Law School expert on prison life - Education helps inmates envision a life beyond prison and reduces recidivism
  
  BUFFALO, N.Y. – Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s proposal to grant college degrees to prisoners behind bars is a good bet to break the cycle of a broken system with out-of-control costs and far- too-many repeat offenders, says Teresa A. Miller, a professor in the University at Buffalo Law School. ... [ more ]
  US Fed News, Monday, March 3, 2014
  
  
• With Drug Law Reform, More Defendants Are Opting for Jail Time Over Treatment
  
  FOUR YEARS after the Legislature eliminated the last vestiges of the Rockefeller Drug Laws and opted for a less punitive and more rehabilitative approach to addiction, the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor reports a steady decrease ...... [ more ]
  New York Law Journal, Monday, July 8, 2013
  
  
• How New York City Reduced Mass Incarceration: A Model for Change?
  
  Are there connections between these three shifts ... [ more ]
  National Institute of Corrections, Thursday, May 23, 2013
  
  
• JusticeHome: Home-Based Alternative Incarceration Program Approved in Brooklyn
  
  On May 8, 2013, the Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes and the Women... [ more ]
  National Institute of Corrections, Thursday, May 9, 2013
  
  

Executions, Death Row & the Death Penalty

• Rochester man with a history of violence is going to prison
  
  ROCHESTER, Minn. – A violent confrontation that left two police officers injured is sending a Rochester man to prison. Phillip Grant Berg, 33 of Rochester, was sentenced Monday to seven years and 11 months behind bars, with credit for 144 days already served. Berg pleaded guilty to one count of 1st degree burglary for the incident on August 9 and four other felonies and three gross misdemeanor charges were dismissed.... [ more ]
  KIMT3 News, Monday, December 30, 2019
  
  
• Amateur basketball coach gets 3 months prison in NCAA case
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — An amateur coach was sentenced to three months in prison Friday for his role in a college basketball bribery scheme that sought to steer impressionable NBA-bound athletes toward fledgling money managers and handlers.... [ more ]
  USA Today, Friday, October 4, 2019
  
  
• Sunnyside Attorney Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Asylum Application Fraud
  
  A Sunnyside-based immigration attorney has been sentenced to five years years in prison for operating a asylum fraud scheme, the Department of Justice announced yesterday.... [ more ]
  Sunny Side Post, Thursday, May 9, 2019
  
  
• Actor, 2 others, plead guilty to extortion plot for posing as mobsters in New York pizzeria shakedown
  
  An actor, hired for his intimidating looks in all-black and sunglasses, and two others face 20 years in prison for extortion for posing as mob enforcers to shake down the former owner of a Brooklyn pizzeria, according to federal court documents.... [ more ]
  USA Today, Wednesday, April 10, 2019
  
  
• Four Additional People Charged in Conspiracy to Distribute Heroin and Fentanyl From Bronx, New York, Drug Mill
  
  Four men have been charged after they were arrested in New York for their participation in a conspiracy to distribute heroin and fentanyl, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced today.... [ more ]
  U.S. Attorney�s Office | District of New Jersey, Tuesday, April 2, 2019
  
  
• Man whose beating sent NY police chief to prison arrested for hitting police vehicle with SUV
  
  SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y. — Authorities say a man, whose 2012 beating while in police custody sent ex-Suffolk Police Chief James Burke to federal prison, was arrested Friday night after he crashed his Jeep into a lawn sign and then struck a police vehicle.... [ more ]
  WPIX 11 New York, Saturday, March 23, 2019
  
  
• Paul Manafort charged by New York prosecutors with 16 further crimes
  
  Paul Manafort has been charged with 16 felonies by the state of New York, meaning that he could be convicted and jailed for crimes that Donald Trump is powerless to pardon.... [ more ]
  The Guardian, Wednesday, March 13, 2019
  
  
• Former Port Authority Director Gets 18 Months in Prison for �Bridgegate� Role
  
  A former executive at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was sentenced to 18 months in prison Tuesday for his role in the 2013 traffic-jam scandal known as Bridgegate.... [ more ]
  The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, February 26, 2019
  
  

Gangs in Prison

• 31 indicted in NYC gang crackdown
  
  The affiliated street gangs are called SNOW, Loyalty Over Everything and Young Bosses.

  They've operated primarily in the Rosedale, Laurelton and Rochdale Village neighborhoods.

  The defendants range in age from 15 to 22.

  The case was announced Wednesday by District Attorney Richard A. Brown and Police Commissioner William Bratton.... [ more ]

  Associated Press, Tuesday, September 16, 2014
  
  
• Federal trial underway for four members of violent 10th Street Gang Four stand accused of murder, conspiracy
  
  Shortly after midnight on Easter Sunday of 2006, in a working class West Side neighborhood, the bloody feud between members of the Seventh and 10th Street gangs spilled over into the world of two innocent bystanders.... [ more ]
  Buffalo News, Saturday, August 2, 2014
  
  
• When Youth Violence Spurred �Superpredator� Fear
  
  As the police and prosecutors in Brooklyn tell it, Kahton Anderson boarded a bus on March 20, a .357 revolver at his side. For whatever reason — some gang grudge, apparently — he pulled out the gun and fired at his intended target. Only his aim was rotten. The bullet struck and killed a passenger who was minding his own business several rows ahead: Angel Rojas, a working stiff holding down two jobs to feed his family of four.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Monday, April 7, 2014
  
  
• 'Ten Most Wanted' Suspect Juan Elias Garcia Pleads Not Guilty To Killing Girlfriend, Toddler Son
  
  CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — A purported member of the MS-13 street gang charged in the killings of his 19-year-old girlfriend and her toddler son was ordered held without bail during his arraignment Monday.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Monday, March 31, 2014
  
  
• EXCLUSIVE: Preet Bharara wages war on street gangs, reducing violence in hotspots for gang activity Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has brought down crooked bankers and Al Qaeda terrorists, but he has also waged a war on violent street gangs.
  
  Ka'Shawn Phillips, 16, was stabbed 20 times and shot to death on Sept. 3, 2005 in Yonkers, just over the Bronx border.

  Nearly 10 years later, accused gang leader Carlos Urena is on trial in Manhattan Federal Court for pulling the trigger.... [ more ]

  New York Daily News, Monday, March 24, 2014
  
  
• How New York City Reduced Mass Incarceration: A Model for Change?
  
  Are there connections between these three shifts ... [ more ]
  National Institute of Corrections, Thursday, May 23, 2013
  
  
• JusticeHome: Home-Based Alternative Incarceration Program Approved in Brooklyn
  
  On May 8, 2013, the Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes and the Women... [ more ]
  National Institute of Corrections, Thursday, May 9, 2013
  
  
• Report Released on Statewide Efforts to Improve Law Enforcement Responses to People with Mental Illnesses
  
  NEW YORK... [ more ]
  Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, Tuesday, January 8, 2013
  
  
• Vote on New Rules for Jail Inmates Is Delayed
  
  Department of Correction has put off a final vote on changes to the rules governing the daily lives of city inmates...... [ more ]
  New York Times, Thursday, June 7, 2007
  
  
• New York prison creates dementia unit
  
  Needs of older inmates treated... [ more ]
  Boston Globe , Sunday, June 3, 2007
  
  
• New York prison creates dementia unit as inmate population ages
  
  Still, neither the American Correctional Association nor several experts in prison geriatrics were aware of any other special prison units for inmates with... [ more ]
  International Herald Tribune , Monday, May 28, 2007
  
  
• Mentally ill inmates face a cruel system
  
  Will the state end long solitary confinement and other prison abuses, or go on as usual? ... [ more ]
  Newsday, Sunday, May 6, 2007
  
  
• Hip-Hop Odyssey Film Festival Hits NYC In March, Explores Terrorist Links
  
  This year's feature film is The Leaders 2: Gangs? Guerillas? Gods? or Hip-Hop Terrorists?. The film looks into how and why many hip hop leaders have been scrutinized and/or labeled... [ more ]
  Sound Slam, Tuesday, January 16, 2007
  
  
• Death penalty dominates the docket at one federal courthouse
  
  Martin Aguilar Sassy robbed drug dealers... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Friday, January 12, 2007
  
  
• Brooklyn Gang Leader On Trial for His Life
  
  A federal jury will begin death penalty deliberations on Friday in the case of a Brooklyn gang leader, Martin Aguilar.... [ more ]
  The New York Sun, Friday, January 12, 2007
  
  
• Behind These Walls
  
  Memoir details life-altering events from prison... [ more ]
  New York Post, Sunday, January 7, 2007
  
  
• MS-13 member gets life in informant's death
  
  Jan. 5--Federal Judge Leonard D. Wexler imposed a mandatory life sentence yesterday on an MS-13 gang member convicted of killing a police informant, but the comments ... [ more ]
  Tribune Business News, Friday, January 5, 2007
  
  
• THE CHILLING REASON WHY THIS MAN WAS STABBED TO DEATH ON THE STREET
  
  ... [ more ]
  New York Daily News, Monday, December 18, 2006
  
  
• Police: NYC Crew Hid Drugs in Toys
  
  ... [ more ]
  ABC News, Friday, September 15, 2006
  
  

Health & Medical Treatment

• NYC Plans Task Force to Aid Mentally Ill Inmates
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a new task force Monday to overhaul how New York City's corrections system treats the mentally ill — both in jail and out — following the grisly deaths of two inmates with psychological problems.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Tuesday, June 3, 2014
  
  
• Judge Extends Mandate to Aid Mentally Ill City Inmates
  
  A Manhattan state judge has extended a 2003 settlement requiring New York City for two more years to help mentally ill inmates of city jails re-enter society.... [ more ]
  New York Law Journal, Tuesday, April 22, 2014
  
  
• Mentally Ill, in Prison and Outside
  
  Re “The Mentally Ill, Behind Bars” (editorial, April 7):

  From 2006 to 2011, I was responsible for health and mental health services in New York City jails. Based on my experience, here are some additional recommendations to transform the treatment of people with mental illness both in jail and in the community:... [ more ]

  New York Times, Saturday, April 12, 2014
  
  
• The Mentally Ill, Behind Bars
  
  Mayor Bill de Blasio and his new correction commissioner, Joseph Ponte, have inherited a city jail system in which nearly 40 percent of the 12,000 inmates have mental illnesses — up from about a quarter just seven years ago. Yet despite the stark shift, the system has not been redesigned to serve the complex needs of inmates with mental illnesses.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Monday, April 7, 2014
  
  
• Police Confront Rising Number of Mentally Ill Suspects
  
  ALBUQUERQUE — James Boyd, a homeless man camping in the Sandia Foothills here, could hear the commands of the police officers who were trying to move him out.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Wednesday, April 2, 2014
  
  
• Heat Checks Planned After Rikers Death Inmate Was in Cell That Had 'Unusually High Temperatures'
  
  The Department of Correction has reviewed heating systems and corrected other issues in jails citywide following the death of a Rikers Island inmate in a cell that had "unusually high temperatures," the acting commissioner, Mark Cranston, said Thursday.... [ more ]
  Wall Street Journal, Friday, March 28, 2014
  
  
• U.S. Accuses Rikers Officer of Ignoring Dying Plea
  
  A New York City correction officer was arrested on Monday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and charged with violating the civil rights of a mentally ill inmate who died after begging for medical help from his cell for hours.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Tuesday, March 25, 2014
  
  
• New York Promised Help for Mentally Ill Inmates � But Still Sticks Many in Solitary
  
  In Mid-State prison, Hall was in and out of solitary confinement for fighting with other inmates and other rule violations. After throwing Kool-Aid at an officer, he was sentenced to seven months in solitary at Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in upstate New York.... [ more ]
  ProPublica, Thursday, August 15, 2013
  
  
• NY settles case over housing for mentally ill
  
  NEW YORK Settlement Is Reached On Adult-Home Dormitories Thousands of mentally ill New York City residents institutionalized in dormitories called "adult homes" will be given the opportunity to move into their own apartments as a result of a ...... [ more ]
  Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, July 24, 2013
  
  
• Medical Parole: Weeks After Going to Prison, Astor Son May Be Freed Because of His Health
  
  New York State corrections officials have determined that Anthony D. Marshall, the 89-year-old son of the philanthropist and socialite Brooke Astor, is so sick and frail that he is eligible to be released from prison after serving just one ...... [ more ]
  New York Times, Tuesday, July 23, 2013
  
  
• Report Released on Statewide Efforts to Improve Law Enforcement Responses to People with Mental Illnesses
  
  NEW YORK... [ more ]
  Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, Tuesday, January 8, 2013
  
  
• New York prison creates dementia unit
  
  Needs of older inmates treated... [ more ]
  Boston Globe , Sunday, June 3, 2007
  
  
• New York prison creates dementia unit as inmate population ages
  
  Still, neither the American Correctional Association nor several experts in prison geriatrics were aware of any other special prison units for inmates with... [ more ]
  International Herald Tribune , Monday, May 28, 2007
  
  
• Mentally ill inmates face a cruel system
  
  Will the state end long solitary confinement and other prison abuses, or go on as usual? ... [ more ]
  Newsday, Sunday, May 6, 2007
  
  

Prison Classification, Placement, & Release

• Epstein jail guards decline plea deal
  
  Federal prosecutors offered a plea deal to two correctional officers responsible for guarding Jeffrey Epstein on the night of his death, but the officers have declined the offer, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.... [ more ]
  wusa9.com, Saturday, November 16, 2019
  
  
• �El Chapo� to serve time in U.S. high-security prison
  
  The Mexican is serving a life sentence in the state of Colorado. Gúzman was considered the most powerful drug baron in the world.... [ more ]
  The Washington Newsday, Tuesday, July 23, 2019
  
  
• NYC jail boss questioned at oversight hearing
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — The head of the city's troubled jail system was barraged with questions from lawmakers Wednesday about what he is doing to improve conditions for 16- and 17-year-old Rikers Island inmates following a scathing federal review that found that guards often use excessive force against them.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Wednesday, October 8, 2014
  
  
• Reform of harsh sentences in drug cases is both a just and practical step forward
  
  Few would argue at this point that the nation’s decades-old war on drugs has been anything but a wretched failure. It has cost uncounted millions of dollars, sent tens of thousands of people to prison (disproportionately African-American) and helped give this country the world’s largest incarceration rate – and all without putting a dent in drug use.... [ more ]
  Buffalo News, Monday, July 28, 2014
  
  
• Improving private prisons through the tax code
  
  On Tax Day, it’s appropriate to note this new student note in the NYU Law Review: We Tried to Make Them Offer Rehab, but They Said, “No, No, No!”: Incentivizing Private Prison Reform Through the Private Prisoner Rehabilitation Credit, by Cassandre Monique Davilmar. (Apparently the title is an Amy Winehouse reference.) Here’s the abstract:

  Mass incarceration in the United States has led many state governments to hand over the management and construction of prisons to private corporations, ... [ more ]

  Washington Post, Thursday, April 17, 2014
  
  
• De Blasio Setting Up a Test: Prison Reformer vs. Rikers Island
  
  Joseph Ponte, New York’s newly appointed correction commissioner, and his wife were visiting the city two weeks ago, and while she went apartment hunting, he had a few hours free. He dropped by Rikers Island to have a look at the jail block where a mentally ill inmate died this year, left unattended in a stiflingly hot cell.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Saturday, April 5, 2014
  
  
• Sentencing Reform Starts to Pay Off
  
  In 2010, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the vast disparity in the way the federal courts punish crack versus powder cocaine offenses. Instead of treating 100 grams of cocaine the same as 1 gram of crack for ...... [ more ]
  New York Times, Friday, August 2, 2013
  
  
• NY to close 4 upstate prisons as inmate population shrinks; 3 medium security, 1 minimum
  
  ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - State corrections officials say they plan to close four more prisons in response the shrinking number of drug offenders behind bars.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Friday, July 26, 2013
  
  
• At Trial, Pataki Says Sex Offender Trailed Family
  
  Former Gov. George E. Pataki testified in a Manhattan civil trial on Tuesday that among the reasons he pushed to keep convicted sexual offenders confined to psychiatric hospitals after they had completed their prison sentences was an ...... [ more ]
  New York Times, Wednesday, July 24, 2013
  
  

Prison Conditions & Corruption

• New York City settles inmate death lawsuits for $5.3M
  
  NEW YORK - New York City has agreed to pay $5.3 million to the families of two inmates who died at its troubled Rikers Island jail complex, a city official said on Tuesday.... [ more ]
  Jamestown Sun, Thursday, November 19, 2015
  
  
• ? Rikers Is Reforming Solitary Confinement�With More Solitary Confinement? How did Enhanced Supervision Housing units become one of the mayor�s �solutions�?
  
  ? In July, David* was told he was being moved to a new unit. He was taken from a general-population unit on Rikers to one of the recently opened Enhanced Supervision Housing units (ESHU) at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center. The unit was a stark difference from general population: In ESHU you get seven hours out-of-cell time a day; in general population, you’re entitled to 14 hours minimum out-of-cell time, as mandated by the Board of Correction’s standards.... [ more ]
  The Nation, Tuesday, November 10, 2015
  
  
• A Play That Confronts the Horror of Solitary Confinement
  
  On a recent Thursday evening, a small crowd gathered in a sweaty upstairs room in a Lutheran church in Bed Stuy for “Mariposa and the Saint,” a short play composed entirely from the text of letters written by a woman named Sara (Mariposa) Fonseca while she was serving a fifteen-month sentence in solitary confinement. The letters were written to an artist and activist named Julia Steele Allen, who also, by Fonseca’s request, plays Mariposa in the production. ... [ more ]
  New Yorker, Monday, October 19, 2015
  
  
• Americans protest human rights violations in US prisons
  
  A group of protesters have condemned human rights violations and illegal activities that frequently take place in prisons across the United States.

  The protesters gathered near the Rikers facility in New York City on Saturday and called for reform.... [ more ]

  Press.Tv, Friday, November 7, 2014
  
  
• The Shake-Up at Rikers Island
  
  Violence and corruption became entrenched at New York City’s Rikers Island jail because officers who ignored or even condoned that culture were moved steadily up the ladder into management.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Tuesday, November 4, 2014
  
  
• $2.25 Million Settlement for Family of Rikers Inmate Who Died in Hot Cell
  
  The family of a homeless veteran who died this year in a searing hot cell at the Rikers Island jail complex will receive $2.25 million from the City of New York in a settlement the comptroller’s office announced on Friday.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Saturday, November 1, 2014
  
  
• New York sued over so-called owed time in solitary
  
  A class action lawsuit filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court says inmates are unduly placed in 23-hour confinement for breaking jailhouse rules in previous detentions, sometimes years earlier. For example, if an inmate is sentenced to a month in solitary confinement but is released or transferred before completing it, he can be forced to serve the remaining time during his next incarceration.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Thursday, October 30, 2014
  
  
• 3 New York City Correction Officials to Step Down Amid Scrutiny of Rikers
  
  In a major shake-up at the New York City Correction Department, three high-ranking officials, including the top uniformed officer, are stepping down amid mounting criticism over the handling of violence and corruption at Rikers Island.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Wednesday, October 29, 2014
  
  
• Kids Shouldn't Be at Rikers, Period
  
  New York State's top corrections official said this week that he supports moving all adolescent inmates off Rikers Island. His statement raises hopes for an end to what the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a scathing recent report, called a "deep-seated culture of violence" against youth in the United States' second-largest jail, where the vast majority of inmates are adults.... [ more ]
  Huffington Post, Friday, October 10, 2014
  
  
• Head of Jails Is Criticized On Violence At Rikers
  
  New York City lawmakers sharply criticized the city’s correction commissioner on Wednesday, raising pointed questions about his ability to curb pervasive violence against inmates at Rikers Island.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Wednesday, October 8, 2014
  
  
• NYC administrative law judge recommends 6 jail guards be fired in brutal 2012 inmate beating
  
  NEW YORK – An administrative law judge on Monday recommended that six New York City jail guards be fired for the brutal 2012 beating of a handcuffed Rikers Island inmate in a now-shuttered solitary confinement dorm for mentally ill prisoners.

  The beating left 27-year-old Robert Hinton with a broken nose, fractured back and a bloodied, badly swollen face.... [ more ]

  Associated Press, Tuesday, September 30, 2014
  
  
• Solitary Confinement to End for Youngest at Rikers Island
  
  Although experts have spoken for years about the devastating effects of solitary confinement on the mental health of adolescent prisoners, such seclusion has long been the primary form of punishment at the Rikers Island jail complex, where inmates as young as 16 can spend days, weeks and sometimes months locked in a cell for over 23 hours a day.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Sunday, September 28, 2014
  
  
• Prosecutor Warns That Rikers Island Problems May Prompt U.S. Lawsuit
  
  As alarm mounted this year over conditions at the Rikers Island jail complex, the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio has largely managed to escape scrutiny, because the problems were rooted in the previous mayoralty.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Tuesday, September 23, 2014
  
  
• Inmate�s Death in Overheated Rikers Cell Is Ruled Accidental
  
  The death of a mentally ill veteran in an overheated cell at Rikers Island this year was accidental, the New York City medical examiner’s office ruled on Friday in a case that drew scrutiny to abusive conditions at the jail complex.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Friday, September 12, 2014
  
  
• Family of Rikers Inmate Sues New York City Over His Death
  
  The night Bradley Ballard died, he lay naked on the floor of his cell in a mental health observation unit at Rikers Island, weak and covered with feces. He had not been given medication for his schizophrenia and diabetes. And, unbeknown to guards, he had tied a rubber band around his genitals, causing them to become badly infected, New York City investigators later concluded.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Thursday, September 11, 2014
  
  
• New York�s Top Jail Investigator Resigns After Inquiry on Rikers Brutality
  
  The top investigator at the New York Correction Department resigned on Friday under pressure from city leaders who are facing a federal mandate to regain control of the Rikers Island jail complex, where widespread brutality and corruption by guards routinely go unpunished.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Sunday, August 24, 2014
  
  
• Violence on inmates by Rikers Guards Grew Under Bloomberg
  
  The portrait that emerged from the report on Rikers Island by the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan last week was of a place with almost medieval levels of violence, meted out with startling ferocity by guards and their superiors.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Wednesday, August 13, 2014
  
  
• Feds say NYC jails extremely violent, unsafe for teenage inmates and that reforms are needed
  
  NEW YORK, N.Y. - New York City's juvenile jails are extremely violent and unsafe, the result of a deeply ingrained culture of violence in which guards routinely violate constitutional rights of teenage inmates and subject them to "rampant use of unnecessary and excessive force," the federal government said in a scathing report released Monday.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Monday, August 4, 2014
  
  
• Hot Prisons Could Be Deadly For U.S. Inmates, Advocates Warn
  
  Earlier this year, a prisoner with severe mental illness died in an overheated cell at Rikers Island, the biggest jail in New York City. The exact cause of Jerome Murdough's death is still under investigation, but the temperature in the cell when he was found was at least 100 degrees. His death called renewed attention to a long-standing problem: maintaining reasonable temperatures in jails and prisons.... [ more ]
  NPR, Thursday, July 24, 2014
  
  
• New York City Reviewing Injuries Dealt by Rikers Correction Officers
  
  The city’s Department of Investigation has begun a review of scores of cases of serious injuries suffered by inmates at Rikers Island during assaults by correction officers last year.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Monday, July 21, 2014
  
  
• New York City settles inmate death lawsuit for $2.75 million
  
  (Reuters) - New York City has agreed to pay $2.75 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a jail inmate who claimed guards beat him to death.

  A spokesman for the city's Law Department on Monday confirmed the settlement with the estate of Ronald Spear, 52, who died in December 2012 at the city's Rikers Island jail.... [ more ]

  Reuters, Monday, July 21, 2014
  
  
• In a Cellblock on Rikers Island: A Portrait of Abuse
  
  The failure of the New York City Correction Department to train, control and discipline its personnel is appalling. Equally unacceptable is the public silence of the Board of Correction, the official civilian oversight agency for the city’s jails.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Monday, July 14, 2014
  
  
• Report exposes culture of beatings at New York prison
  
  NEW YORK: Mentally ill inmates suffer overwhelmingly from pervasive brutality at America's second biggest jail, where guards beat up prisoners routinely, The New York Times reported on Monday.... [ more ]
  Agence Presse France, Monday, July 14, 2014
  
  
• Investigation Targets Rikers Island Guards -- Authorities Raid a Detention Center as Part of a Probe Into Violence, Illegal Behavior at Prison
  
  New York City authorities raided a detention center on Rikers Island on Monday as part of a continuing investigation into violence and illegal behavior at the prison, officials said.

  The action came as part of a Department of Investigation probe that has so far led to more than 12 Department of Correction officers and their superiors being turned over to city prosecutors, officials said. Those referrals all came before Monday.... [ more ]

  Wall Street Journal, Monday, June 23, 2014
  
  
• Ex-Rikers boss cleared of inmate assault - Former Assistant Deputy Warden Edwin Diaz was found not guilty of beating up an inmate in 2008 and then falsifying records about the incident
  
  A retired Rikers Island supervisor accused of covering up his attack on an inmate after the convicted murderer struck a fellow Corrections officer was cleared of all charges.... [ more ]
  New York Daily News, Wednesday, June 18, 2014
  
  
• EXCLUSIVE: Judge slams jail officials for failing to provide proper cooling for overheating Rikers Island cells
  
  Federal Judge Harold Baer ripped city Correctional Department authorities for failing to provide inmates with cooling in their jail cells on hot days. Rikers Island faces controversy for the death of an inmate who was found in a 101-degree cell in February. In 2004, the judge ordered the jail to set up proper ventilation and cooling.... [ more ]
  New York Daily News, Monday, May 26, 2014
  
  
• Columbia Prison Divest delivers second letter to Bollinger during its first awareness week
  
  Columbia Prison Divest is wrapping up a week of events called People, Prisons & Profit, which aimed to increase awareness for its divestment movement on campus.

  On Wednesday, the group sent a letter to University President Lee Bollinger asking for a meeting within two weeks to discuss the benefits of divestment from the private prison industry.... [ more ]

  Columbia Spectator, Thursday, April 17, 2014
  
  
• Solitary confinement�s mockery of human rights
  
  New York state recently announced reforms to the practice of solitary confinement in its jails and prisons. The changes include a ban on this extreme punishment for adolescents, pregnant women and the developmentally disabled.... [ more ]
  Washington Post, Saturday, April 5, 2014
  
  
• NYC jail guard charged in death of inmate who ate disinfectant
  
  (Reuters) - A former senior guard at New York City's main jail complex was arrested on Monday on a federal charge that he deprived a mentally ill inmate of medical aid after he swallowed a corrosive disinfectant.... [ more ]
  Reuters, Monday, March 24, 2014
  
  
• NYC jail guard's claim she had sex with inmates, co-workers triggers federal investigation
  
  NEW YORK – Jail guard Nancy Gonzalez gained notoriety by conceiving a baby behind bars with a cop killer. But her story of sexual misconduct at a federal lockup in Brooklyn doesn't end there.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Sunday, March 9, 2014
  
  
• A Tie to Mental Illness in the Violence Behind Bars - The number of violent episodes reported at the Clements Unit has risen.
  
  AMARILLO — The most violent prisons in the Texas state system share a common factor: they house a high proportion of mentally ill inmates.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Monday, September 23, 2013
  
  
• A Tie to Mental Illness in the Violence Behind Bars - The number of violent episodes reported at the Clements Unit has risen.
  
  AMARILLO — The most violent prisons in the Texas state system share a common factor: they house a high proportion of mentally ill inmates.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Monday, September 23, 2013
  
  

Prison Life & Culture

• Attica Prison Riot�s 43rd Anniversary a Special One
  
  ATTICA, N.Y.—Hundreds of personal items collected after the 1971 Attica prison riot have been returned to their owners and families.

  New York corrections officials, members of the guards’ union, and family members of those killed marked the 43rd anniversary of the nation’s deadliest prison uprising with a series of events Saturday in front of the western New York prison.... [ more ]

  Epoch Times, Friday, September 12, 2014
  
  
• New York inmates riot over missing favourite TV shows due to early bedtimes
  
  A riot broke out inside one of America’s toughest prisons after an early bedtime prevented inmates from watching their favourite TV shows.

  More than 60 prisoners inside New York’s notorious Rikers Island facility refused to comply with a newly introduced 9pm curfew on Monday night.... [ more ]

  New York Times, Wednesday, August 13, 2014
  
  
• After Prison, No After-Hours Michael Alig, the Former King of the Club Kids, After Prison
  
  At 10:50 a.m. on Monday of last week, outside the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, N.Y., which looked like an Ivy League school ringed in concertina wire, Michael Alig emerged from a white prison van.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Thursday, May 15, 2014
  
  
• Terrorism trial begins in New York for Osama bin Laden son-in-law
  
  Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, went on trial in New York on Monday on charges that he conspired to kill Americans and support terrorists in his role as al-Qaeda’s spokesman after the Sept. 11 attacks.... [ more ]
  Washington Post, Tuesday, March 4, 2014
  
  
• Delbert Tibbs, Who Left Death Row and Fought Against It, Dies at 74
  
  Those lines, describing the experience of an innocent man on death row, are from a poem by Delbert Tibbs, who in 1974 was convicted in Florida of a rape and a murder that he had nothing to do with, it was later found. He spent nearly three years in prison before the State Supreme Court reversed his convictions, vacated his death sentence and freed him.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Sunday, December 8, 2013
  
  
• Kozlowski Is Granted Parole
  
  The state’s Board of Parole granted parole to Mr. Kozlowski, the former chief executive of Tyco International, after an interview on Tuesday morning, according to a spokeswoman for the corrections department. He will be formally released as soon as Jan. 17.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Wednesday, December 4, 2013
  
  
• As authorities consider unsealing reports on the Attica riot, some would prefer the secrets remain buried - A former inmate fears reprisals if authorities unseal reports on the deadly 1971 riot
  
  He’s 70 now and walks with a cane. But his mind remains sharp, vividly reliving those days from September 1971, the memories still raw enough to send tears down his face.... [ more ]
  Buffalo News, Sunday, November 3, 2013
  
  
• Matthew Matagrano, Convicted Sex Offender Who Repeatedly Snuck Back Into Jails, Sentenced
  
  NEW YORK -- A convicted sex offender who repeatedly used phony correction department credentials to gain entry into New York City jails has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.... [ more ]
  New York Daily News, Friday, August 23, 2013
  
  
• Elderly son of heiress Brooke Astor granted medical release from jail
  
  (Reuters) - Brooke Astor's 89-year-old son, in prison for swindling his late philanthropist mother, won early medical release on Thursday, the New York Department of Corrections said.... [ more ]
  Reuters News, Friday, August 23, 2013
  
  
• Climbing Out of the Hole
  
  Do you remember where you were standing at this moment five years ago? Ten years? Twenty? Seventy-eight men in Northern California do. They have been held in solitary confinement for at least 20 years, each in his own 8-by-10-foot windowless ...... [ more ]
  New York Times, Sunday, July 21, 2013
  
  
• Sex offender who broke INTO Riker's Island with fake badge 'assaulted inmate and then made him strip'
  
  Authorities accuse one former inmate of the massive New York City jail of sneaking back in and sexually assaulting an inmate * Matthew Matagrano is charged with impersonating a Department of Correction investigator... [ more ]
  Mail Online, Monday, July 15, 2013
  
  
• Vote on New Rules for Jail Inmates Is Delayed
  
  Department of Correction has put off a final vote on changes to the rules governing the daily lives of city inmates...... [ more ]
  New York Times, Thursday, June 7, 2007
  
  
• Behind These Walls
  
  Memoir details life-altering events from prison... [ more ]
  New York Post, Sunday, January 7, 2007
  
  

Riots, Lockdowns & Escapes

• Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein found injured in jail, received medical care
  
  NEW YORK – Wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges with girls as young as 14, was found injured in his Manhattan jail cell this week and received medical treatment.... [ more ]
  USA Today, Thursday, July 25, 2019
  
  
• �Approximately� 25 inmates attacked Auburn corrections officers, police union says
  
  AUBURN, N.Y. -- Two incidents that sent 12 Auburn Correctional Facility officers to the hospital stemmed from an attack by 25 inmates on corrections officers, according to the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association.... [ more ]
  SYRACUSE, Tuesday, May 21, 2019
  
  
• H-1B: Prison for visa fraud in case involving Bay Area workers
  
  The head of an IT staffing company has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison after federal investigators uncovered an H-1B visa-fraud scheme involving two Bay Area workers.... [ more ]
  Mercury News, Tuesday, March 26, 2019
  
  
• Inmate body-slams fellow prisoner in wild jail video
  
  A video clip, which was shot inside Brooklyn Central Booking and provided to The Post by a source, shows a police officer drop off a hoodie-wearing inmate in a shared holding cell before summoning another of the cell’s occupants to transfer out.... [ more ]
  New York Post, Monday, March 18, 2019
  
  
• Attorney appeals to keep Attica prison riot volumes sealed
  
  Attorneys for the widow of the state police official who ordered the storming of Attica prison on Sept. 13, 1971, have used the words of the judge responsible for sealing the second and third volumes of the 1975 report on the riot to try to block their publication.... [ more ]
  Buffalo News, Saturday, March 15, 2014
  
  
• Judge Hears Opinions on Attica Report Unsealing
  
  The widow of the state police captain who gave the command to retake the Attica prison from rioting inmates in 1971 says unsealing investigative documents now would be unfair, but others say it's time, for the sake of history, to let the public see them.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Thursday, February 27, 2014
  
  
• Members of Pussy Riot Visit Residents at Halfway House
  
  Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, founding members of the Russian activist group Pussy Riot, spent the last morning of their last day in New York at a halfway house in West Harlem, hearing about post-prison life from women living there. ... [ more ]
  New York Times, Monday, February 10, 2014
  
  
• Man jailed for 1992 Long Island kidnapping found dead in cell
  
  The man who kidnapped Katie Beers was found dead in his cell at Sing Sing Prison. 64-year-old John Esposito was found shortly after a parole hearing Wednesday. Authorities say he died from natural causes. Esposito was convicted in the 1992 abduction of Beers...... [ more ]
  Reuters News, Thursday, September 5, 2013
  
  
• When Prisoners Protest
  
  THERE aren't many protests in prison. In a world where authorities exercise absolute power and demand abject obedience, prisoners are almost always going to be on the losing side, and they know it.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Wednesday, July 17, 2013
  
  
• Hunger Strike by California Inmates, Already Large, Is Expected to Be a Long One
  
  LOS ANGELES -- Nearly 29,000 inmates in California state prisons refused meals for the third day Wednesday during a protest of prison conditions and rules. The protest extended to two-thirds of the 33 prisons across the state and all 4 ...... [ more ]
  New York Times, Thursday, July 11, 2013
  
  

Suicides in Prison

• After Jeffrey Epstein suicide, we must reform our criminal justice system: Readers sound off
  
  Jeffrey Epstein, 66, was pronounced dead Saturday at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City in an apparent suicide. The financier was awaiting trial for sex trafficking minors.... [ more ]
  USA Today, Monday, August 12, 2019
  
  
• Police: Central NY jail inmate committed suicide
  
  ORISKANY, N.Y. (AP) — Officials are investigating the suicide of 19-year-old jail central New York inmate who hanged himself with a bed sheet.... [ more ]
  Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, July 10, 2013
  
  

Workplace & Industry News, and Science & Tech News

• Assaults on prison guards in N.Y. at all-time high, union complains
  
  Assaults on correction officers at New York State prisons are on the increase.

  The union representing the officers says violence against them is at an all-time high.

  State officials who oversee New York’s 54 prisons and their 53,611 inmates do not put it in such dramatic terms. They say there has been an “uptick” in assaults.... [ more ]

  Buffalo News, Wednesday, October 29, 2014
  
  
• Pot-selling police officer gets 18 months in jail
  
  As a Buffalo police officer, James Hamilton Sr. was caught in November selling a quarter-pound of his homegrown marijuana to an informant. He pleaded guilty three months later in a deal that would give him somewhere between 18 and 24 months behind bars.... [ more ]
  Buffalo News, Thursday, July 24, 2014
  
  
• Prison Officers Need Help, but They Won�t Ask for It
  
  Norman Seabrook, president of the New York City Corrections Officers’ Benevolent Association, is recounting a phone call he received two weeks ago from a distraught woman named Melanie. After almost 20 years working under the relentless stress of a New York City jail, Melanie’s corrections officer girlfriend had had enough.... [ more ]
  Newsweek, Tuesday, May 27, 2014
  
  
• NYSCOPBA: Anything But a Holiday Weekend at Five Points Correctional Facility
  
  ROMULUS, N.Y., Sept. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- While many New Yorkers enjoyed barbequing and other holiday activities with family and friends this past Saturday, Correction Officers at Five Points Correctional Facility in Romulus, NY, had their hands full responding to a myriad of inmate fights and staff assaults, which sent three Officers and one Sergeant to the hospital.... [ more ]
  PR Newswire, Tuesday, September 3, 2013
  
  
• Inmate Attack Leaves Attica Correction Officer Hospitalized
  
  ATTICA, N.Y., Aug. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- One Correction Officer remains hospitalized after suffering multiple fractures and a concussion, and two others were treated for injuries at area hospitals, following a violent inmate attack yesterday at Attica Correctional Facility.... [ more ]
  PR Newswire, Thursday, August 22, 2013
  
  
• Rikers warden resigns
  
  A veteran Rikers Island warden resigned yesterday as the Department of Investigations probes allegations of brutality against guards at the prison, Department of Corrections sources told the Post.... [ more ]
  New York Post, Saturday, June 22, 2013