Wisconsin’s Department of Corrections bans a wide variety of books inside Wisconsin prisons, including martial arts and gunsmithing. Unfortunately, the bans go far beyond weapons and violence, extending into topics such as fantasy, gaming, coding, web design, and search engine optimization. The latter makes it harder for prisoners to keep current on subjects that help reestablish a career after serving their time. Learn more here.
A long overdue day has finally arrived. The federal Bureau of Prisons is closing the Special Management Unit at Thomson penitentiary in Illinois. The unit is notorious for being one of the deadliest in the federal prison system, generating frequent reports of violence and abuse. The closure comes on the heels of reporting by NPR and The Marshall Project, which pointed out five suspected homicides and two suspected suicides had occurred in the unit since it opened in 2019. Learn more here.
A reduction in white collar prosecutions over the past two decades has resulted in a perception that the feds are letting people skate on federal crimes. Statistics from the Federal Bureau of Prisons state otherwise. The federal prison population increased more than 3%, from 151,283 at the end of 2020 to 156,542 at the end of 2021. Read more here.
It is disheartening to see support for the death penalty remain this high despite more publicity than ever on the racial and class disparities present in our criminal justice system. Read more here.
