The Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP) provides college degree courses for persons in upstate New York prisons. Believing that “any person can find instruction in any study,” the leaders of CPEP see this education as a fundamental part of any successful re-entry program. CPEP was launched after an act of Congress, and the resulting legislation
Police can take people into custody for various reasons, and numerous laws limit and define what can happen after. The legislatures and governors of two states recently acted to place one significant new restriction on police-detainee interactions: having sex has been legislated to be taboo, something detainees cannot legally consent to. It’s not as though
Truck driver Frank McClellan, 36, was awarded $150,000 in compensatory damages and another $20,000 in punitive exemplary damages against a Rensselaer, New York police detective for numerous Fourth Amendment violations. The detective plans to appeal the verdict. On November 16, 2000, McClellan was unloading his vehicle when he claimed, Detective Steve Smith, who was in
Raul Olmeda, a three-and-a-half-year veteran of the NYPD, has been arrested and charged with paying an underage girl for sex and recording the incidents. According to the New York Daily News, the 40-year-old Bronx cop engaged in illegal sex acts five times between January and April 2017. Two of the trysts occurred after Olmeda’s apartment
The New York City Board of Correction (BOC), which provides oversight of the city’s jails, has approved the use of controversial “restraint desks” for violent prisoners aged 18 to 21 held at the Rikers Island jail complex. The desks – used in classrooms where programming is provided – allow for free movement of the hands
New York Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks issued a bold (and much-needed) new rule on November 7, 2017. Intended to remind prosecutors of their duty to disclose exculpatory material to the defense, the rule requires that all trial judges in the state issue a “Brady” order at the outset of all criminal trials. New
In a scathing opinion, Judge Jack B. Weinstein, Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, awarded a wrongfully detained American citizen $82,500 in damages for false arrest and false imprisonment at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Davino Watson was born in Kingston, Jamaica November 17,
The New York City Department of Correction and city officials are rethinking their policy of releasing prisoners without jackets during frigid winter months. The New York Daily News reported in December 2016 that the city was routinely freeing prisoners from jail and court without proper winter clothing. Beleaguered public defenders and legal aid attorneys went so far
Kalief Browder was a 16-year-old arrested in New York City in 2012 on charges of stealing a backpack. The charges were later dismissed, but not before he sat in jail on Rikers Island for three years—part of which was spent in solitary confinement—because he couldn’t afford to post $3,000 bail. He committed suicide after his
By Christopher Zoukis While combating idleness and restlessness in America’s prisons is certainly necessary to avoid disruptions and violence, how this is accomplished is up for debate. Lawmakers in New York State said no to a proposal this month, during the last legislative session, made by Governor Andrew Cuomo that would allocate $1 million a
We have profiled every prison within the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Learn about each prison’s location, security level, educational and recreational offerings, and much more.
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