When you think about prison, do you think about tenderness, caring and connection? They’re not common, but they’re here, in the Washington State Reformatory. While Christopher Blackwell, a fellow inmate, went on a run he began spotting bunnies at every turn. Bunnies from different colors and sizes, some spotted, others fully white, black, or light…
In the wake of three police shootings this summer, Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee explains how the Critical Incident Task Force operates. Five agencies – Boise, Meridian, and Garden City Police, Ada County Sheriff’s Office and the Idaho State Police – joined forces to investigate critical incidents, such as police shootings, death in custody or…
For police and prosecutors, often perceived as the engines of public safety, human caging is the primary tool in their tool kit. People who have served time in prison are less likely to succeed than people who have never been in the system; that is because confinement is seemingly designed to destroy mental health. In…
Idaho prisons are working at 76% capacity, with over 180 positions vacant within the nine prisons in Idaho. Correctional officers are burned out, overworked, under paid and dropping like flies. Workers usually work 12-hour shifts and are now being subjected to mandatory overtime with 16-hour work shifts; leaving workers with 8-hours to eat, sleep, take…
Fear of overwhelming the courts with resentencing cases compels prosecutors and judges to rethink the DVSJA. Creating a multi-step application process to resentence incarcerated survivors of domestic violence found to be more complicated to prove. The application process requires survivors to demonstrate official documents, such as medical records, police reports, or domestic violence shelter intakes,…
PEN America probably had no idea of the intimacy it kindled when it introduced a star children’s author with an incarcerated Black Panther. Click article to learn more.