JPI Daily News Digest 7/20/12
Published: July 20, 2012
MI: State is taking bids to privatize prison health care (Detroit Free Press)
The State of Michigan has called for bids in what could be the largest privatization of state government services in Michigan history. Proposals are due Aug. 29 for a massive deal to provide medical services -- physical and mental -- to all 43,000 inmates held in Michigan prisons. Services include wound care, treatment of heart disease and diabetes, dental care, optometry and sex offender treatment.
NY: Learning to Rely on Farms, Not Prisons, to Bolster a Struggling Economy (Huffington Post)
What do milk and jails have to do with one another? Dairy and incarceration make up two competing visions for the future of New York State. As one of the nation's largest dairy producers, New York produces enough milk for 2 billion bowls of cereal each year. It also has one of the largest incarcerated populations in the country.
NY: Focus on Halfway Houses at a State Senate Hearing (NY Times)
Legislators said Thursday that the state should consider posting corrections officers inside privately run halfway houses, a move that would significantly increase New Jersey’s oversight of the troubled facilities.
National: Eight Ways to Improve the Juvenile Justice Programs (Youth Today)
We sat in blue plastic school desks. The room was all white, with gray metal cabinets. It was comfortably air conditioned, which was a nice break from the summer heat. There were 20 or so prisoners of different ages, in various states of boredom. The teacher, a counselor, was droning on about the “disease model” of drug addiction, trying to explain some outdated research and half-baked ideas about addiction.
NJ: Drug offenders to get treatment under new NJ law (SanFrancisco Chronicle)
Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill into law Thursday that changes the way New Jersey's criminal justice system deals with drug users to put more emphasis on treatment than prison time.
MD: Criminal justice, up close and costly (Batimore Sun)
In recent years, advocates of a constitutionally sound criminal justice system have trained a light on Maryland's court commissioners, men and women who wield considerable power from the corners of courthouses and jails.
Posted in Criminal Justice News