JPI Daily News Digest 8/7/2012
Published: August 7, 2012
IL: Illinois Summit Examines Ways to Help Youth Leaving Prison Succeed and End the Cycle of Prison Recidivism (Models for Change)
Nearly 100 youth service providers and justice reform advocates participated in a daylong summit discussing how to help move Illinois from a youth parole system that is punitive in nature to one giving priority to rehabilitation of young people leaving prison.
National: The Cautionary Instruction: One in 43 children has a parent incarcerated (Post-Gazette)
Last week, lawmakers on the House Democratic Policy Committee conducted a public hearing at the University of Pittsburgh to examine the plight of children with incarcerated parents.
AZ: Private Prisons Cost Arizona $3.5 Million More Per Year Than State-Run Prisons (Think Progress)
Private prisons, touted as a cost-efficient alternative to state-run penitentiaries, are not living up to their promises in at least one state. A new study of Arizona’s private prisons finds that the state is actually losing money — $3.5 million a year — by turning their inmates over to for-profit corporations.
MD: A broken juvenile justice system (Baltimore Sun)
Maryland public safety secretary Gary D. Maynard insists that complaints about how his agency deals with youthful offenders are overblown and that those that are valid could be solved by building a new $70 million juvenile jail downtown. But recent reports of violence and unsafe conditions at the adult facility where minors charged with serious crimes are currently held — and the fact that federal officials haven't visited the place in more than two years to certify that that Maryland is honoring its commitment to improve conditions there — suggest the problem goes deeper than that.
NY: In California, County Jails Face Bigger Load (NY Times)
Standing on the footsteps of the Fresno County Jail, where he had just been released one recent afternoon, Juan Diaz rated the food inside a 2. The state prison at Coalinga, where he served three years on a weapons conviction, earned a 10.
LA: LSU Seeks Place to Treat Prisoners (The Advocate)
LSU received no response as it sought proposals from area hospitals to take over prisoner health care currently being delivered at its Earl K. Long Medical Center in Baton Rouge.
OH: Violence Declines at Youth Prisons (Columbus Dispatch)
Violent assaults on youth offenders and security guards dropped last year at Ohio Department of Youth Services facilities. A report last week by the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee showed there were 1,412 documented assaults in 2011, a 3.7 percent decline from the previous year.
Posted in Criminal Justice News