Prison Legal News

I'm Nick Eisenberg.

A report from the Prison Justice League reported in Prison Legal News that blind prisoners and others with disabilities are abused by prison staff.

The Prison Justice League Advocating Prison Reform in Texas released a report entitled Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Extensive Use of Force at the Estelle Unit in 2016.

The report found that blind, deaf, elderly, and disabled prisoners were were routinely physically and sexually abused.

In a strange twist, Chad's suicide led the North Dakota Department of Corrections to fire a prison guard.

According to the Prison Legal News website, Sergeant DeAndre Adams failed to properly inspect Chad's cell during two routine checks on July 31st.

Had he done so, he would have seen Chad had hung himself from his bed.

Seven years after the massacre in Mandan, RJR lives on against all odds.

Hope Village lacked in other important ways too.

Prison Legal News magazine, we talked to PLN's editor, Paul Wright, a few episodes back, reported that Hope Village, quote, "lacked the ability to help residents find housing and employment and hindered them from accessing mental health services." Unquote.

Residents felt unsafe, but the halfway house hadn't created an effective system to handle grievances of any kind.

PLN continued that, quote, "The CIC heard on multiple occasions that incarcerated DC residents would prefer to stay at secure BOP facilities rather than reenter DC through Hope Village." Unquote.

They were packaging food products.

So the report was picked up by Prison Legal News, a publication from a nonprofit group, Human Rights Defense Center, and again published in 2022 and again in 2023.

The Arizona Republic reported that at least 18 workers who were hired by the private companies, including Taylor Farms, were under detainers from ICE as well.

So it's not just prisoners, it's also undocumented people who were in ICE custody, and then ICE is like, "What are we gonna do with all of these folks? Well, what if we just pimp them out to Taylor Farms? They can pick some lettuce and, uh, of course, perhaps lead to an outbreak of explosive diarrhea."