jails
Civil rights group objects to using federal COVID aid for jails
The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the Treasury Department to take a harder line on states and local governments using federal American Rescue Plan Act money to build and expand correctional facilities. One of the projects it cited is in Scott County, where local officials had previously considered using the federal money for a […]
El Dorado’s Shepherd elected Arkansas House Speaker for third time
The Arkansas House gaveled into the 2023 legislative session on Monday with the swearing in of its members and the election of House Speaker Matthew Shepherd (R-El Dorado). Shepherd’s election to a third term means he will be the longest serving House speaker in state history. Only one member, Hope Hendren Duke (R-Gravette) voted against […]
Federal prisons ‘riddled with mismanagement’ probed by U.S. Senate panel
WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in a Thursday hearing grilled the top leader of federal prisons on how the agency would address staffing shortages and reports of abuse of incarcerated people. “The Bureau (of Prisons) has been riddled with mismanagement and, sadly, with scandal,” said the chair of the committee, Illinois […]
U.S. government failed to properly count deaths of people in prisons and jails, Senate report says
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice did not properly count nearly 1,000 deaths of incarcerated people in jails and prisons, according to a bipartisan report released Tuesday by a U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee. The 10-month investigation by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, found […]