Category: Prisons

Unsubstantiated Claims for Effectiveness of Rehabilitation Programs

by · Sep 5, 2025 2:23 pm

Corrections officials often claim that their rehabilitation programs are “evidence-based.” For example, a recent report by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) found that participants in enhanced alternative custody programs (EACPs) recidivated at a lower rate than nonparticipants. The report’s accompanying press release painted the results as a clear win for the program. This framing is misleading because the evidence doesn’t hold up under closer scrutiny.

In a recently published Research in Brief, we raise doubts about these claims of effectiveness, noting how the report presents descriptive statistics rather than causal evidence.

Continue reading . . .

The Cushy Prisons for Murderers Act of 2025

by · Jul 11, 2025 8:23 am

Just when one thinks that the California Legislature has already maxed out its soft-headedness on crime, it goes and demonstrates that there is no limit. A bill has passed the California Senate by a wide margin declaring that “life inside prison should be as close to life outside of prison as much as possible.” [Sic.] As amended in the Assembly, Senate Bill 551 now includes this provision*:

The Legislature recognizes that life in prison can never be the same as life in a free society. However, active steps should be taken to make conditions in prison as close to normal life as possible, aside from loss of liberty, and to ensure that this normalization does not lead to inhumane prison conditions.

Unbelievable. Yes, we do not want our prison conditions to be inhumane. But “as close to normal life as possible”? It’s supposed to be punishment. And since the 2011 realignment, nearly everyone in California state prison (as opposed to county jail) is there for serious crimes, multiple repeated crimes, or both.

For premeditated murder, death is justice and anything less is mercy. Mercy is sometimes the right choice, but that does not mean we have to go overboard. A premeditated murderer who gets life in prison with a possibility of parole has already gotten off with less than he deserves. So now we have to take “active steps” to make sure he is comfy and entertained during his too-short time in the slammer? And we spend taxpayer money to do so while far more important functions of government go unfunded?

Who votes for this insanity? Continue reading . . .

Prison Litigation, Administrative Remedies, and Jury Trial

by · Jun 18, 2025 8:41 am

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down five opinions in civil cases this morning. One of them is a law-enforcement-related civil case, a category we keep tabs on at CJLF.

In 1995, Congress enacted the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) to cut down on the amount of federal court litigation involving prisoners. One requirement of the law, a common one in cases involving government agencies, is that a prisoner must first try any administrative remedies available in the prison system before turning to the courts. The Supreme Court has previously decided that a remedy is not “available” for this purpose if it is unavailable in practice, even if it exists on the books.

So, if a prison guard accused of misconduct blocks the prisoner from the grievance process by destroying his papers, the process would be unavailable, and the prisoner can proceed to federal court. But if that blocking is disputed, who decides if it really happened, the federal judge or a jury? That was the question in Perttu v. Richards, decided today. Continue reading . . .

Baby Murderer Granted Early Parole

by · Apr 25, 2025 1:53 pm

Herbert Brown beat his two-year-old daughter to death in 2013. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to 15-to-life, of which he has only done 12 years. So why is the Board of Parole Hearings granting him parole?  The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office has this press release.

“It is shameful for the Parole Board to grant Herbert David Brown III early release from prison,” said District Attorney Dan Dow. “Mr. Brown was convicted of murdering his own 22-month young daughter Lily due to abuse he inflicted upon her while he was using and under the influence of methamphetamine. Brown, who now identifies as a woman and goes by the name ‘Allie Brown,’ was sentenced to serve 15-years-to-life and should have served every day of the 15 years before being considered for possible parole. I ask the Board of Parole Hearings: ‘Where is the justice for Baby Lily?’” Continue reading . . .

Domestic Murder Within Prison — Twice

by · Mar 24, 2025 10:53 am

One of the purposes of imprisonment is incapacitation. People who are locked up cannot commit crimes against people on the outside, except for the few able to commit crimes by proxy.

But crimes on the inside still happen. At Mule Creek State Prison, in Amador County in the California foothills, one death of an inmate’s wife during a family visit is being investigated as a homicide, and a second inmate has been charged with murdering his wife in a similar incident. The Ledger Dispatch in Jackson has this story. The inmate under investigation, David Brinson, has been sentenced to life without parole for four murders. And now there may be five. Continue reading . . .

Supreme Court Takes Up Law Enforcement Related Cases

by · Oct 4, 2024 10:19 am

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a short orders list from Monday’s pre-term conference, adding 15 cases to the docket for the October 2024 Term. A much longer list of cases turned down will likely be issued next Monday at the formal opening of the term.

Continuing the high court’s frustrating lack of interest in criminal law, the list includes only one actual criminal case, Thompson v. United States, No. 23-1095. This case raises the question of whether the federal law against false statements to financial institutions and federal agencies extends to misleading half truths. An aspect of the case that increases its media profile is the fact that defendant Patrick Daley Thompson is the grandson of Chicago’s notoriously corrupt mayor Richard J. Daley and the nephew of later mayor Richard M. Daley.

There are also several law-enforcement-related civil cases, a category that gets more interest from SCOTUS:

Gutierrez v. Saenz, No. 23-7809, is a federal civil rights suit regarding a Texas capital case. It presents somewhat complex issues regarding DNA testing, standing, and distinctions between innocence claims and sentencing claims.

Barnes v. Felix, No. 23-1239, is a police use-of-force case involving the “moment of threat doctrine.” As described by the petitioner (i.e., the plaintiff suing the police officer), this approach “evaluates the reasonableness of an officer’s actions only in the narrow window when the officer’s safety was threatened, and not based on events that precede the moment of the threat.” In the Fifth Circuit, Judge Higginbotham wrote a concurrence to his own majority opinion asking the Supreme Court to resolve the circuit split on this issue. Continue reading . . .

Hit Man Sentenced to No Punishment At All for Murder

by · Sep 6, 2024 1:13 pm

AP reports:

A former Mafia hitman already serving life in prison was sentenced to 25 years Friday in the 2018 fatal prison bludgeoning of notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger.

Prosecutors said Fotios “Freddy” Geas used a lock attached to a belt to repeatedly hit the 89-year-old Bulger in the head hours after he arrived at the troubled U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton, from another lockup in Florida in October 2018. Defense attorneys disputed that characterization Friday, saying Geas hit Bulger with his fist.

The Justice Department said last year that it would not seek the death penalty against Geas in Bulger’s killing.

Congress abolished parole in the federal system many years ago, so life in federal prison is life without parole. Gaes’s new sentence is nominally consecutive to his life sentence, meaning it will begin the day he dies. Hence, he has been sentenced to no punishment at all. The government even plea-bargained a clearly premeditated murder down to manslaughter. Continue reading . . .

Released Robber Robs Again the Next Day

by · Jun 18, 2024 10:53 am

On May 7, convicted robber Eric Gray was released from San Quentin. The next day he robbed a bank in Orange County, California and held three employees prisoner. He presently faces charges in federal court. The Orange County Register has this article.

The federal complaint states that “Gray has a lengthy criminal history that includes, but is not limited to, grand theft auto, robbery, sexual battery, and narcotics-related offenses. Continue reading . . .

The Persistent Myths of Mass Incarceration

by · Jan 18, 2024 1:41 pm

Professor Paul Robinson and a fellow colleague from Penn have posted an in-depth article that is worth a read.  The abstract, sans the roadmap:

Few claims have won such widespread acceptance in legal academia as the “mass incarceration” narrative: the idea that the rise in America’s prison population over the last half century was fueled largely by the needless and unjust imprisonment of millions of criminal offenders due to punitive changes in sentencing. To many academics and activists, the question is not how accurate the mass incarceration narrative is, but how mass incarceration can be ended. This Article argues the “mass incarceration” narrative is based on a series of myths and, as a result, many proposed reforms are based on a misunderstanding of America’s past and present carceral practices. A more accurate understanding is needed to produce effective reform.

The central myth of the mass incarceration narrative is that exceptional and unjustified punitiveness largely explains America’s significant increase in prison population since the 1960s. This explanation overlooks the numerous non-sentencing factors that increased incarceration: a near doubling in U.S. population, higher crime rates, increased justice system effectiveness, deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, new and tightened criminalizations, worsening criminal offender histories, and more. While this Article makes no attempt at statistical precision, these non-sentencing factors can easily explain most of America’s elevated incarceration compared to the 1960s—a fact in direct conflict with the mass incarceration narrative. Additionally, while some punishments have increased in severity since the 1960s, most of these increases are likely to be seen as moving sentences closer to what the community – and many incarceration reformers – would believe is appropriate and just, as in cases of sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, human trafficking, firearm offenses, and child pornography, among others. Continue reading . . .