The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "inmate rights" ...
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Grandma can’t accept your call: Inmates disconnected by phone costs
This series of stories started with a simple question. Why does it cost so much for inmates to make calls from the Cook County Jail? In the course of my reporting on criminal and legal affairs for WBEZ, the public radio station in Chicago, I had heard numerous people complain about the high cost of phone calls. Some digging confirmed that the price could be as high as $15.00 for 15 minute calls. Three or four calls a week at that price gets expensive even for financially stable middle class folks, but the people paying these fees were mostly the poorest residents in Chicago. That’s because most of the people in the Cook County Jail are there because they and their families couldn’t afford to post bond of a couple thousand, or sometimes even just hundreds of dollars to secure their freedom while awaiting trial. They are the people who are least able to afford such expensive phone calls. A few FOIA requests revealed the scheme (and scheme is the right word… I just looked it up: a crafty or secret plan of action). Cook County gave an exclusive phone contract to a company called Securus Technologies. Securus charged inflated phone rates and their exclusive deal in the jail meant inmates wanting to talk to their families or arrange their defense had no choice but to pay the rates. Securus then paid back to the county 57½ percent of the revenue from the calls. It netted the county about $4 million a year. Securus wouldn’t tell us their take but I imagine they did alright too. All of the money was coming out of the pockets of the poorest residents in Cook County, people who couldn’t even afford to post bond for their freedom. (As an aside, this isn’t just an issue in Cook County. According to its website Securus provides the phone systems for 850,000 inmates in 2,200 jails and prisons across the country.) Our reporting shed public light on a hugely profitable contract that no one was paying attention to. We documented the lives of the impoverished people getting hammered by the policy and then turned the hammer on the local elected officials to ask them to explain how this was a good policy. The public officials responded in a way that once again proved the genius of democracy. Our efforts and the results are detailed in subsequent answers below.
Tags: prison inmates; phone calls; fees
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What Happened to Edie?
Edwina King's death was ruled a suicide by the very law enforcement agents she was investigating, regarding allegations that women in the Delaware County Jail were being raped and sexually abused. Edwina went missing the very day she was supposed to meet a Tulsa attorney to discuss a possible civil rights lawsuit on behalf of female inmates. Two weeks later, her body was found hanged in a horse tack barn on her own property, not more than 200 miles from her trailer home.
Tags: Suicide; Edwina King; Tulsa World; Trailer Home; Rape; Sexual Abuse
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California Prisons: Behavior Modification and Suppression of Due Process
The author uncovers evidence of cruelty and near torture in California's prisons. The abuse and suppression of inmate rights that pervaded these prisons was initially reported by researchers, but was covered up by officials.
Tags: prisons; torture; prison system
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Brian Ross Investigates: Bodies: The China Connection
The investigation uncovered black market trade that supplies bodies of Chinese executed prisoners for display in Premiere Exhibitions' for-profit "Bodies" show in cities around the world. The shows have been seen by millions and has brought huge profits to the Atlanta-based company.
Tags: China; inmate rights; black market; body factory; skeleton; plastinate; body parts
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Prisons' Legal Strain
Eight class-action lawsuits won by inmates rights lawyers have led to the state of California mandating "fixes for past failures that have already cost taxpayers more than $1 billion and will cost nearly $8 billion over five years." Included in that bill are improvements in the ways prisoners are treated, like health care and "general confinement conditions." An outbreak of Valley Fever at one prison is included in the coverage of these issues. One of the ways the state seeks to balance the prison budget is a plan to release 22,000 "low-risk offenders" early.
Tags: Prisons; health care; medical conditions; confinement conditions; prison health care; Valley Fever
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Prisoners Best Friend
Reporters Todd Bensman and Robert Riggs from CBS-11 News, Dallas, investigated tips that State Representative Terri Hodge solicited campaign contributions from inmates families in return for intervening in their loved ones' cases. Not all those campaign contributions were reported. Bensman and Riggs found over 60 instances where Rep. Hodge obtained confidential prison files under a legislative privilege designed to assist in law-making. "As a legislator, Hodge served on the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and frequently sat in on hearings before the COrrections COmmittee, which oversees the Texas Prison system. In her role, Hodge had power over budgets and prison jobs."
Tags: Terri Hodge; campaign contributions; parole board; disciplinary refractions; influence; victims rights groups; Texas Public Information Act; Texas Inmate Families Association; TIFA; legislative privilege; campaign finance reports; Texas Criminal Jurisprudence Committee; Texas Department of Criminal Justice; TDCJ; Texas Corrections Committee; Justice for All; Texas Ethics Commission
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Treatment of Sex Offenders
In 1998, Colorado established a life-time-of- supervision law for sex offenders. Since then only two convicted sex offenders have been paroled. These inmates are also given therapy, not with the hope of curing them, but instead with the goal to teach them how to manage their behavior. When an offender goes on parole he does so with the recommendation of his therapist. In 2005 the Colorado Department of Corrections decided that the public had the right to know sex offenders' progress which includes their therapists' recommendations.
Tags: sex offenders; law; therapy
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Jews in Prison Face Special Challenges
The article took an in-depth look at the challenges facing Jewish inmates in Missouri prisons. The author covered all stages of incarceration, challenges on the inside and the challenge of re-integrating into society as a whole and the Jewish community in particular.
Tags: Missouri prisons; religion; Judaism; Jewish inmates; re-integration; incarceration; rights of prisoners; drug abuse; substance abuse; community outreach
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Abuses of Immigrant Detainees
This story explored the plight of immigrants detained in two New Jersey jails over the two year period from 2002-2004. An investigation into U.S. prison abuse abroad led to information on similar prison abuse in the U.S. Five former inmates of the Passaic County jail were interviewed and all of them detailed the same type of treatment at the hands of the guards including physical abuse and being threatened with attack dogs. As a result of this broadcast, the Department of Homeland Security immediately revised government policies and announced their own investigation into these claims of abuse.
Tags: immigrant; abuse; civil rights; human rights; FOIA
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Inmates Do More Than Phone Home: With the 1st amendment as a shield and monitoring spotty, prisoners make calls to arrange crimes that include murder
The L.A. Times investigates phone calls made by prisoners to commit crimes while behind bars. "Easy access to phone lines allows some inmates to continue their criminal enterprises" even while locked up. The story centers on the conflict between the 1st amendment right of prisoners to use the telephone, as ruled by the federal courts, and California prison officials attempt to deal with the problem of phone calls furthering more crimes. The article also finds many crimes go undetected because of a lack of monitoring by prison officials.
Tags: prison; 1st amendment; first amendment; inmate rights; inmate crimes; phone calls; phone access; drugs; murder