Hours before he died, Pittsburgh Jail released an autistic man with intellectual disability from custody
Pittsburgh Institute for Non-Profit Journalism: “Anthony Talotta, 57, died Wednesday at UPMC Mercy Hospital after he was found unresponsive in his cell at the Allegheny County Jail. Talotta, diagnosed with autism and intellectual disability, was rushed from the jail’s mental health unit. The jail released him from its custody hours before his death. Talotta is […]
A Kansas deputy tased a 12-year-old autistic boy who was handcuffed, shackled and hogtied
Topeka Capital Journal: “A Jackson County sheriff’s deputy used his Taser on a 12-year-old autistic boy without warning as the youth sat handcuffed, shackled and hogtied in the deputy’s vehicle. The state’s law enforcement oversight body says Matthew Honas on Feb. 23 used excessive force multiple times on the boy, including tying him up in a manner that threatened “his ability to breathe properly.” The Kansas […]
States Push for Innovative Ways to Improve Health Outcomes for Justice-Involved Individuals
From JD Supra: “There is growing momentum among states to develop innovative models to help people involved with the justice system (i.e., justice-involved individuals) receive health care services covered by Medicaid while they are incarcerated. By providing services before people are released, including care management to plan for reentry, states are hoping they can improve health outcomes […]
NSW Pilot Study Shows People with Disabilities are Much Likelier Victims to Violence
A pilot study conducted by the NSW (New South Wales) Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) found that people living with disability are more than twice as likely to be the victims of violent crimes compared to the total NSW population. The pilot study found that 17% of people accessing a disability support were […]
Lack of Misconduct Investigations Against Police Officers with Misconduct Allegations
The annual Independent Police Auditor (IPA) report shows that 333 public conduct complaints were filed against San Jose police officers in 2021, containing 1,000 misconduct allegations; a complaint can include multiple allegations: The complaint total represented a 24% increase from 2020. Throughout the report, Nurre, San Jose’s independent police auditor, and her staff repeatedly found while […]
‘I almost died’: More New Orleans jail detainees say they sustained serious injuries in a raid last month, despite claims made by sheriff
As reported by TheLens: “These newly reported injuries add to a growing list of accounts from inside the jail that contradict Hutson’s official statements on the protest and the raid. Earlier, the Lens reported that the diabetic man, Ronald Craige, disputed the Sheriff’s Office’s claim that the Sheriff’s Office offered him insulin over the weekend of the […]
Oklahoma Is Prosecuting Pregnant People for Using Medical Cannabis
Two district attorneys have targeted mothers with child neglect felonies. From The Marshall Project: “The prosecutions involving medical marijuana are “inconsistent with state law,” said Ryan Kiesel, a civil rights attorney and former Oklahoma lawmaker who worked on litigation on behalf of the 2018 campaign to legalize medical marijuana in the state.” “Those women are […]
California Passes Legislation to Make Racial Justice Act Retroactive, Remove Permanently Mentally Incompetent Prisoners from Death Row
The Death Penalty Info. Center: “One week before passing the Racial Justice for All Act (discussed in detail in the article), the legislature also passed AB 2657, a bill that requires courts to vacate the death sentences of people who have become permanently incompetent to be executed.” The article ends by explaining: “The bill is […]
“We continue to send people with mental disorders to prison, because there seems to be nowhere else for them to go.”
Have jails become the replacement for mental hospitals? https://bit.ly/3UhZIVK Salon.com reports, “researchers looked at data from all 3,141 U.S. counties and singled out variables that could influence jail population per capita. After analyzing their data, it became clear that, as the report puts it, “counties with smaller populations, larger percentages of individuals that did not graduate […]
911 Alternative Discussions for Seattle
(Seattle). Seattle City Council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee discussed progress on efforts toward alternative 911 responses on Tuesday. City staff and a representative from Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office discussed a Terms Sheet that lays out how they hope to work together moving forward through the process and laid out a rough timeline […]