The Problem With How Courts Decide Whether Someone Can Be Executed

“The criminal justice system is unequipped to grapple with the complexity of mental illness.“ In this Slate.com reporting by Maria Armstrong-Lopez, I learned that the 2007 Supreme Court case Panetti v. Quarterman set the standard for when the government can execute someone with severe mental illness. I also learned that, fifteen years later, the state of Texas governor Greg […]
‘I thought I was going to die there.’ What it’s like to live with rising temperatures in prison

A new report released last month by Texas A&M University details consequences of extreme heat in Texas prisons, where a lack of air conditioning poses dangerous conditions for those incarcerated as well as staff. It’s a problem that is not limited to just the state — or only the American southwest — and some experts and advocates […]