Prisonwatch

Fake science, faulty methods, misleading testimony How a rogue forensics lab in Chicago got people wrongfully convicted for driving high.

Injustice Watch reports on a rogue lab that misled courts with fake science and faulty methods to convict people charged with driving under the influence of marijuana.

Solitary Confinement: Send Us Your Questions - Bolts Two incarcerated journalists wrote a new book on their own experiences with solitary confinement and its use in prisons. Ask them anything.

👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

Blackwell and Harris, who are incarcerated in Washington state and Texas, respectively, co-authored the book

***Blackwell and Harris have agreed to answer questions from Bolts readers about their new book and the experience of writing it***

Submit by 8/27

boltsmag.org/solitary-con...

George Lester Jackson (1941-1971) - Find a Grave... NOTE: I'm willing to transfer this memorial to someone who will take good care of it. Born on September 23, 1941 George Lester Jackson was the son of Robert Lester Jackson, Jr and Georgia Jackson. Geo...

nl.findagrave.com/memorial/353...

YouTube video by Bob Dylan - Topic George Jackson (Big Band Version)

Rest in Power: George Jackson
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEg8...

Another State Restricts Life Sentences for Young Adults - Bolts Michigan’s supreme court created new protections against life sentences for people up to 20, pushing the line for who gets second chances beyond age 18.

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled this month, “The impulsivity of the late-adolescent brain is transient and capable of change, making imposition of mandatory [life without parole] on this class of individuals particularly cruel.”

In North Carolina, Juvenile Lifers See a Pathway to Freedom After the state’s previous governor granted clemency to people sentenced to life in prison as minors, others with juvenile life sentences are hoping the new administration also believes in second chances.

North Carolina’s previous governor turned his attention to juvenile life sentences, granting clemency for about a dozen people. Others who remain in prison on juvenile life sentences hope the new administration remains a pathway out: boltsmag.org/north-c...

New Chicago Prosecutor Empowers Police to File More Charges Without Review - Bolts In the early evening on Feb. 19, two Chicago police officers arrested a 40-year-old man in the Englewood neighborhood. According to their report, the officers cited an odor of “raw... Read More

In a predominantly Black area of Chicago, police can now directly file gun charges without a prosecutor’s approval. This a police department with a long history of coercion, deception, and filing wrongful charges against innocent people.

The Human Cost of Jeff Landry’s Drive to Resume Executions Chris Duncan’s death sentence—built on the testimony of two discredited doctors—illustrates just how faulty the system can be.

Bite-mark analysis was once considered cutting-edge forensic science, but today, it's widely discredited—“total bullshit,” says one expert.

Bolts talked to a man convicted through such an analysis who currently sits on death row.
boltsmag.org/the-hum...

Another State Restricts Life Sentences for Young Adults Michigan’s supreme court created new protections against life sentences for people up to 20, pushing the line for who gets second chances beyond age 18.

Hundreds of Michiganders who’d been automatically sentenced to life without parole will now face resentencing, an extensive process during which they’re entitled to legal representation. Bolts explains what’s next, and who gets to decide. boltsmag.org/michiga...

Sign the Petition No 50: Clemency for poet Spoon Jackson before he hits 50 years in prison.

Clemency for poet Spoon Jackson before he hits 50 years in prison chng.it/wgsyGYfnkD

The Past and Present of Prison Labor: Your Questions Answered A historian answers <i>Bolts</i> readers’ questions on the deep roots of forced labor in U.S. prisons, how it operates today, and efforts to challenge it.

People in U.S. prisons cook food, clean, manufacture goods, and work in industries like agriculture and firefighting—often for just cents an hour. Historian Robert Chase explains how this system took root after the Civil War and continues today.
boltsmag.org/the-pas...

“Nobody Knows What That Means”: The Murky Decisions of New York’s Parole Board New York advocates hope to force their state to be more forthcoming about how it decides parole grants, worried that incarcerated people don’t know how to apply or to secure release.

Over 10,000 people appear before New York’s parole board each year, with the average hearing lasting just 15 minutes and, for the 60% of people who are denied, typically no guidance given on how they can secure their release in future. boltsmag.org/new-yor...

Secrecy Clouds Arizona's Lethal Injection Protocol as the State Restarts Executions  - Bolts The decision by Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs to resume capital punishment aligns with a larger trend of death penalty states hiding key details about executions.

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs will become the first democratic governor to oversee an execution since 2017 tomorrow. With @pascalsabino.bsky.social, I wrote about how Hobbs canned an independent review and abandoned her promise to bring transparency to executions.
boltsmag.org/secrecy-as-a...

Secrecy Clouds Arizona’s Lethal Injection Protocol as the State Restarts Executions  The decision by Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs to resume capital punishment aligns with a larger trend of death penalty states hiding key details about executions.

There are 112 people on death row in Arizona, and 25 have exhausted or waived their appeals, according to the state, making them eligible for execution. Aaron Gunches's lethal injection is set for tomorrow — the first following an almost two-year pause. boltsmag.org/secrecy...

⚡️ Evidence of $26 million worth of Russian war crimes in Ukraine may have been deleted after the United States stopped funding a group of Yale University researchers who were finding and returning home deported Ukrainian children.

ICE Contractor Fights to Pay Detained Migrants as Little as $1 a Day for Work The legal battle has national repercussions as the number of ICE-held migrants reaches its highest level in five years.

Despite its soaring fortunes, $4 billion company GEO Group continues to resist paying detainees more than $1 a day for cleaning facilities where the government has forced them to live.

Never eat the candy on your pillow: Honor your elders Elders are forgotten in prison, but some of us behind the fence do what we can to make them feel seen and heard

The elderly are forgotten in prison, but some of us behind the fence do what we can to make them feel seen & heard, writes Derek R. Trumbo, Sr. in his latest ‘Never eat the candy’ column on doing what we can to honor our elders.
prismreports.org/2025/03/19/e...

“I Am a Political Prisoner,” Writes Mahmoud Khalil From ICE Jail In the weeks ahead, students, advocates and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine.

"My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law."

Texas Man Held in Jail for 18 Years Without Trial Edric Wilson was being held in Harris County Jail on murder charges in the death of the great-aunt of Lakewood Church Pastor Joel Osteen.

www.thedailybeast.com/texas-man-he...

Ekrem İmamoğlu speaks at a rally with a large Turkish flag in the background. Headline text reads: ‘Turkish police have detained Erdoğan’s main political rival.’

The detention of Ekrem İmamoğlu has sent the Turkish currency and markets tumbling. The move marks an intensifying crackdown on the country’s opposition party ahead of the 2028 elections. www.ft.com/content/c1a2...

Trump defies court orders to dump Venezuelans in Salvadoran slave jail For "national security."

New in PN: Trump defies court orders to dump Venezuelans in Salvadoran slave jail

"At bottom, this is a dispute about whether the president can define reality by executive fiat and force the legal system to treat his fantastical pronouncements as fact."

YouTube video by RUNAWAY SLAVE 2.0 Kenny Zulu Whitmore/ Warrior For His People Has Been Down For 50 Years......

Kenny Zulu Whitmore/ Warrior For His People Has Been Down For 50 Years...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecql...
#KennyZuluWhitmore #freezulu #innocence

Joe Biden Frees Leonard Peltier The ailing Native American rights activist has been in prison for nearly 50 years after the U.S. government lied to put him there.

Great news!
Joe Biden Grants Clemency To Leonard Peltier
www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-bi...

After Greece's Refugee Crisis: The Rise of Hard Borders On the Greek island of Chios, refugees and advocates say the crisis never ended — it only disappeared from public attention.

I wrote a long piece at @inkstickmedia.com about the situation for refugees on Greece's Chios island, the way the journey they take has become more dangerous & violent since 2015, & how border violence/deterrence has failed to stop people from risking the crossing:

inkstickmedia.com/after-greece...

Survivors of prison sexual abuse scandal ask Biden for clemency: ‘Give us a chance’ Incarcerated women seek relief after exposing harassment, retaliation and assault by staff

Survivors of prison sexual abuse scandal ask Biden for clemency: ‘Give us a chance’

Incarcerated women seek relief after exposing harassment, retaliation and assault by staff

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

#prison #clemency

Editorial: Parole consideration for those sentenced to life behind bars 35 years ago? It's the right thing to do Senate Bill 94 follows a sensible path of recent laws and court decisions that permit parole hearings for most people sentenced to life without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles. But it's ...

Editorial: Parole consideration for those sentenced to life behind bars 35 years ago? It’s the right thing to do
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

‘It’s torture’: brutal heat broils Texas prisons, killing dozens of inmates
Legal action aims to force criminal justice department to air condition prisons, where 85,000 are at risk of heat illnesses
www.theguardian.com/us-news/arti...
#prison

Who Are the Most Prominent People Released in the Swap? The prisoners released on Thursday include a Wall Street Journal reporter, an editor working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and a former U.S. Marine who had served in Iraq.

The prisoner swap carried out on Thursday in Turkey is the most far-reaching exchange between Russia and the West in decades. Here’s a closer look at some of the people who were released.