Category: JDI in the News

‘A punch in the gut’: Kansas Department of Corrections officials ignored warnings about dental lab instructor

  • Sherman Smith
  • May 7, 2019
  • The Topeka Capital-Journal

The warden of the state-run women’s prison doesn’t know why Kansas Department of Corrections officials retained until December a dental lab instructor who sexually harassed an inmate in her facility two years ago. Warden Shannon Meyer recommended firing the instructor, Tomas Co, following an internal investigation into problematic behavior reported by an inmate in January

Alberta prisoners made 67 allegations of sexual assault in the last five fiscal years; Only one resulted in a criminal charge

  • Jonny Wakefield
  • November 7, 2018
  • Edmonton Journal

For Alberta numbers, Postmedia filed a freedom of information request for five years of detailed sexual assault statistics broken down by correctional institution. Just before noon on Dec. 3, 2017, RCMP in Red Deer received a call from the local remand centre, a jumbled, brick building that houses inmates just blocks from its city hall.

Kansas prison dental instructor charged with seven counts of sexual misconduct

  • Tim Carpenter and Sherman Smith
  • April 26, 2019
  • The Topeka Capital-Journal

The former dental program instructor at Topeka Correctional Facility was charged Friday with seven felony counts of unlawful sexual relations with women inmates and was being transferred to Shawnee County from a jail in Oklahoma. The Kansas Department of Corrections said Tomas Co was the subject of a KDOC inquiry and that charges were filed

American Bar Association Calls For Free Feminine Hygiene Products For All Incarcerated Women

  • Jimmy Jenkins
  • February 14, 2019
  • KJZZ

The American Bar Association (ABA) is recommending free, unlimited access to feminine hygiene products for all incarcerated women. In a resolution, the ABA says it is urging all levels of government and correctional institutions across the country to enact policies that will “provide all women prisoners in all forms of detention, both adult and juvenile, with

In Search of Justice: How DHS PREA Standards Don’t Necessarily Protect Immigrants From Assault

  • Tina Vasquez
  • March 13, 2019
  • Rewire.News and Latino USA

In part two of an investigation of abuse allegations at the T. Don Hutto detention center, Rewire.News partnered with Latino USA to examine the nuts and bolts of a Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) audit and how the process can fail survivors of sexual assault. Trying to understand the systems in place intended to protect immigrants