The Rag Radio Show….community radio, interesting topics and people you might not hear otherwise! Host and producer: Thorne Dreyer. Engineer: Tracey Schulz. To listen, click here

Jail is not meant to be a holiday, but one might expect to at least be treated as a human being. What I witnessed, during my time in the suicide watch section and in general population, was a nightmare, not just in terms of myself, but more in how I saw others treated. My first

Monday, September 28, 2009, Waco Tribune New state regulations that went into effect this month regarding the treatment of inmates who are pregnant or have mental health issues mostly boil down to paperwork that local corrections officials say they already do. “Most of it is just an extra (box on a form) or item to keep

by Gary Hunter (Prison Legal News) A random sampling of 2,000 prisoners in five county jails found that, on average, nearly 15 percent of male prisoners and 31 percent of female prisoners suffer from serious mental illness. The study was headed by Dr. Henry Steadman, Ph.D and Dr. Steven Samuels, Ph.D of Policy Research Associates

By Kevin Krause, The Dallas Morning News Dallas County commissioners voted Tuesday to settle two federal jail neglect lawsuits for close to a half-million dollars. County officials say the lawsuits are the last major legal claims related to prior conditions in the jail system, which were described a few years ago by federal investigators as

By Carol Muske-Dukes, New York Times THEY called it “falling off the calendar.” It was the kind of phrase that I came to understand while teaching a creative writing workshop at the Women’s House of Detention on Rikers Island in the 1970s. I learned, for example, that a “pelican” lawyer — black suit, large scoop

By Matt Pulle, Dallas Observer In February 2005, Alice Lynch-Fullen visited her brother, Christopher Lynch, at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center after he was arrested on rape charges in Grand Prairie. A large, imposing man, Lynch had ligature marks around his neck, alerting his distraught sister that he had tried to hang himself. “Don’t let