Sweden refuses to answer questions raised by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer about the government’s investigation into Julian Assange.

Police in Washington, D.C. surrounded the home of Code Pink activist Medea Benjamin and attempted to arrest her for “assaulting” Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. But police did not have a warrant and apparently were uncertain whether an assault was even committed.

The following was republished from Ongoing History of Protest Songs. “We’re here protesting and sharing stories, but when everything else is so loud, how do you penetrate through?” The above statement was made by Camae Ayewa, a Philadelphia based activist, poet, and experimental musician, better known as Moor Mother. On

A federal court declared that suspicionless border search policies employed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) violate the Fourth Amendment right to privacy.

President Donald Trump celebrated a military coup in Bolivia that forced President Evo Morales, who recently won a fourth term, to resign on November 10. “After nearly 14 years and his recent attempt to override the Bolivian constitution and the will of the people, Morales’ departure preserves democracy and paves

A state appeals court in California struck down an order that undermined freedom of the press and prohibited a blog from publishing documents allegedly obtained through the City of Fullerton’s Dropbox account. Joshua Ferguson, a contributor to Friends For Fullerton’s Future, filed a lawsuit under the California Public Records Act

A lawsuit was filed in Chicago against police officers who were closely associated with Jon Burge, the disgraced commander who oversaw a regime of torture employed to coerce confessions. The regime spanned from the early 1970s to the 1990s.

Former CIA employee Josh Schulte, who is accused of leaking the “Vault 7” files to WikiLeaks, urged a federal court to rule the Espionage Act is unconstitutional and dismiss the charges against him.

On February 3rd, a 5’3″, 130 pound Virginia woman was killed after six deputies tased her before locking her in restraints with an anti-spitting hood over her head. Natasha McKenna, who was 37 years old and suffered from schizophrenia from a young age, went into cardiac arrest before ever leaving the jail and later died at the hospital.

A bill introduced in the Montana House of Representatives this week would curb the use of isolation in state prisons. The Montana Solitary Confinement Reform Act (or House Bill 490) was introduced by Democrat Jenny Eck and would ban solitary confinement for people under the age of 18 and those with severe mental illness. It would also introduce due process and appeal measures for inmates facing solitary and require weekly mental health evaluations for isolated inmates.

With the filing of two new lawsuits in New Mexico this week, Dr. Mark E. Walden stands accused of sexually assaulting scores of prisoners while working for inmate healthcare contractor Corizon Health Services inside two different GEO Group for-profit prisons in the state.

Filed on February 13th and 16th, the lawsuits are the sixth and seventh to be brought against Dr. Walden in the past three years, and raise the total number of Walden’s known and alleged victims to around 50.

Walden is accused of fondling prisoners’ genitals and conducting superfluous, aggressive rectal exams for ailments like tooth aches and toe fungus. Walden has denied any and all wrongdoing, and Corizon and GEO Group have so far refused to speak with the press on these matters.

Former State Department adviser Stephen Kim, who was prosecuted and sent to jail after pleading guilty to violating the Espionage Act, has confessed that the United States government effectively destroyed his reputation, wrecked his marriage, jeopardized his relationship with family members and transformed him into “property of the state.”

Kim was sentenced to 13 months in prison on April 2, 2014, after he accepted a plea deal. He reported to the Cumberland minimum-security camp a few months later.A major story by journalist Peter Maass for The Intercept features the first public statements from Kim on what he experienced. His statements remind one of the ruthless Espionage Act prosecutions against former NSA senior officer Thomas Drake and former CIA officer John Kiriakou.

The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics released a new report (PDF) this month on the health of incarcerated people in state and federal lock-ups from 2011-12. The study focused on both prisoners (i.e. people serving longer sentences) and jail inmates (i.e. people awaiting trial or serving shorter sentences), and found they were not only more likely to have had chronic medical conditions and/or infectious disease than the general population, but were also often denied prescription medication after admission. The report also mentions that incarcerated women and prisoners over 50 suffered at disproportionately higher rates from chronic and infectious medical conditions than the rest of the population.

Under Mayor de Blasio’s new preliminary budget, 282 correction officers would be brought on to oversee New York City’s juvenile prisoners as funding for staff and alternative programming doubles to $25.3 million in 2016 — the year NYC is scheduled to end solitary confinement for 18-21 year olds. The mayor’s

Over 40% of Rikers inmates have diagnosed mental illness, and Offley and Ballard are just two of far too many people who have been maimed or killed by the prison’s pathetic delivery of medical care. Corizon has lied to families of deceased Rikers inmates, and is under scrutiny in other states for similar misconduct.

How many more reasons will the city need before it is willing to re-assess its relationship with Corizon and take prisoners out of harms way?

Ohio’s prison system is facing a severe overcrowding crisis. With facilities hovering around 130% capacity, prison chief Gary Mohr considered declaring an overcrowding emergency for the first time in the state’s history. This would have granted early release to prisoners nearing the end of their sentences, but those plans were inexplicably scuttled less than a month

The New York State Commission on Correction released a new report this week, detailing the findings from its investigation into the horrific and preventable death of mentally ill black inmate, Bradley Ballard. Ballard was left in his cell for six days straight in September, 2013. Guards shut the water off to his cell for over four