Innocence, private prisons, overly punitive sex-offender laws, and more

Just a few items I wanted to point out from other sources:

First, sorry to see Paul Kennedy put his fine blog, The Defense Rests, on hiatus. He had great posts there regularly right up to the end. Paul, good luck with all you've got on your plate. Your blog will be missed. I hope you decide to pick it up again someday.

I checked in at Texas Monthly's website for the first time in a while and was pleased to find three innocence-related items on their home page, a couple of which I'd linked to in roundups before:

• 'I believe it's a heroic calling,' an interview by Michael Hall with SA4 lawyers Mike Ware and Keith Hampton
• Michael Morton's life in prison, in his own words, and
• Anthony Graves' prosecutor finally has to answer for his actions

With Michael Hall, Pam Colloff and Nate Blakeslee on staff, one would expect TM to be strong in this area and they consistently are. Good stuff.

Texas Prison Bidness also has some notable new posts:

• Grasping at straws, Littlefield prison seeks California prisoner contract?
• As family detention begins at Karnes, T. Don Hutto is the site of a protest
• 24-year-old immigrant dies after being held at GEO Group detention center in Laredo
• Investigation underway in Diboll roof collapse
• Family detention will return to Texas at the Karnes Detention Center, southeast of San Antonio
• Rep. Henry Cuellar, beneficiary of GEO Group contributions, wants border children deported ASAP
• Roof collapses at MTC-owned Diboll Correctional Center, trapping and injuring prisoners

And here's some good stuff from Doug Berman's Sentencing Law & Policy blog:

• Is preventing ex-prisoners from being homeless the key to preventing recidivism? 
• "Sex Offender Laws Have Gone Too Far" 
• Early data from Colorado suggest teenage use of marijuana is down since legalization

Finally, read Jim Schutze and Steve Blow from the Dallas Observer and Dallas Morning News, respectively, on counter-productively punitive sex offender residency restrictions.

More from me later, perhaps - lots of writing to do today.