Law and Legislation

The “clean slate” bill would automatically seal most recent convictions — 3 years after serving time or parole for a misdemeanor, and 8 years for felony convictions

The corrections commissioner said the prison system has also added medical professionals, ordered new equipment and conducted additional rehearsals

Maryland's highest court issued an order that prevents the reinstatement of Syed's murder conviction by a lower court

Smith was set to die in 2022, but survived after workers couldn’t start an intravenous line for the lethal injection drugs before the state’s execution warrant expired

To be eligible, inmates must have been sentenced to life without parole under Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offender law

A U.S. federal judge ruled that the public has a right to see what goes on inside the St. Thomas jail

The new law no longer requires unanimous jury recommendations for judges to impose death-penalty sentences

Gov. Ron DeSantis also signed a bill to end a unanimous jury requirement in death penalty sentencing

Advocates said it would give inmates facing long sentences more incentive to change their behavior

The Cellphone Jamming Reform Act seeks to allow state and federal prisons to use cellphone jamming systems

The union says prison violence rose by 33% in the year since HALT took effect

The suit accuses officials of holding people in extended segregation even though they don't meet the law's criteria

Gov. Glenn Youngkin wants the law to require the Virginia Parole Board to notify local prosecutors before an inmate is paroled

State joins Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and South Carolina allowing firing squads if other execution methods are unavailable

Advocates say problems exists because of mistakes over eligibility and difficulties that detainees and prisoners face in registering or voting