Digest October 1, 2015

​​New Orleans

• Polls in governor's race don't tell whole story, LSU prof says
• Lawsuits fly, sniping escalates between Landrieu, Gusman camps in jail fight
• ​Judge asked to force City to build housing for mentally ill inmates
• Former school board member Ira Thomas sentenced to year in prison, ordered to pay fine
• ​Ira Thomas' friends, prosecutors aid him at sentencing
• ​After monuments vote, HDLC members should be tossed out: A letter to the editor
• ​Orleans Parish Prison tax is needed to pay for reforms: Editorial

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​Louisiana

• Qualifying candidates for Oct. 24 primary election
• The politics of mass incarceration
• Changes to food assistance program start Thursday
• Red-light camera ticket refunds to be $20-$30 in Jefferson Parish
• Polls in governor's race don't tell whole story, LSU prof says
• 2015 governor candidates address crime in St. Tammany forum
• Race for Louisiana lieutenant governor and attorney general: Is anyone really paying attention? JR Ball
• Louisiana governor's debate begins at 6 p.m.: Follow our live coverage

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National

• Register Now for Webinar: Ban the Box and More: Strategies for Implementing and Enforcing Fair Chance LawsTake a
• Meet JPay, the Company that Controls Prisoners' Access to Technology
• Pennsylvania: New prison policies aim to protect transgender inmates
• Valium, Lose Your Kid, Go to Jail
• We Must End For-Profit Prisons
• Georgia: Ashley Diamond, Transgender Inmate, Is Out of Prison but Far From Free
• Tennessee: Former prison employees accused of profiting from inmates plead not guilty​
• New York Governor Announces Executive Actions to Reduce Barriers for New Yorkers with Criminal Convictions
• Five Things You Didn’t Know About Clearing Your Record
• Why intersectionality can’t wait
• Florida Provides Lesson in How Not to Privatize State Prisons
• Debtors' Prison, New Hampshire style: State jails people who owe fines
• ICE Awards Contract to Private Prison Company That Was Just Slammed in Federal Report
• Florida GOPer hatches diabolical plan to redraw Dem's district with black inmates who can't vote
• JPay-ing through the nose: price gouging rampant among inmate services
• Why It's So Hard to Fire an Abusive Prison Guard
• U.S. Prisons and Jails Are Threatening the Lives of Pregnant Women and Their Fetuses
• Drug-dealing DEA agents and a secrets-exposing Secret Service: Jarvis DeBerry
• The Americans Profiting From Private Prisons
• Why Judges and Prosecutors Don't Care If They're Right
• When Prison Food Is a Punishment
• Whole Foods to stop selling products made by prison inmates
• Michigan: Computer glitch wrongly accuses hundreds of ditching court-mandated drug tests
• Public not behind Utah prison move
• ​Private Prisons Embrace Corruption to Boost Profits
• FCC Wants To Make Phone Rates To Prison 'JustIndividuals with Criminal Records Could Receive ‘Fair Chance’ at Employment with New Legislation
• Prison: America's Most Vile Export?Mattress Company Employs Former Inmates and Makes Sure They Have a Ride to Work
• Black lives matter — all of them
• Black Women Voters in 2016
  Stephaine Reis and Major, 10 weeks old. Reis was serving time for criminal possession of a controlled substance. (Wayne Lawrence)
  ​Eastern State Penitentiary held an event in 2013 to let the public taste prison food like nutraloaf (on the left) and prison fare from the 1800s (salt beef and "Indian mush," on the right). Photo by Matt Rourke/AP Photo

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​International

• Amnesty International Criticizes Liberia's Poor Prison Conditions
• £25m prison gift
• ​Hunger Striking Prisoners Suspend Hunger Strike
• Prison Without Punishment
• ​About 500 Prisoners Escape Central African Republic Jail​​