Robert Dewey case inspires bill to compensate the wrongfully convicted

After nearly eighteen years in jail, authorities determined that Robert Dewey did not rape and murder nineteen-year-old Jacie Taylor in 1994. He was released in May of 2012 after DNA testing exonerated him. Now, his case has inspired a new bill that would allow individuals wrongfully convicted to receive compensation…

The ten best books about America’s prisons

This week’s cover story, “The Lifers Book Club,” reports on the Words Beyond Bars Project, a pilot progam at the Limon Correctional Facility that puts high-security prisoners, many of them serving life sentences, in a room with volunteers to discuss great books. It’s a modest effort that could transform lives…

Darrell Havens: Paralyzed inmate denied clemency, surgery

His doctors have told Darrell Havens that surgery could help relieve his deteriorating condition, but the wheelchair-bound inmate’s keepers in the Colorado Department of Corrections aren’t exactly eager to okay the operation — or to release him to seek care on his own. Havens, who was left a quadriplegic by…