Prisoners' Legal Education Project

"Recent studies indicate that having an incarcerated parent doubles the chance that a child will be at least temporarily homeless and measurably increases the likelihood of physically aggressive behavior, social isolation, depression and problems in school -- all portending dimmer prospects in adulthood."

-- Erik Eckholm, In Prisoners' Wake, a Tide of Troubled Kids, N.Y. Times, July 4, 2000, available at www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/us/05prison.html.

The Pennsylvania Innocence Project, based at Temple University's Law School, opened on April 6, 2009. It will review petitions submitted by inmates from across Pennsylvania who claim they are serving sentences for crimes they did not commit. The Project will start at Temple with approximately a dozen lawyers and a dozen law students, and will eventually expand to involve law and journalism schools state-wide.

Unlike some others, the Project will not limit itself to cases in which biological evidence exists for DNA testing, but will also look at cases in which questionable forensic evidence or other investigatory issues are identified. The Project also seeks to reform the criminal justice system by fixing systemic flaws that allow such miscarriages of justice.

For more information, see: www.innocenceprojectpa.org/

Inmates Sue Governor Rendell Over Parole Moratorium

Civil rights lawyers Leonard Sosnov and David Rudovsky have filed suit on behalf of four state inmates whose paroles were cancelled at the last minute by Governor Rendell's September 2008 state-wide moratorium on parole.

Although the corrections department is part of the executive branch, the state parole board is an independent agency. "If the governor is displeased with the performance of parole board members in making decisions of whether to parole or reparole," the lawsuit reads, "his only statutory authority is to remove a member with the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate, or to suspend that member for cause while the Senate is adjourned."

For more information, see: www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20081021_Inmates_sue_Rendell_over_parole_moratorium.html

Governor Rendell Freezes Parole in Pennsylvania

On September 29, 2008, Governor Ed Rendell froze parole state-wide in reaction to the September 23, 2008 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Patrick McDonald by a paroled felon. Rendell then named John Goldkamp, head of Temple University's criminal justice department, to conduct a top-to-bottom review of how the Board of Probation and Parole decides who gets paroled.

Although Goldkamp's review will presumably be expedited, Rendell did not set a deadline. That fact drew immediate criticism from prisoner advocates who say the state prison system is overcrowded and depends on the monthly release of about 1,100 parolees to safely operate.

The September 30th census of the state's prisons tallied an inmate population of 46,883 - 8 percent above what prison officials say is appropriate to maintain "quality of life and safety for both staff and inmates." Since then, according to the Pennsylvania Prison Society, the prison population has swelled to 17 percent above capacity.

For more information, see: abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story