Laramie County, Wyoming withholds prison phone contract under “trade secret” clause
According to the Laramie County Sheriff’s Department in Wyoming, a request for its contract with inmate phone service provider Inmate Calling Solutions (ICSolutions) cannot be made public because the agreement itself is consider a “trade secret.”
A golden picture stash, FOIA jobs, and the last week for #RummysSnowflakes
Thanks to FOIA, more Mnuchin came out this week, but this time they also showcase Mitch McConnell’s golden touch. See them and read other FOIA stories, plus take advantage of the last chance to win free swag and MuckRock requests by digging through Donald Rumsfeld’s memos.
FTC release records regarding the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act
In response to a FOIA request back in February, the Federal Trade Commission released 101 pages of documents regarding conversion therapy, a majority of which concern the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017.
In the ‘50s, CIA decried Soviet torture tactics that would later be used at Gitmo and Agency black sites
In the early days of MKULTRA, while the Central Intelligence Agency scrambled to defend against the alleged “brainwashing” programs of foreign countries, and to create its own, Agency staff responsible for the program responded to a report describing reported Soviet brainwashing efforts. In a letter formerly classified SECRET, CIA staff dismissed the Soviet techniques as “police tactics which would not be condoned in a democratic country.” The tactics described in the report not only mimic tactics which have been used in Guantanamo Bay and in CIA black sites, proved to be a source of inspiration for some post-9/11 interrogation programs.
What you missed from our FOIA Slack Chat with Jesse Franzblau
Last Friday, policy analyst Jesse Franzblau joined on MuckRock’s Slack channel to talk about his work with Open the Government and his recently published guide to FOIA collaboration.
Projects See all
-
The Private Prison Project
★ Featured- Contribute
- 44% funded
- $4450.00 raised
- 109 backers
For-profit detention continues to reap the rewards of an incarceration system filled to the brim and facing an uncertain future. Our FOIA requests have released thousands of documents that show how for-profit prisons have leveraged the legal system to their advantage, letting companies pick-and-choose inmates to off-load costs, ignore complaints and concerns, and create dangerous conditions for prisoners and staff alike. This is all done while billions of taxpayer dollars are funneled into these private companies, which then pour millions into politicians' campaigns to keep their growth going. With your help, we can provide needed scrutiny of an industry few are even aware exists. -
Subjects Matter: FBI Files
★ Featured- Contribute
- 43% funded
- $2150.00 raised
- 19 backers
This project aims to sift through the hundreds of thousands of pages of FBI archival material we've released, so we can better understand why the Bureau had an eye on these people - and through that, better understand who they're keeping tabs on today. -
Counting the Uncounted: The Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit Project
★ Featured- Contribute
- 44% funded
- $1555.00 raised
- 22 backers
Despite an estimated 175,000 sexual assault evidence collection kits that sit untested in evidence rooms and crime labs across the country, there is no federal law in place mandating policies or testing of kits, and we don't know how many more go uncounted. This project aims to end that, one city and one kit at a time. -
FOIA 101: Tips and Tricks to Make You a Transparency Master
★ FeaturedWhether it's your first request or your first request *today,* it never hurts to go over the basics. MuckRock's compiled a lot of FOIA advice over the years, and with this project, it's all in one place.