prison

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UK Restores Order After Worst Prison Riot in 26 Years

600 inmates took over Birmingham prison

(Newser) - Security officers have restored order at a prison in the central English city of Birmingham one day after an estimated 600 inmates seized control and launched a destructive rampage. Authorities called Friday's 13-hour takeover of HMP Birmingham the worst prison uprising since the 1990 riot in Strangeways in Manchester,...

Texas Prisoners Can Read Hitler, but Not Jon Stewart

State's scattershot book censorship in prisons has come under fire from civil rights groups

(Newser) - It's Banned Books Week, literature's annual celebration of the books that have challenged social order and standards over the years. When you think of banned books, you probably think of school reading lists, but book censorship can be even worse in prison. Texas' penitentiary system, the largest in...

City of 20M People Will Likely Be Run From Behind Bars

Waseem Akhtar set to become Karachi's next mayor

(Newser) - Career criminals often keep their outside "ventures" going while they're incarcerated, but Waseem Akhtar may soon be running Pakistan's largest city—20 million residents and counting—from behind bars. It's likely Akhtar, representing the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, will become mayor of Karachi on Wednesday, the Guardian ...

In America's Prisons, Ramen More Precious Than Cigarettes

Study: And that says a lot about how awful the food has become

(Newser) - So long, tobacco: There's a new most-prized currency in America's prisons, at least according to a University of Arizona PhD candidate in sociology: ramen. Michael Gibson-Light's new study is the culmination of a year's worth of interviews with about 60 inmates at an unnamed "male...

Doc Who Blamed Cough Syrup Gets 49 Years for Murders

It's the maximum sentence within state guidelines

(Newser) - Dr. Louis Chen, convicted of fatally stabbing his lover 177 times before slashing their toddler son's throat from ear to ear in a gruesome 2011 double homicide he blamed on a buildup of the active ingredient in cough syrup, will spend 49 years in prison for his crime. "...

FBI: Woman Robbed Bank to Return to Prison

She said she was homeless, had been beaten up

(Newser) - A woman who was recently released from prison in Oregon robbed a bank in Wyoming only to throw the cash up in the air outside the building and sit down to wait for police, authorities say. Investigators say 59-year-old Linda Patricia Thompson told them she wanted to go back to...

After Calling for Help for 2 Hours, Woman Dies in Cell

English prisons are 'violent and dangerous places'

(Newser) - An inmate at a privately run prison in England was found dead in her cell Tuesday night of an apparent prescription drug overdose. But before she died, the Guardian reports, Natasha Chin, 41, rang an alarm bell in her cell for about two-and-a-half hours with no response from the staff...

Altercation in Pa. Prison Leaves Inmate, Guard Dead

Incident in Luzerne County is being investigated

(Newser) - A correctional officer and an inmate are dead following an altercation at a Pennsylvania prison. It happened Monday night at Luzerne County Correctional Facility in Wilkes-Barre, which is currently on lockdown, the AP reports. Luzerne County Manager David Pedri tells the Times Leader that the dead inmate is 27-year-old Tracy...

Mom Who Miscarried Could Do More Time for 'Homicide'

El Salvador's anti-abortion laws are some of world's strictest, have jailed women who miscarry

(Newser) - When Maria Teresa Rivera, a 28-year-old factory worker in El Salvador and single mom of a young boy, began to bleed heavily and collapsed, her family called an ambulance. She had just miscarried a baby she didn't even know she was pregnant with, and the next thing she knew...

Inmates Are Dying of Heroin Withdrawal in Jail

Deaths that advocates say are preventable

(Newser) - In the days following her 18-year-old daughter's first arrest on heroin charges, Stephanie Moyer took solace in thinking she would be safe in jail until she got into a treatment program. But Victoria "Tori" Herr sounded disoriented on a call home three days later. She feared she was...

He's Been in Jail Since 1988. He Still Says He's Innocent

Russell Davies says he didn't fire shot that killed his friend

(Newser) - "We don't understand any of it." That's how Carol Davies sums up her son's 1988 murder conviction for which he's serving life in prison. Thirty years after his supposed crime, the Canadian Press spotlights the case of Russell Davies, a Canadian man it says...

He Sat in Rikers for 5 Months; $2 Would Have Freed Him

Aitabdel Salem says he didn't know his bail had changed

(Newser) - Aitabdel Salem needed to hand over only $2 to bail himself out of Rikers Island, a fact he found out after a five-month stay. The 41-year-old Queens man was initially jailed on $25,000 bail for allegedly attacking an officer who arrested him on suspicion of theft at a retail...

Unabomber Note: 'Ready to Speak' After 20 Years

But the letter-writer has conditions

(Newser) - The Unabomber is apparently ready for a prison interview for the first time in 20 years—as long as a few conditions are met. "I am ready to speak to someone from the media regarding my brother's recent comments and to discuss how they are being used to...

Prisoner Granted Sex Reassignment Is Still Waiting

Michelle-Lael Norsworthy paved the way for other transgender inmates, but was released before surgery

(Newser) - Michelle-Lael Norsworthy, who is 51, murdered a man with a shotgun outside a bar in Orange County in 1987 and spent nearly 30 years in prison for it. But she wasn't Michelle-Lael Norsworthy at the time—she was born Jeffrey, and she says that being "overly male" and...

'Unger v. State' Gives Inmates '2nd Chance' at Freedom

They committed their crimes decades ago

(Newser) - Merle Unger was 18 when he first escaped from jail in 1967. A high school drop-out and petty criminal in Greencastle, Penn., Unger would tie bed sheets together to get out of jail in the evenings so he could visit his girlfriend and play bingo. It worked well—until a...

Mexican Judge to US: You Can Have El Chapo

Infamous drug lord would be sent to Brooklyn

(Newser) - Looks like Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman will be facing trial in the US, CNN reports. A Mexican judge has ruled that Guzman, who was recaptured in January after a stunning 2015 prison breakout , can be extradited to the States. If that happens, officials say he'll...

Woman: Jared Fogle Sent Me 'Horrifying' Prison Letter

Former girlfriend Brena Firkins reached out first

(Newser) - So, how's it going for former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle? "It's been a very hard nine months for me," he allegedly wrote in a March 25 letter sent from the Colorado prison where he's serving more than 15 years for child porn and having illicit...

Her Prison Job Terrified Her. What Was Scary Were the Guards

Employees kept quiet about abused inmates at Dade Correctional Institution

(Newser) - Harriet Krzykowski felt abandoned—and terrified. A new counselor at Dade Correctional Institution's mental-health ward in 2010, the then-30-year-old heard about guards taunting and starving inmates, so she told her superior. That's when guards began abandoning Krzykowski in areas packed with potentially dangerous prisoners. "It scared the...

Accused Candy Shoplifter Faces Life in Prison

It was his 5th offense

(Newser) - A 34-year-old Louisiana man could spend the rest of his life in prison over his alleged shoplifting of $31 of candy, reports the Advocate . Jacobia Grimes is accused of trying to steal candy bars from a Dollar General, and his big problem is that he has five prior theft convictions...

2 Inmates Were Put in Solitary Together. One Came Out

The practice of 'double celling' is shockingly common

(Newser) - It seems like some sort of oxymoron: two inmates together in solitary confinement. But as a joint investigation by NPR and the Marshall Project found, "double celling" is anything but an anomaly: They cite a 2014 Federal Bureau of Prisons report in asserting that "over 80% of the...

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