prison

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A New Explanation for Our Huge Prison Population

It's not just the war on drugs, says law professor John Pfaff

(Newser) - The US prison population hit a record 1.62 million in 2009, and there's a widely accepted explanation for that: the war on drugs. But law professor John Pfaff is proposing a very different explanation, and he explains it in an interview with Leon Neyfakh at Slate . Only 17%...

Virginia Lawmaker Spends Nights in Jail

Joseph Morrissey is serving 6-month sentence

(Newser) - Better the crook you know? Virginia Del. Joseph Morrissey won re-election in a special election this week despite the fact that he's in jail. The former Democrat stepped down from his 74th District seat after pleading guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor, but he ran as...

NYC to Ban Solitary for Inmates Under 22

Move marks major 'innovation': activist

(Newser) - New York City's Board of Correction has unanimously voted to end the practice of solitary confinement for inmates age 21 and younger, the New York Times reports. An activist says the move may be a nationwide first: "I've never heard of anything like that happening anywhere else,...

Facebook Post Lands Parolee Back Behind Bars

He was sentenced to 3 years after speeding led to crash that killed passenger

(Newser) - "Prison didnt break me. It MADE me," wrote Ryan Fye on Facebook last month, beneath a photo of himself with both middle fingers extended, soon after he was released early from a three-year sentence. "Im free. Im a new man. Dont come at me like before."...

What Prison Will Be Like for Teresa Giudice

She surrendered today

(Newser) - Teresa Giudice started her 15-month prison sentence today , with her attorney confirming to NBC New York that she has checked in at the minimum-security Danbury, Conn., prison on which Orange Is the New Black is based . People spoke to Giudice's former legal crisis counselor, Wendy Feldman, herself a former...

Alcatraz Escapees May Have Survived After All
1962 Alcatraz Escapees
May Have Survived After All
in case you missed it
Dec 20, 2014 1:43 PM CST

1962 Alcatraz Escapees May Have Survived After All

Interactive model shows 3 prisoners in break could have beaten the odds

(Newser) - It seems highly unlikely that three men who pulled off a daring escape from San Francisco's Alcatraz Island prison in 1962 survived, though their feat spawned a Clint Eastwood film and has become the stuff of legends. Now Dutch scientists have released a study based on interactive models that...

Murder Suspects Attack Guard, Escape Prison

Jailer opened cell after he witnessed one inmate throwing up

(Newser) - The search is on in Alabama after two men charged with murder and another charged with armed robbery escaped their shared prison cell. Prior to the escape, one of the three began shouting in the cell, saying a cellmate was ill, the Choctaw County sheriff says. A guard checked up...

Charles Manson, 80, Gets a Marriage License

Manson, still in prison, has 26-year-old fiancée

(Newser) - Charles Manson may be an 80-year-old mass murderer serving life in prison, but somebody loves him—and that somebody plans to marry the guy, the AP reports. Manson and Afton Burton, a 26-year-old Midwesterner who goes by "Star," have a marriage license that's valid for the next...

Jail Denied Basic Medical Care, Let Inmates Die: Suit

Prisoners could easily have been treated, lawsuits say

(Newser) - A 19-year-old in jail for shoplifting and passing a counterfeit bill died after a foot wound turned gangrenous. A 30-year-old imprisoned for harassment died of a bowel obstruction after being constipated for 13 days. A 61-year-old also jailed for harassment died of a broken femur after falling from her bunk....

Murderer Sues Connecticut Over Prison Porn Ban

Conn. man says ban being used to deny him art book

(Newser) - Dwight Pink Jr. has a few decades left to serve of his 56-year murder sentence, and he doesn't want to spend all that time without nude pictures. The Connecticut inmate is suing the state in federal court over its 2011 ban on "pictorial depictions of sexual activity or...

Where Pistorius Will Go If He Goes to Jail

Double-amputee will do his time in hospital wing of 'tough' South African prison

(Newser) - During the fourth day of his sentencing hearing today, Oscar Pistorius heard more details about where he'll end up if he gets jail time for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp: the hospital section of "one of South Africa's toughest prisons," Reuters reports. Pretoria Central Prison—which has...

Inmate Writes &#39;Chilling&#39; Letter, Ends Up Dead

 Inmate Writes 
 'Chilling' Letter, 
 Ends Up Dead 
in case you missed it
Oct 11, 2014 6:01 AM CDT

Inmate Writes 'Chilling' Letter, Ends Up Dead

Latandra Ellington was 7 months from being released

(Newser) - The family of a Florida prison inmate who died after writing a "chilling letter" about life behind bars is seeking a federal investigation into her death, the Miami Herald reports. On Sept. 21, Latandra Ellington wrote her aunt about prison officer "Sgt. Q" who, she says, threatened to...

In El Salvador, a Stillbirth Landed Teen Mom in Prison

She was sentenced to 30 years under country's restrictive abortion laws

(Newser) - In October 2004, 17-year-old Salvadoran Christina Quintanilla was seven months pregnant with her second baby. One night she experienced excruciating back pain and went into labor. "I felt like I couldn't breathe, like I was drowning," she tells NPR . She passed out, only to be found by...

In Prison, Keeping Order Is Up to Gangs

And they're very careful about it, writes Graeme Wood

(Newser) - An in-depth look at prison gangs in the Atlantic shows that the groups aren't just forces of feuding and violence—they're actually central to the structure of prison life. "Prison gangs end up providing governance in a brutal but effective way,” a researcher tells Graeme Wood....

Cops: Man, 85, Tried to Sneak Pot to Jailed Grandson

Grandpa faces 7 years in prison himself

(Newser) - You've got your high-tech methods of smuggling drugs into prison: via drones . You've got your imaginative methods: via a tossed football . And now you've allegedly got this: via grandpa. Police in Ohio arrested an 85-year-old man and charged him with trying to smuggle pot into the Warren...

Court Disagrees With Nevada's 'One Good Eye' Prison Policy

Convicted killer John Colwell's lawsuit will move forward

(Newser) - Sure, having two eyes is nice, but "one eye is good enough for prison inmates." That was the policy apparently in play when the state of Nevada denied a partially blind prisoner cataract surgery—but such a policy is also "the very definition of deliberate indifference,"...

Drone With Drugs, Phones Crashes Outside Prison

Police say two men tried to fly it over wall at Lee prison on South Carolina

(Newser) - Old school for prison smugglers is to chuck a football stuffed with drugs and contraband over the wall. New school? Drones, of course. Authorities in South Carolina say two men tried to fly one onto the premises of the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, reports AP . Alas, it didn't...

Rikers Captain Faked Inmate Suicide Attempt in Coverup: Report

Video shows her making noose after beating

(Newser) - New York state officials are looking into no fewer than 129 cases of suspected abuse of inmates at Riker's Island in the wake of a New York Times investigation . And the Times relays a new incident, courtesy of the head of New York City's Department of Investigation, that...

Sheriff Ditches 'Trendy' Orange Jail Jumpsuits

Black and white is the new orange in Michigan county

(Newser) - A sheriff who blames the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black for making orange jumpsuits trendy has put his inmates in the black-and-white stripes that prisoners wore a century ago. "Some people think it's cool to look like an inmate of the Saginaw County Jail with wearing...

Inmates Trapped, Hurt When Texas Prison Roof Collapses

Most of the 19 injured suffered just cuts and bruises

(Newser) - Authorities say the roof of a privately run East Texas prison has collapsed, temporarily trapping dozens of inmates and sending 19 injured inmates to hospitals. One of those inmates was later airlifted to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston after today's collapse at Diboll Correctional Center, about 100 miles northeast...

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