prison

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Texas Prisons Cut Lunch on Weekends

Measure is designed to save money

(Newser) - Texas prisons are taking some heat over a decision to keep cooks out of their kitchens. Since April the state has been serving prisoners just two meals a day on weekends in some prisons, in an effort to cut food service costs, the New York Times reports. (Amusingly, the meal...

UN: Solitary Confinement Amounts to Torture

Isolation longer than 15 days should be banned, says lead investigator

(Newser) - Solitary confinement doesn't just sound like torture—it literally can be torture, according to the UN's lead investigator on the topic. Juan Mendez has called for a ban on solitary confinement in excess of 15 days, and a total ban on the practice when juveniles or people with...

Accused Pentagon Shooter Tries to Dig Out of Cell

Yonathan Melaku charged with trying to escape

(Newser) - 10:1 odds he's a big fan of Shawshank Redemption: The Marine Reservist accused of shooting at the Pentagon and other military sites last year tried to dig his way out of jail, reports the Washington Post . He didn't come close. Officials at the Loudoun County Adult Detention...

Hispanics Now the Majority Sent to Federal Prison

Big demographic shift attributable to immigration offenses

(Newser) - With immigration offenses on the rise, more than half of those sent to federal prison for felonies this year are Hispanic. Though Hispanics already outnumbered other ethnic groups in that category, this is the first year they have been the majority of such offenders, the AP reports. A new government...

Arizona Charges $25 to Visit Prisoners

Fee will cost state more in long run, accuse critics

(Newser) - If you want to visit someone in prison in Arizona, it's going to cost you $25, in a one-time "background check fee" believed to be the first of its kind in the United States, reports the New York Times . But prisoner advocacy groups call the fee "mind-boggling,...

2 Mexicans Face 30 Years for 'Terror Tweets'

They're getting blamed for panic in lawless nation, say supporters

(Newser) - Two Mexicans face a possible 30 years in prison for "terror tweets," marking what could become the biggest penalty ever for a Twitter message. A math tutor and radio commentator have been charged with terrorism and sabotage after they tweeted rumors about gunmen attacking a school. Panicked parents...

Suitcase Jailbreak Foiled
 Suitcase Jailbreak Foiled 
Jul 5, 2011 2:17 AM CDT

Suitcase Jailbreak Foiled

Mexican woman busted after leaving prison visit with excess baggage

(Newser) - Prison guards in Mexico stopped a nervous-looking woman who was wheeling a bulky suitcase out of the prison following a conjugal visit ... and found her common-law-husband inside. Inmate Juan Ramirez Tijerina, who is serving a 20-year sentence for illegal weapons possession, was curled up in a fetal position, AP reports....

Jailed Iran Activists: Guards Help Criminals Rape Us

They provide condoms to encourage it, smuggled letters say

(Newser) - Iranian prison guards are systematically encouraging other prisoners to rape young opposition activists, even giving them condoms to do so with, according to letters smuggled out from jailed activists. “In various cells inside the prison, rape has become a common act and acceptable,” writes one Participation Front member...

Venezuela Troops Wage War on Rioting Prisoners

Clashes enter 5th day

(Newser) - A 5,000-strong force of Venezuelan troops has been fighting for four days to regain control of a prison complex outside Caracas. Inmates, also heavily armed, say the troops have been attacking them with assault rifles and tear gas, AP reports. The country's justice minister says two soldiers and...

Why We Must Bring Back Flogging
 Why We Must 
 Bring Back Flogging 
OPINION
Jun 16, 2011 12:53 PM CDT

Why We Must Bring Back Flogging

It's more humane than prison, argues Peter Moskos

(Newser) - Prisons were invented to replace “barbaric” corporal punishment—but now, with our prison system failing, there’s only one thing to do: Bring back flogging. Yes, it sounds horrible, writes Peter Moskos in the Washington Post . But “America has a prison problem.” Namely, they cost too much...

Bizarre Venezuela Prison Has Pool Parties, Drug Deals

Armed inmates call the shots at San Antonio

(Newser) - The specter of imprisonment usually doesn't include poolside parties, dance clubs, weapons galore, and easy access to BlackBerries. But San Antonio penitentiary, located on Venezuela's Margarita Island, isn't usual. Though its 2,000 inmates risk being shot by guards if caught venturing outside the walls, the New ...

Police Find Inmate Bar in Mexican Prison

It even had a pool table

(Newser) - Until this week, the best place to be imprisoned may have been ... Mexico? Police shut down a bar inside a prison in northern Mexico that plied inmates with beer, tequila, and vodka, reports AP . They even had a pool table. The deputy director of the low-security prison in Chihuahua state'...

Supreme Court: California Must Release 46K Inmates

Upholds federal panel's decision on poor prison conditions

(Newser) - In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has upheld a panel’s order that California release 46,000 inmates over the next two years to reduce overcrowding in state prisons. In 2009, a three-judge panel called on the state to reduce its prison population to 137% of capacity; overcrowding was...

Riot Breaks Out at San Quentin

4 hospitalized with stab wounds; cause unknown

(Newser) - Some 200 inmates rioted at San Quentin prison last night, leaving at least four hospitalized with stab and slash wounds. Others suffered minor injuries. Guards, who fired non-lethal bullets and pepper spray to halt the violence, found at least 10 inmate-made weapons afterward. The cause of the fight, which occurred...

Freed Reporter Describes Syria's Secret Prisons

Dorothy Parvaz heard beatings 'almost around the clock'

(Newser) - Dorothy Parvaz emerged from her stay in a Syrian detention center more or less unscathed, mostly because the guards there would not beat or torture women—but others weren’t nearly so lucky. When Parvaz first arrived at the prison, she was taken handcuffed and blindfolded to a courtyard, where...

NY Inmate Breaks Up Guard Fight

Officers suspended after battle over bag of chips

(Newser) - Embarrassed officials in upstate New York say an inmate was injured when he stepped in to separate two guards fighting over food. The inmate lost a tooth when he tried to stop the guards fighting over a bag of chips, workers at Erie County Correction Facility tell the Buffalo News...

Afghan Prison Break Looks Like Inside Job: Karzai

So far, just 65 convicts have been recaptured, and two killed

(Newser) - Hundreds of prisoners are still at large the day after a massive jailbreak in Afghanistan , but officials say Afghan and international forces have caught 65 of them and killed two. The justice minister acknowledged in a letter to President Hamid Karzai that the Taliban, which has claimed to have orchestrated...

Taliban Bust Hundreds Out of Afghan Prison

Taliban spokesman says 100 are commanders

(Newser) - Hundreds of prisoners, most of them Taliban fighters, escaped from an Afghanistan prison last night, and so far only 13 have been recaptured. Taliban militants staged the escape by digging a 1,050-foot underground tunnel into Kandahar's main prison and leading about 475 prisoners out, the AP reports. Al...

NY Prisons OK Same-Sex Conjugal Visits

Partners must be married or in civil unions

(Newser) - New York prisons will now officially allow gay inmates to receive conjugal visits from same-sex partners—so long as the couple are in a civil union or same-sex marriages. The new rules will also allow a partner to take a prison furlough if their lover is terminally ill, reports the...

San Quentin Inmates Rescue Boaters
San Quentin Inmates
Rescue Boaters
Apr 21, 2011 5:05 AM CDT

San Quentin Inmates Rescue Boaters

Prison firefighters pull couple from San Francisco Bay

(Newser) - If he were alive today, Johnny Cash might be surprised to learn that San Quentin did some good. Inmates from the California prison's fire department rescued a man and woman whose boat capsized in the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay, reports CNN . The woman, who was wearing a...

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