prisoners

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Afghanistan Routinely Tortures Prisoners: UN

'Even stones confess here,' one guard said; Kabul promises reform

(Newser) - A UN investigation has uncovered “a compelling pattern … of systemic torture and ill-treatment” in Afghan prisons, with prisoners reporting being beaten and shocked with electrical cables, hung by their hands, and having their genitals twisted until they passed out, the New York Times reports. Nearly half of all...

LA to State: We Can't Watch All These Cons

California dumps responsibility onto county, city

(Newser) - The good news for California is that its state prison system has a lot fewer prisoners and parolees to deal with. The bad news, according to the mayor and police chief of Los Angeles, is that crime on the streets is going to rise. The state last weekend shifted responsibility...

California Prisons Set to Release 4K Moms

But female inmates who don't have kids are out of luck

(Newser) - Thousands of mothers currently doing time will head home soon as California rushes to shrink prison populations . Moms with 2 years or less left to serve for “non-serious, non-sexual” crimes—possibly half of the state’s 9,500 female prisoners—may be released within days; once home, they’ll...

UK, CIA Linked to Rendition Plot With Gadhafi Regime

One victim is now head of anti-Gadhafi forces

(Newser) - Today's bloodthirsty dictator was apparently yesterday's Western helpmate. Documents discovered in an abandoned Libyan government office reveal that the Brits, CIA and Libya were involved in a plan to deliver a terror suspect—with his wife and children—to a Tripoli prison where they likely faced torture, reports...

Inmate Sues Michigan Over Prison's No-Porn Policy

Calls lack of smut 'psychological warfare against prisoners'

(Newser) - No porn in prison? That's against the Constitution—or so says one brazen bank robber in Michigan, who's suing the governor and the state over Macomb Country Jail's no-porn policy, calling it cruel and unusual punishment. In a five-page, handwritten lawsuit, the 21-year-old prisoner says not having...

US May Allow Family Visits for Gitmo Prisoners

Red Cross is pushing for greater access

(Newser) - Gitmo prisoners may soon get a long-sought privilege: family visits. The Washington Post reports that the Pentagon and the international Red Cross are in hush-hush negotiations to make it happen. Some of the 172 detainees at Guantanamo Bay are currently allowed to take part in monitored video chats with their...

South Carolina Goes After Facebooking Prisoners

Would tack 30 days on to the sentence of those found updating their status, etc.

(Newser) - It doesn't seem too hard to get access to a cellphone in prisons these days (see here and here )—and, by extension, update one's Facebook status. And South Carolina has had enough. The state is hoping to be the first in the nation to make in-prison status updates a...

Tunisia Issues Warrant for Ex-President's Arrest

Prisoners escape amidst rioting

(Newser) - Tunisia has issued an international arrest warrant for ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, accusing him of taking money out of the North African nation illegally. Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia after being driven from power this month by violent protests, is also being charged with illegally...

Brit Prisoners May Work to Compensate Victims

Justice chief wants to replace 'enforced idleness' with full-time work

(Newser) - Britain's justice secretary is looking for jobs—and a massive pay raise—for the country's 85,000 prison inmates. Ken Clarke wants companies to outsource work to the nation's prisons, and to pay inmates the national minimum wage of $9.39 an hour instead of the current maximum prison wage...

SC Cop Fired After Breaking Handcuffed Inmate's Leg

Hit unresisting prisoner 27 times with baton

(Newser) - Generally if you're a cop, hitting an unresisting prisoner's leg with your baton—even pausing to get a bigger baton—27 times until it breaks isn't the best career move, to say the least. Especially if you do it on videotape. South Carolina deputy Oddie Tribble has been relieved of...

Mom: Captive Hiker Has Precancerous Condition
Mom: Captive Hiker Has Precancerous Condition
Interview
Jul 26, 2010 2:14 PM CDT

Mom: Captive Hiker Has Precancerous Condition

Parents sit down for emotional talk with another ex-captive

(Newser) - Cindy Hickey and Noura Shourd are stuck in a painful waiting game. They don’t know why Iran is still holding their kids, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd, and they’re getting no help from the US State Department, they tell Newsweek journalist, and former Iranian captive, Maziar Bahiri in...

Female Inmates Sue Over Shackles While Giving Birth

Say they endure labor with arms, legs cuffed

(Newser) - Twenty former inmates are suing the Cook County sheriff's office alleging that they had to give birth while restrained with handcuffs and leg shackles, reports the Chicago Tribune . The practice is illegal, though a sheriff's spokesman says women are allowed to be restrained until labor begins, and they rely on...

Inmates Got $9.1M in 'Homebuyer' Tax Credits

IRS working to recoup money

(Newser) - Almost 1,300 prisoners, including 241 serving life sentences, filed for the Obama administration’s First Time Homebuyer Credit on their taxes, claiming they’d bought homes while incarcerated, according to a Treasury Department report released today. The IRS paid out $9.1 million on those claims, money it now...

How to Curb Prison Rape
 How to Curb Prison Rape 
opinion
May 15, 2010 9:38 AM CDT

How to Curb Prison Rape

Prisoners should be separated into weight classes

(Newser) - Bryan Caplan has what he thinks is an easy way to cut down on rape and brutality in prison: separate inmates by something akin to weight class. We already do so by gender and, to a lesser extent, by severity of crime, "but there's still a long way to...

Madoff Was Beaten in Prison
Madoff Was Beaten in Prison
Mar 18, 2010 7:26 AM CDT

Madoff Was Beaten in Prison

Burly fellow inmate broke his nose, fractured his ribs over apparent debt

(Newser) - Bernie Madoff suffered a broken nose, fractured ribs, and cuts on his face in a prison beating in December, a fellow prisoner tells the Wall Street Journal . One prison source said the assailant thought Madoff owed him money, and another said the assailant was a muscular man serving time for...

Iraqi Prisoners Taunt Wis. Soldiers Over Favre Defection

Detainees get into the Packers-Vikings rivalry

(Newser) - An allegiance to the Green Bay Packers has come back to haunt Wisconsin National Guardsmen on duty at a prison camp in Iraq, with detainees using quarterback Brett Favre’s defection to the rival Vikings to taunt the soldiers. A Packers-themed paint job sparked curiosity, one officer tells WTMJ-AM , “...

Stars Demand Bush 'Music Torture' Files

Time for torturers to face the music, say celebs

(Newser) - A coalition of celebrity musicians is demanding the release of Bush administration documents revealing how music was used to torture Guantanamo Bay inmates. Songs from Metallica, The Real Slim Shady, and the Star Spangled Banner, among many others, were blasted all day for days on end to rattle prisoners, inmates...

'We Were Just Pawns:' Lynndie England

(Newser) - Lynndie England is trying to rebuild some semblance of a normal life, but her past continues to haunt her, she tells the AP. “It’s my face that's always recognized,” the former Army Reservist and poster child for Abu Ghraib abuse said of trying to get a job—...

Thugs in Cop Uniforms Free 59 Mexican Drug Prisoners

(Newser) - Some 15 vehicles packed with criminals wearing police uniforms arrived at a Mexico prison yesterday to free as many as 59 inmates linked to a drug cartel, reports the BBC. The men convinced guards they were members of the federal police there to conduct an inspection. Once inside, they overpowered...

Prisoners Run Crime Ops Via PlayStation

Console used to pass messages, charge cell phones: UK watchdog

(Newser) - Organized criminals use PlayStation and interactive games to pass on orders while behind bars, says a British agency monitoring 5,000 global crime lords. The masterminds also charge illegally kept cell phones through the gaming console. A prison spokesman refuted the charge, saying that only older versions of such devices—...

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