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Moldy Mattress Nets Inmate $295k Jury: Lousy bedding violated Wisconsin felon's constitutional rights SEPTEMBER 19--A Wisconsin man serving time for reckless homicide yesterday was awarded $295,000 by a federal jury that found the inmate's constitutional rights were violated when he was forced to spend two months sleeping on a moldy, waterlogged mattress. Reggie Townsend, 29, scored the six-figure windfall after a U.S. District Court panel decided that he was improperly treated while locked up in late-2004 at the New Lisbon Correctional Institution. The jury's special verdict can be found below. Following a jail riot, Townsend spent about 60 days in...

Calif. Ponders Gay Marriage For Inmates SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 29, 2008(AP) Now that same-sex couples can get married in California, state prison officials are trying to figure out what that means for gay inmates. No prisoners so far have sought to arrange weddings with same-sex partners since the state Supreme Court granted same-sex couples the right to wed as of mid-June, according to Michele Kane, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Nonetheless, department lawyers are drafting guidelines to bring the state's 33 adult prisons into compliance with the court's ruling that same-sex couples must be treated the...

"ATWATER, California (CNN) -- Jose Rivera survived two tours of duty in Iraq, but his job as a corrections officer at a high-security federal prison in California cost him his life." "He was alone guarding about 100 inmates at the time of the attack and had a radio to call for backup in case of trouble. He didn't have what many guards in California's state prisons routinely count on: pepper spray, a protective vest and a collapsible baton. Watch how Rivera's death has ignited debate on guard security » Federal officers are not allowed to have those items." "One officer...

ALBANY - Imagine: The man who killed John Lennon has been enjoying conjugal visits with his wife for at least 16 years. Mark David Chapman has been locked up in the Attica Correctional Facility since gunning down the legendary former Beatle on Dec. 8, 1980. Since at least 1992, Chapman, who this week is up for parole for a fifth time, has been a part of the prison's "family reunion" program, the Daily News has learned. Under the program, Chapman gets to spend 44 hours straight with his wife in a special modular "private homelike setting," said Correctional Services Department...

For decades, corrections officials assigned inmates of the same race to bunk together to keep the peace among race-based prison gangs. That's about to change as the prison system prepares to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively deemed the practice unconstitutional. A group of white inmates gathers around a bunk bed in a packed prison dormitory at California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, north of Los Angeles. The dorm is integrated. But each double bunk bed is its own racially segregated island. Steve Cecala, 38, is serving time for drug possession. He says he has no problem with...

Talk about taking a bite out of crime! For two years, a Brooklyn thug sat in an Oregon jail awaiting trial for a coldblooded murder, and all the fat felon could think about was food - a bucket of greasy chicken, a mouthful of lasagna, a slice of pizza. So when prosecutors offered to buy Tremayne Durham, 36, a fast-food buffet in exchange for a guilty plea that would land him behind bars, likely for the rest of his life, he bit right in. The 275-pound convicted rapist admitted he had shot a man to death over a failed business...

Prison guards have been told to issue convicts with free condoms and call them by their first names, for fear of being 'too harsh’ on inmates. A report by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Prisons also said prisoners at Bullingdon Prison in Oxfordshire should be served their evening meals later in the day, to stop them feeling hungry overnight. The Prison Officers’ Association reacted angrily to the recommendations, drawn up after an inspection in January. Glynn Travis, spokesman for the POA said: “I don’t think we can keep control of violent prisoners by calling them by their first name.” Among 200...

Prison escape here in Huntsville, TX. Illegal Alien 5'7", 200 pounds, tattooed.

The state has quietly ordered male-only juvenile detention centers to keep bras and panties in stock for transgendered delinquents - angering many jail staffers.   Each facility must stock a dozen bra and panties of each size in case it is requested, employees said and agency officials confirmed.  Girls' centers also must stock men's underwear.Two longtime employees of the agency ripped the policy, saying they fear it promotes an alternative lifestyle in order to accommodate a miniscule population.   "People are appalled," one employee said. "The vast majority of kids in here don't fit the category and want nothing to do with...

The Georgia Department of Corrections transferred 433 felons to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation proceedings in 2007, the most recent year for which state and federal data are available. That's more than twice as many as the 189 handed over to the agency in 2002. At least three child molesters who were illegal immigrants had served time in Georgia prisons but escaped the attention of federal authorities. All three were released back into the community. Two or three times a week, air transports arrive at the Columbus airport to pick up detainees and take them to Mexico or...

Update: Despite efforts from Fox News to facilitate this dying girl's wish to have her father at her bedise when she passes, the imovable, cold-hearted, beauraucratic, red tape of the Jucidiary, Bureau Of Prisons and U.S. Attorney are intransigent in their unwillingness to bend the "rules" to allow this to happen.

Dad Allowed to Take Leave From Prison to See His Dying Little GirlThursday, March 27, 2008 OMAHA, Neb. — A 10-year-old Nebraska girl with terminal brain cancer had a simple last wish: to have her dad by her side as she lay on her death bed. On Wednesday, seemingly against all odds, Jayci Yaeger's wish came true. Her father, Jason Yaeger, who has been locked up in a South Dakota federal prison on methamphetamine charges, was allowed to see his daughter for what may be the last time. He was furloughed after a barrage of letters and phone calls from...

California corrections authorities on Monday began investigating the premature release of former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson, who was imprisoned for a murder committed by the radical group and attempted bombings of police cars in the 1970s. State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton said the probe was being handled by the department's internal affairs division. Olson, 61, was released March 17, a year early. She was intercepted at Los Angeles International Airport Friday night and returned to prison on Saturday. In 2001, Olson pleaded guilty to attempted bombings of Los Angeles police cars in the...

A little girl fights for her life, and her last wish is to see her father. But that wish may not come true. "They didn't expect her to still be here. She's fighting, day by day, minute by minute," said Vonda Yaeger, mother. 10/11 has followed the story of 10-year-old Jayci Yaeger as she battled brain tumors. Now doctors say she is about to lose that fight. Her last wish is to spend what time she has left with her father, but he is in a federal prison for drug charges. Less than six months ago, Jayci was energetic, fun...

MONTPELIER, Vt. - When shooting suspect Christopher Williams acted up in prison, he was given nutraloaf — a mixture of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, seedless raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes...

SEATTLE — The King County Jail had 65...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. A Metro Corrections has been suspended after being charged with five counts of sexual abuse of an eight-year-old girl. Lieutenant Norman Norris was charged Monday with two counts of first-degree sodomy, two counts of incest and one count of sexual abuse. Norris turned himself in yesterday. He entered a plea of not guilty in court this morning and was orderd held on a one-hundred thousand dollar cash bond. Pam Windsor of Metro Corrections says Norris was booked and is being housed in an undisclosed jail. Norris was suspended without pay pending the outcome of the case. He was...

Senior executives of the Texas Department of Transportation can expect some heavy grilling from state legislators when the state Legislature convenes next January, state Rep. Jim McReynolds said Friday. Speaking to the monthly First Friday luncheon of The Chamber, Lufkin-Angelina County, McReynolds said many legislators, especially those from rural East Texas, are unhappy with TxDOT leaders over the Trans- Texas Corridor project and how it has incorporated plans for an Interstate 69 through the region. McReynolds said he attended all four of the TxDOT hearings on the TTC held in his district, which included one in Diboll, and "never heard...

Michigan Prisons To Be Tobacco-FreePOSTED: 5:09 pm EST March 2, 2008 LANSING, Mich. -- The Michigan Department of Corrections plans to ban smoking and the use of other tobacco products by prisoners and staff early next year. State prison officials plan to extend an existing ban on smoking in prison buildings to outdoor property, the Detroit Free Press reported. Smoking cessation programs for inmates and staff are planned. "It won't happen overnight, but we should see healthier inmates long-term ... and that should translate into some health care savings" for taxpayers, Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said. Smoking currently is banned...

Crime: The number of adults imprisoned in the U.S. has hit an all-time high, a new report says, bringing with it fresh concern about "our priorities." Don't know about you, but we think this is a good thing.The 1.5 million people now in U.S. prisons represent nearly 1% of the adult population — an all-time high, according to the Pew Center on the States. This, Pew says, has led to much higher costs. Last year alone, states spent $49 billion on corrections, an outlay that's been growing at a real rate of 6% for 20 years. Over the same period,...

Working at the prison can be dangerous and stressful, but it has always offered a much-coveted perk: job security. While factories have downsized or shut down in recent years, the area's prisons have been relatively safe from layoffs. But the state's recent budget woes have upended that stability, leaving employees at Jackson County facilities in a state of uncertainty. State Department of Corrections officials announced in February plans to close Southern Michigan Correctional Facility -- one of five prisons in Jackson County -- as a step toward filling a $92 million deficit in the Department of Corrections budget. But the...

S.C. Prisons Director Defends Pink Plan Aug 21 08:04 PM US/Eastern By MEG KINNARD Associated Press Writer COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina's prisons director on Tuesday defended a policy of punishing inmates who perform sex acts by dressing them in pink, despite a lawsuit claiming the rule subjects prisoners to ridicule. State Corrections Department John Ozmint said the two-year-old punishment deters inmates and protects female officers. His agency has asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit. "We don't believe the United States Constitution protects an inmate's right to publicly gratify himself," Ozmint said. "We're hopeful federal courts won't...

'Playboy' Prison Guard Fights To Get Her Job Back POSTED: 9:40 am EDT July 12, 2007 SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, Pa. -- A former Berks County corrections officer who was fired in April after she appeared in Playboy wants her job back, in part so she can earn enough money to keep the family farm. "You follow a dream and take a chance to see what happens. I always wanted to be a model then I lose the best paying job that I could possibly have," said Heather Hull. Hull used to make $41,000 a year working as a guard at the...

Convicts were forced to march to a new top-security jail — wearing just pink underpants and flip-flops to deter escape bids. Prison bosses reckoned the 700 hardmen would be too embarrassed to go on the run in gay-style garb. Muscle-bound, tattooed thugs were linked with pink handcuffs for the two-mile hike. And when they reached the new clink in Phoenix, Arizona, one con had to cut a pink ribbon to open it. Tough Sheriff Joe Arpaio said: “I put them on the street so everybody could see them. They can see this is what happens to people who break the...

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, both already under siege for other matters, are now being accused of failing to prosecute officers of the Texas Youth Commission after a Texas Ranger investigation documented that guards and administrators were sexually abusing the institution's minor boy inmates. Among the charges in the Texas Ranger report were that administrators would rouse boys from their sleep for the purpose of conducting all-night sex parties.

Lawyers for a prison rights law firm are raising allegations of mistreatment in San Diego County juvenile halls, claiming some youths are subjected to a “serious risk of violence” while in detention. The firm, which teamed up with the small but influential Prison Law Office to sue about conditions in jails statewide, says it found abuse in the use of pepper spray, misuse of medications, lack of medical care and improper isolation of youths in an investigation of local facilities that began last year. The allegations were outlined for Chief Probation Officer Vincent Iaria in a March 14 letter, which...

San Joaquin County drug offenders increasingly opt for jail terms instead of accepting drug treatment under Proposition 36. And of those who opt for rehab, fewer are showing up for it, according to county data. Voters passed Proposition 36 in November 2000. The law offers nonviolent drug offenders -- such as those caught possessing drugs or paraphernalia -- treatment instead of jail time. The program lasts 12 months and allows two slip-ups.The drug offenders who refuse treatment are a minority in San Joaquin County. Of the 1,258 people eligible for Proposition 36 rehab during the last fiscal year, just 110...

Cop-killer transsexual Leslie Ann Nelson was honored as an Inmate of the Month during a recent ceremony in which she received a certificate, a hug and a special lunch, infuriating a statewide police organization that represents nearly 30,000 officers. "The idea that our state would award a vicious and cold-blooded murderer like Leslie Ann Nelson is both outrageous and disgusting," said state Policemen's Benevolent Association President Michael J. Madonna, who yesterday called for the New Jersey Department of Corrections to end the Inmate of the Month award and for the warden at Nelson's prison to step down. The award also...

Correction AppendedCRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 12 - This is not the place to expect a sighting of Viggo Mortensen, the star of "The Lord of the Rings." Or at least it wasn't when President Bush began his annual vacation here earlier this month.But something has happened to Crawford over the last week. The sleepy summer air has been punctured by a blast of antiwar energy, with carloads of activists appearing every afternoon to join a vigil begun by the mother of a soldier who died in Iraq. Flowers are delivered by the dozen at Camp Casey, as the muddy outpost established...

More than 7,000 felons have failed to report to their parole agents in Los Angeles County and are considered "at large," with warrants issued for their arrest, California Corrections Department documents show. As of last month, nearly 20 percent of the 35,500 parolees released in Los Angeles County had failed to report -- accounting for more than one-third of the 19,380 parole violators statewide, documents show. With nearly 114,000 parolees across the state and just 3,100 parole employees, analysts say the figures highlight a system in dire need of funding and reform. "We have too many inmates and not enough...

New York Comptroller: Sex Offenders Have Been Getting Viagra Paid by MedicaidBy Michael Virtanen Associated Press Writer Published: May 22, 2005 ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Scores of convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders in New York have been getting Viagra paid by Medicaid for the last five years, the state's comptroller said Sunday. Audits by Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office showed that between January 2000 and March 2005, 198 sex offenders in New York received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions. Those included crimes against children as young as 2 years old, he said. Hevesi asked Michael Leavitt, secretary of the...

WEST SACRAMENTO – The state prison-guard union, under fire last year from those who believe it is too powerful, came up with a playful, in-your-face response. For two weeks, it flew a skull-and-crossbones pirate flag outside its two-story headquarters here. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association isn't known for having a light touch. The union's bare-knuckles approach to politics, along with its sizable bankroll, has helped make it one of the most effective and influential labor groups in the state capitol. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently said the union has too much control over the state's mammoth prison system. And...

Anyone who was awake during high school English class will remember reading a story called "Harrison Bergeron." In it, Kurt Vonnegut describes society in 2081, when everyone is finally equal. "Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else." All this equality was enforced by the Handicapper General so that average folks wouldn't "feel like something the cat drug in." I was reminded of Vonnegut's story recently when I read about the latest target of child self-esteem mongers: red ink. That's right. Red ink, as in the age-old...

As a rule, when I write a piece about all the mistakes my newspaper, the L.A. Times, makes, I have to wait a week or even two to compile a selection large enough to make it worth our while. It’s not that they don’t come up with a ready supply on a daily basis. Heck, UPS doesn’t deliver the goods with such regularity. But some of the goofs are simply too boring to mention, as when they get the days and times of certain events wrong or when they simply misspell someone’s name. Sometimes, too, the corrections run even longer...

As one state department pursued a fraud case against a former prison correctional officer who it claimed had exaggerated his workplace injuries, the state's retirement system granted him a special pension for life. The Department of Corrections, Greg Nelson's one-time employer, says that at age 47 he claimed he hurt his back and neck in a workplace fall, only to find a new job operating heavy machinery at forest fires for as long as 14 hours at a stretch. But as investigators assembled their case against Nelson, the state's retirement system awarded him a medical pension, agreeing that his injuries...

LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The BBC apologised on Saturday for erroneously reporting that U.S.-led and Iraqi forces may be responsible for the deaths of 60 percent of Iraqi civilians killed in conflict over the last six months. The British broadcaster said on Friday in broadcasts and a news statement that its Panorama investigative show would air a report on Sunday citing "confidential" records from Iraq's health ministry to support the contention. Iraq's health minister said the BBC misinterpreted the statistics it had received and had ignored statements from the ministry clarifying the figures. "Today, the Iraqi Ministry of Health...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Changing the bureaucracy of California's troubled youth and adult prison system would again make the state a national leader in imprisoning criminals and then rehabilitating them, representatives of the Schwarzenegger administration said Thursday. The corrections plan is the leading edge of Schwarzenegger's larger proposal to reorganize state government. Lawmakers, union leaders and inmate advocates said the proposal merely shuffles organizational chart boxes, and particularly objected to more closely affiliating the California Youth Authority with the adult Corrections Department. But the plan won general praise from members of the watchdog Little Hoover Commission. The prison plan and a...

Justice Ministry halts plan for TV programme on the last days of inmates facing execution The Justice Ministry pulled the plug yesterday on a plan by the Corrections Department to initiate a reality-show programme by installing Web cams in the cells of inmates on death row and broadcasting live their final moments before they are executed. Corrections Department director-general Natthee Jitsawang unveiled the plan on Sunday and a Thai-language mass-circulation newspaper, gave the story front page treatment with promises of live broadcasts about executions. Yesterday Natthee reiterated the plan to broadcast live the lives of death-row inmates through the department’s...

Betsy Newmark wrote us to point out that her daughter's blog had reported on an error committed on Friday by the Washington Post: an error that resulted in this anti-administration headline: "Change Means Fewer Students Will Be Eligible For Pell Grants". The article claimed that 80,000 to 90,000 low-income students would be knocked out of the Pell program on account of new regulations issued by the Department of Education. Yesterday, the Post issued a correction. Actually, the new regulations, which are based on updated government data, will expand the number eligible for grants, even though some will become ineligible at...

Bernard Kerik has admitted to having sexual relations with a female corrections officer while serving as first deputy commissioner of the department. Kerik was forced to answer questions about his steamy romance with correction worker Janet Pinero in sworn testimony Dec. 9, responding to a civil-rights lawsuit filed against him and the city.

An article last Sunday about surprises in politics referred incorrectly to the turkey carried by President Bush during his unannounced visit to American troops in Baghdad over Thanksgiving. It was real, not fake.

Even Democrats are outraged that taxpayers are being forced to squander a billion dollars a year on California criminals' medical bills, including such ridiculous items as a male prisoner's breast reduction and pampering at a Beverly Hills dermatologist and La Jolla orthopedist. California Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, fumed Tuesday at a hearing on prisons' soaring medical spending that last week a prisoner had undergone breast reduction surgery, courtesy of Joe and Jane Sixpack. "I understand lots of inmates at this particular prison have undergone this procedure," she said. "California inmates enjoy a better level of health care than millions of...

The San Francisco Chronicle yesterday printed a correction to two columns it had run saying the head of a popular women's fitness company had given millions of dollars from the firm to "militant anti-abortion groups," likely heading off a threatened lawsuit by the executive. As WorldNetDaily reported Tuesday, Chronicle columnist Ruth Rosen wrote that Curves founder Gary Heavin "has given at least $5 million of his profits to some of the most militant anti-abortion groups in the country." Wrote Rosen: "In 2003, Heavin and his wife gave away $10 million – 10 percent of their company's gross revenues – to...

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Death penalty can be 'tolerated' Tuesday, May 11, 2004 Newark Archbishop John J. Myers said Monday that politicians who support the death penalty wouldn't face the same level of condemnation from the Catholic Church as those who support abortion rights."There are instances, such as a time of war or civil unrest, or when the government cannot protect the citizens in any other way, that the death penalty could be tolerated," Myers told Fox News. "So it is a moral issue of a different order."In drawing the distinction, Myers said abortion is "always wrong."The interview at Fox News studios in New...

Chicago Tribune Fires Freelance Reporter for Making Up Source Name CHICAGO (AP) - The Chicago Tribune said Wednesday it fired a freelance writer and former longtime foreign correspondent after he admitted fabricating the name of a source he quoted making disparaging remarks about Aborigines in a recent story from Australia. The Tribune apologized to its readers for "this breach of trust" in a brief story under its "Corrections and Clarifications" fixture on the second page of Wednesday's editions. It said Uli Schmetzer, who worked for the paper as a foreign correspondent for 16 years before retiring two years ago...

<p>SACRAMENTO - During the past four years, California's troubled prison system hired 1,000 guards at a cost of up to $100 million and without permission from the Legislature, state finance officials revealed Wednesday.</p> <p>In fact, the non-partisan legislative analysts office told lawmakers that the Department of Corrections budget in recent years grew at a faster rate than the inmate population. Over the past decade, the budget has doubled, to about $6 billion, while the number of inmates jumped only about 20 percent, to roughly 160,000.</p>

FRESNO — All through the night, the howls kept coming from the cell of inmate Ronald Herrera. More than one guard at Corcoran State Prison thought something was terribly amiss. Herrera wouldn't stop screaming late Sunday, and he had covered his cell window in a curtain of toilet paper soaked in blood. One guard had seen Herrera, a dialysis patient suffering from hepatitis, pull out the medical shunt from his arm, corrections officials said. But when the guard later tried to check on the inmate, his sergeant told him not to bother, they said. "He's not dead," the sergeant was...

It's not quite Soviet-style airbrushing, but the Bush administration has been using cyberspace to make some of its own cosmetic touch-ups to history.

GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) - In an Oct. 22 story about the release of a home video showing the Columbine High School killers practicing with weapons, The Associated Press reported erroneously that the video showed automatic weapons. One semiautomatic weapon, a Tec-9 handgun, appeared in the video, according to Jefferson County sheriff's spokesman Jim Shires.