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Fresno County sheriff's officials began releasing inmates from the downtown jail Tuesday as they prepare to close two floors and reduce the overall population by 800 inmates later this month.

A binge-drinking mother has been jailed after falsely accusing an innocent taxi driver of raping her. Joanne Rye, who kept up the lie for 20 months, was told by a judge her behaviour was despicable and was handed an eight-month prison sentence. The mother-of-one caused great shame and disgrace to devout Muslim Sherekhan Kali and his family after claiming that he dragged her down an alleyway and assaulted her. Maidstone Crown Court heard Rye, then 18, was known as a troublemaker and had been banned from using the All Night Car Hire in Dartford, Kent where Mr Kali worked. The...

The cameraman for the underground Stop Snitching DVD that cast a national eye on witness intimidation in Baltimore was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in federal prison after a jury convicted him on drug and gun charges. Shortly before receiving his sentence, Akiba Matthews-Bey, 35, of West Baltimore, told a federal judge that he was being singled out by authorities because of his involvement with the DVD. Matthews-Bey said that the creators of Stop Snitching never thought it would become as significant as it did when it hit the streets four years ago and that because of its popularity, he...

When Felicita Bautista prepared her husband’s coffee and kissed him goodbye on the morning of April 16, she thought she’d hear from him at lunchtime when he usually called. Instead, the phone rang at 8 a.m. Ms. Bautista’s husband, José Ramírez, told her immigration agents had raided the Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant in downtown Chattanooga and that he had been arrested. “At first I didn’t believe him, I thought it was a joke, but he assured me it was true,” the 28-year-old Guatemala native said. Ms. Bautista’s husband, who had been in the United States illegally for five years...

The Mayor has been jailed do to violating the terms of his bond. He went to Windsor without permission and the Judge Giles had him sent to jail

While federal investigators were building the $300 million fraud case against Lou Pearlman, he was conducting an investigation of his own. Held in the Orange County Jail with a man accused of killing a cop, the flamboyant boy-band founder began listening, taking notes and drawing diagrams that he would later turn over to investigators. Over three weeks, Pearlman said, he listened as nearby inmate Davin Smith recounted the Oct. 7 slaying of off-duty Orlando police Officer Alfred Gordon, who was gunned down in the parking lot of a Pine Hills bank.

Syria's government has blamed prisoners serving sentences for extremism and terror for clashes with jail guards that left several inmates dead. Prisoners say the unrest began early on Saturday when guards began beating the mainly Islamist inmates in their cells. The government has denied this, saying the guards intervened to stop violence begun by inmates during an inspection. It remains unclear how many detainees were killed and injured in the unrest. A human rights group said 25 were dead. The Islamist prisoners were also reported to have taken a large number of other inmates hostage but it is not clear...

Anyone carrying a knife on Britain's streets would automatically face jail under the next Conservative government, David Cameron warned today. Under the new plans, everyone carrying a blade without a reasonable excuse will be prosecuted and those convicted will get a custodial sentence. Current sentencing guidelines, which allow some offenders to escape with a fine or caution, will be scrapped. The Tories' Knife Crime Action Plan stops short of a mandatory jail term but makes clear the presumption should be that offenders will go to jail. The minimum sentence will be a community penalty with the offender wearing a high...

Several Prince George's County correctional officers who had access to a 19-year-old inmate found strangled in solitary confinement Sunday have initially declined to speak to investigators of the slaying, a source familiar with the interrogations said. The Maryland State Police and federal agents were investigating the death of Ronnie L. White, who was killed less than 36 hours after he was booked into the county correctional center on first-degree murder charges in the hit-and-run death Friday of county police Cpl. Richard S. Findley. It wasn't clear why the correctional officers reportedly declined to answer questions. Sgt. Curtis Knowles, president of...

SAMARRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Police raiding a suspected al Qaeda hide-out found a secret prison and the bodies of seven Iraqis bearing gunshot wounds and torture marks, Iraqi police said on Saturday. Police said they believed the six men and one woman, only two of whom have so far been identified, had been kidnapped. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military. Police arrested 11 suspected al Qaeda members in the raid on a house in Benat al-Hassan, on the outskirts of Samarra, early on Saturday, said Captain Muthana Shakir, commander of Iraq's Rapid Intervention Force in Samarra, 100...

Homeowners who don't mow their grass in the northeast Ohio city of Canton now face stiffer penalties-including possible jail time. The city council unanimously passed a law Monday that makes a second high-grass violation a fourth-degree misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $250 and as many as 30 days in jail. The previous law only made the first violation a minor misdemeanor, with a fine of up to $150 but no jail time. The new law is to take effect in 30 days. "This is the type of action we need to take in order to clean up our...

ORANGE COUNTy, Fla. -- A 13-year-old girl's sexual shenanigans have put a second man behind bars. Morris Williams, 22, told the judge he thought the girl was 18-years-old, but he found out Tuesday that ignorance is not a defense. Morris Williams' mother wailed as he went off to jail. The judge asked for media not to show 13-year-old Alisha Dean's face in court, but her pictures are all over her MySpace page and they portray a sexy, 19-year-old divorced woman. "She told me she had just turned 18," Williams said. Williams said Dean picked him up on the street and...

(TOKYO - When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught - recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help. Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor’s roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said.) I imagine, while being kept at the police station, the parrot was banging his cage with a tin cup yelling, “Let...

Brian Gegner was sentenced to 180 days behind bars because his daughter was unable to complete her G-E-D.

A man awaiting trial on a murder charge is suing Benton County, Arkansas, complaining that the “skimpy rations” he has been fed in the county jail caused him to lose more than 100 pounds during eight months in jail. “I used to be a sturdy 400-plus pounds,” Laswell boasted. “Now, I’m practically skin and bones. It’s cruel and unusual punishment.” Laswell is being assisted in his suit by the ACLU. “This is but another sorry example of the pattern of torture and abuse that has overtaken the U.S. penal system under the Bush Administration,” said ACLU spokesman, Bertram Petty. “Starving...

MERCEDES - Deputies arrested two illegals in connection with a Mercedes murder. Jaime Ibarra and Juan Pineda are each being held on a million dollar bond. They're accused of killing Saul Garmendia. Sheriff Lupe Trevino says Pineda and the victim were fighting over a woman. The two suspects are now in county jail. The sheriff says they're the latest example of rising crime rate involving illegals. And he says it's creating an overcrowding problem in his jail. "I've got between 29 to 31 percent illegal immigrants in my county jail that we're holding on state charges," Trevino explains. He's seen...

Fundraiser Rezko To Be Released From JailApr 18, 2008 2:00 pm US/Eastern CHICAGO (CBS) - A federal judge ordered indicted political fund-raiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko freed on $8 million bond Friday. Rezko, a major fund-raiser for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is charged in a scheme to get kickbacks from firms seeking state business. U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve issued the bond after Rezko family and friends posted 30 separate pieces of real estate, as well as cash. Rezko's wife, Rita, says she would ensure that he arrived in court The judge severely limited...

A 23-year-old woman is suing Meeker County and Sheriff Mike Hirman alleging that she was subjected to a series of strip searches while in custody for various traffic violations, misdemeanor theft and a child-support dispute. The federal lawsuit, filed March 31, also alleges that her pierced breasts were photographed the last of the five searches. The class-action suit's plaintiff is Gail Lynn Simpson, of Big Lake, Minn. She is suing for an amount in excess of $75,000 and is represented by Robins Kaplan, Miller and Ciresi of Minneapolis. The suit says that it is the county's "custom and/or practice of...

A weekend wedding turned into an unforgettable first night for these two newlyweds. Police say a bride and groom spent their first night as a married couple in jail after their wedding party at a Vallejo home got out of hand. When police had to return a second time to the home Saturday night, officers stunned both the groom and his cousin with a Taser when they both became aggressive towards the officers. The groom and cousin were arrested for allegedly resisting arrest. The bride was taken into custody on suspicion of public intoxication.

"I just feel like she gotta live through me. Yes, we were scheduled to be married on a yacht April 27th, but due to circumstances beyond our control we are now making arrangements to be married in prison."

Terrorists moved to new jail after death threats By Caroline Gammell Last Updated: 1:15pm GMT 20/03/2008 Two of Britain’s most dangerous convicted terrorists have been moved to a different prison after one complained that they were at risk because the jail was dominated by white inmates. Dhiren Barot planned a radioactive bomb plot Dhiren Barot, who planned a radioactive bomb plot involving limousines packed with nails and explosives, and Omar Khyam, who plotted to blow up Bluewater shopping centre, asked to be transferred from the high security Frankland prison near Durham after a series of death threats and attacks. Although...

Thomas Sowell: Criminals belong behind bars Liberals ignore potential costs and risks when suggesting 'alternatives' Thursday, March 13, 2008 For more than two centuries, the political left has been preoccupied with the fate of criminals, often while ignoring or playing down the fate of the victims of those criminals. So it is hardly surprising that a recent New York Times editorial has returned to a familiar theme among those on the left, on both sides of the Atlantic, with its lament that "incarceration rates have continued to rise while crime rates have fallen." Liberals seemed to find it puzzling that...

Iran dissident defies jail fighting for equality By Kay Biouki in Tehran, and Gethin Chamberlain Last Updated: 12:31am GMT 02/03/2008 A woman facing jail in Iran for speaking out against the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has denounced the country's Islamic revolution for "destroying a generation" of Iranians. Parvin Ardalan: 'Resistance has become a way of life for us' Parvin Ardalan, 41, said women and religious and cultural minorities faced discrimination under the hard-line policies adopted by Tehran after the mullahs seized power in 1979. Miss Ardalan is due to fly to Stockholm this week to receive the Olof Palme...

" For the first time in history, more than one in every 100 American adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report tracking the surge in inmate population and urging states to rein in corrections costs with alternative sentencing programs."

Elton John Richard II made split-second decisions— good ones— as a member of an elite Marine reconnaissance unit clearing towns ahead of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. But District Judge Albert "Pat" Murdoch ordered Richard to spend two years in a New Mexico prison Friday for a decision that propelled him into a fatal pursuit of a man he thought was breaking into his home in 2004. Richard, then working a Department of Energy courier with a Q clearance, fatally shot Daniel Romero, 34, after chasing him from his yard to Paseo del Norte. Murdoch's pronouncement shocked Richard's family,...

No butter. No sweets. And skim milk only. In New York City jails, life just got a whole lot blander. City Correction Department officials say it's just a healthy overhaul of the jail menu - and not a new way to deter would-be criminals. Inmates are now feeding on fiber-rich cereals and fresh fruit and drinking skim milk instead of whole. "These people are in our custody, and they don't get to make their own choices. We have a moral obligation to make sound choices for them," said Commissioner Martin Horn. "Mayor Bloomberg doesn't say, 'New Yorkers should eat healthy...

How the heck could we get this guy to run for President? SERIOUSLY! Maricopa County, Arizona was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe didn’t take over the county animal shelter, he started his own. The jail, which once housed inmates, was empty after the tent cities were built. Now the facility has become an animal shelter, housing 200 dogs and cats. The horses, which “do not fit in the cells,” are kept in the tents with the inmates. Sheriff Joe noted, “The women prisoners take care of the cats and...

Kiefer Sutherland was released from California's Glendale City Jail shortly after midnight this evening, after serving his entire 48-day sentence, which stemmed from his arrest last year for his fourth DUI. The 24 star began his sentence on December 5th, and spent the holidays and his birthday behind bars. Kiefer was driven away by his publicist under a police escort out the back of the Glendale City Jail an insider exclusively told PageSix.com. Our law enforcement sources also tells us that, "Kiefer is very excited to leave the jail and return to the safe and warm confines of his home....

  Jail break-in to give lag knickers   Policed briefs ... Everthorpe jail   By JOHN KAY Published: Today     A JAIL was broken into to supply a transvestite lag with women’s clothes, it was revealed yesterday. Officers found knickers, ball gowns and denim skirts in a burglary convict’s cell, along with drugs and mobile phones. An accomplice on the outside used a ladder to scale the 20ft perimeter wall, making regular break-ins. The hauls were sold to fellow cons at £600 a time – but the contraband was found last Friday after officers were tipped off. A...

A US woman who was facing jail for swearing at her toilet has been acquitted. Dawn Herb, 31, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, was charged after an off duty police officer overheard her swear at an overflowing toilet.

ORANGE – A Muslim woman says her religious freedom was violated and she felt "naked and exposed" when she was forced to remove her headscarf as she was being booked into a San Bernardino County jail. Jameelah Medina filed a federal lawsuit in Santa Ana against San Bernardino County late Wednesday, in a case that closely follows one filed in Orange County earlier this year. Her lawsuit also names a Los Angeles County deputy, claiming he made "offensive and bigoted" statements about her religion as he drove her to jail. "It's something I have to do," said Medina, a 29-year-old...

Jailed teddy teacher: I feared I would be raped by Sudanese prison officers wanting to teach me a lesson By ANDREW WILKS - More by this author » 9th December 2007 The teacher imprisoned in the Sudan for naming a teddy bear Mohammed has told how she feared being raped by her guards during her incarceration. Gillian Gibbons, who was arrested when a school secretary complained to the authorities two months after the stuffed toy was named by pupils at Unity High School in Khartoum, said her greatest worry was that her guards would "teach the blaspheming white woman a...

Muslim woman sues for being forced to remove headscarf in US jail The Associated Press Published: December 6, 2007 LOS ANGELES: A Muslim woman arrested for riding a commuter train without a valid ticket has filed a federal lawsuit in the United States, claiming her religious freedom was violated when she was forced to remove her headscarf when she was taken to jail. Jameelah Medina also said she was intimidated by a deputy who accused her of being a terrorist and called Islam an "evil" religion, according to the suit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court by the American Civil...

TUCSON — Two of three protesters arrested for trespassing on Fort Huachuca last month will have a detention hearing today. The Rev. Jerome Zawada, 70, and Frances Elizabeth Lamb, 69, were jailed Tuesday when a federal magistrate expressed concerns of their past histories of arrests during protests. The Franciscan from Las Vegas and the woman from Bend, Ore., were arrested Nov. 18 after they tried to enter the post, contending the Intelligence Center on the fort is the center of torture training. Mary Burton Riseley, 65, of Cliff, N.M., also was arrested on Nov. 18. However, she was not put...

LOS ANGELES - Kiefer Sutherland was sentenced Wednesday to 48 days in jail for racking up a second drunken-driving arrest in three years and immediately reported to a city lockup. The star of the Fox TV drama "24" was being processed at the Glendale city jail, said Officer John Balian. Sutherland, 40, who pleaded no contest in October to driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit of .08, appeared in court with his attorney and politely answered the judge's questions, said Assistant City Attorney Dan Jeffries. His request to serve his time at the Glendale city jail was...

Governor Carepa said she was shocked at the reports Authorities in Brazil are investigating reports that a young woman was left in a police cell with some 20 men for a month and repeatedly sexually abused. The governor of the state of Para, where the reported case took place, has promised a full inquiry. Governor Ana Julia Carepa said the age of the woman, put variously at 15 and 20, was irrelevant as she should not have been jailed with male prisoners. Women's rights groups in Brazil say it is not an isolated case. According to reports in the...

Don't answer Census, don't face going to jailGovernment demands answers, but official confirms penalties not applied Posted: November 14, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Bob Unruh © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com Another month is coming, and another 250,000 forms are being mailed out in the U.S. Census Bureau's perpetual American Community Survey, which demands responses to personal questions about a family's lifestyle, housing accommodations, work schedules, physical and mental disabilities, income and the like. That means roughly 250,000 times recipients will see the warning that participation is required by law, and there are penalties including fines for not answering each question. But,...

BOSTON - The elegant iron-railing balconies were once catwalks where guards stood watch over the inmates to make sure they didn't try to break out. If you look closely, you can still see the outline of the holes from the iron bars on the windows. ADVERTISEMENT At the newly opened Liberty Hotel, it's hard to escape what this building once was: a decrepit jail where Boston locked up its most notorious prisoners. But that's just the point. After a five-year, $150 million renovation, the old Charles Street jail is now a luxury hotel for guests who can afford to pay...

Illegal border crossers arrested along Arizona's stretch of U.S.-Mexican border will soon find themselves facing two weeks to six months in jail, which now is reserved only for repeat crossers and those with criminal records. The sector is working toward a zero-tolerance program known as "Operation Streamline" that is now used in the Yuma and Del Rio sectors, U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector Chief Robert W. Gilbert told a U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security subcommittee Wednesday. The program is also set to start soon in the Laredo Sector. The program creates a deterrent that dramatically alters the dynamics along...

"We couldn't let such a nice prison burn down," Ronny Stenberg said after he and fellow inmates at Arendal Prison in Fyresdal chose to fight flames rather than run. "I don't dare think what would have happened if the prisoners themselves hadn't discovered the fire and helped fight it," prison guard Daniel Trollsås told newspaper Agderposten. When firefighters arrived after about 40 minutes, a prisoner sleeping near the blaze had been pulled out to safety and the fire halted, with damage limited to only one barracks. In appreciation of the effort, the prison threw a party last Wednesday after the...

SACRAMENTO – Parole agents can continue their sweeps of sex offenders who live too close to schools and parks after the state Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant a broad injunction seeking to halt the arrests. The court previously blocked the state from arresting four parolees who claimed the law is too vague and unfairly punishes offenders after they are released from prison. But in Monday's ruling, the high court refused to expand that ruling and apply it to hundreds of other paroled sex offenders. The request to block all arrests “is denied without prejudice to the filing of...

Ex-US commander at Iraq jail faces trialSat Oct 13, 2:25 PM ET BAGHDAD - A former U.S. commander at the jail that held Saddam Hussein will face trial next week on charges of aiding the enemy by providing a cell phone to detainees and acting inappropriately with an interpreter, the military said Saturday. Army Lt. Col. William H. Steele, a reservist from Prince George, Va., pleaded guilty on Oct. 7 to three of seven charges, which carry a maximum sentence of six years in prison, forfeiture of pay and dismissal from the Army, according to the military. He will be...

Judge Makes 'Green Eggs and Ham' Ruling CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A federal judge was driven to rhyme after receiving a hard-boiled egg in the mail from a prison inmate protesting his diet. U.S. District Court Judge James Muirhead reached for Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" for inspiration after getting the egg from inmate Charles Jay Wolff. "I do not like eggs in the file," Muirhead wrote. "I do not like them in any style. I will not take them fried or boiled. I will not take them poached or broiled. I will not take them soft or scrambled/Despite...

By Nick Britten Last Updated: 3:54am BST 21/09/2007 Seven men are facing jail after being convicted of one of the bloodiest and most barbaric dog fights ever discovered. Police raided a kitchen showroom to find two pit bull terriers on the verge of death after spending around two hours relentlessly ripping into each other. The RSPCA said there was a worrying increase in dog fighting amongst gangs of young men. Twenty six men were convicted over the fight in Alum Rock, Birmingham, last February, which pitted the dogs, Elvis and Bullet, against each other. Birmingham Magistrates' Court was told the...

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OJ Simpson's prison conditions released By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles Last Updated: 2:35am BST 19/09/2007 OJ Simpson has traded a Las Vegas hotel room and leisurely mornings of golf for solitary confinement in a 7' by 14' cell, 4am wake-up calls, and just three to four hours of free time a day, also spent alone. Details of the prison conditions facing the fallen sporting legend were revealed by Las Vegas police, who arrested Simpson on Sunday at the city's Palms hotel for his alleged role in an armed robbery last week. The 60-year-old former American footballer is among 3,000...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) - Disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu (shoo) has been released from a hospital in Grand Junction and is in jail in Mesa County. Sheriff's officials say Hsu was booked on an outstanding warrant charge from California. An advisement hearing is scheduled for tomorrow (1:30 p.m.). Hsu has been wanted as a fugitive for missing his sentencing on a 1991 grand theft case to which he had pleaded no contest. He failed to show up for a bail hearing last week in California. He was placed under arrest last week at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction...

British Parliamentarians to Push for End to Current Limited Abortion Restrictions Want to allow nurses and midwives to kill unborn children By Hilary White LONDON, September 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A group of pro-abortion British MP's from all parties in government will be launching a campaign to sweep away the last formal restrictions on abortion and make it available on demand. They want to allow nurses and midwives to kill unborn children and recommend increasing the number of facilities allowed to abort babies in the first trimester of pregnancy. The Independent reports that the move is planned by a cross-party...

Bergen County Jail inmates who want to brush up on their legal defense can do so now from their cells, a move that officials say is a first nationwide.  Jail officials have begun rolling out the first batch of 80 laptops – each about the size and heft of a large hardcover novel – to some of the 1,000 inmates who occupy the near-capacity lockup. About $100,000 has been spent so far from an account funded by profits from items purchased from inmates, such as toothpaste and candy bars, to buy the $1,200 notebooks and install the necessary wireless...

LYNWOOD, Calif. - Nicole Richie was released from jail Thursday after serving 82 minutes of a four-day sentence for driving under the influence of drugs. The reality show star, who checked into jail in this Los Angeles suburb at 3:15 p.m., was released at 4:37 p.m. "based on her sentence and federal guidelines," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Maribel Rizo said without elaborating.When asked whether Richie, who is four months pregnant, spent her brief sentence in a jail cell, Rizo replied: "I have no further comment." A call to Richie's attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, was not immediately returned Thursday. An...