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A judge's decision to reduce a killer's sentence because he has genetic mutations linked to violence raises a thorny question – can your genes ever absolve you of responsibility for a particular act? In 2007, Abdelmalek Bayout admitted to stabbing and killing a man and received a sentenced of 9 years and 2 months. Last week, Nature reported that Pier Valerio Reinotti, an appeal court judge in Trieste, Italy, cut Bayout's sentence by a year after finding out he has gene variants linked to aggression. Leaving aside the question of whether this link is well enough understood to justify Reinotti's...

11/2/2009 - QALAT, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- Air Force security forces members along with Army Soldiers from the Zabul Provincial Reconstruction Team met with prison officials as part of an on-going mentoring project at a nearby prison here Oct. 28. The prison, located close to the PRT compound, has become an important project for the team due to activity this summer. "We had seen the prison have some real troubles this summer," said Lt. Col. Andy Veres, the PRT commander. "Some of the trouble had been from the inside and some from the outside, so we thought it was important to...

Arizona May Put State Prisons in Private HandsBy JENNIFER STEINHAUER Published: October 23, 2009 FLORENCE, Ariz. — One of the newest residents on Arizona’s death row, a convicted serial killer named Dale Hausner, poked his head up from his television to look at several visitors strolling by, each of whom wore face masks and vests to protect against the sharp homemade objects that often are propelled from the cells of the condemned. It is a dangerous place to patrol, and Arizona spends $4.7 million each year to house inmates like Mr. Hausner in a super-maximum-security prison. But in a first...

The average length of stay until expected release of parole violators that are recommitted with a new felony conviction is 36.71 months.[1]Ohio. Based upon this figure, the cost to incarcerate is $94,834 per recidivist in this demographic. The total incarceration cost alone for these recidivists is between $35.8 and $58.7 billion. Can prisoner recidivism realistically be reduced to a figure below ten percent? It can’t happen overnight, but yes, it can. With state and federal budgets for departments of rehabilitation & corrections reaching incendiary levels, the need to implement new and innovative programs has become profound.

PALERMO, Sicily (Reuters) – A Sicilian builder transferred from prison to house arrest tried to get himself locked up again to escape arguments with his wife at home, Italian media reported Thursday. ... Police charged him with violating the conditions of his sentence and made him go home and patch things up with his wife.

ZURICH (Reuters) – Film director Roman Polanski could face two years in prison if extradited to the United States after fleeing sentencing in California on child sex charges in 1978, the Swiss justice ministry said on Friday. "The United States want him to be extradited for sexual intercourse with a minor. This carries a maximum sentence of two years under U.S. law," justice ministry spokesman Folco Galli said on Friday. The United States has now formally asked Switzerland to extradite Roman Polanski, the ministry said, adding it would reach a decision based on a hearing and information provided by Polanski's...

At midyear 2008, there were 4,777 black male inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents being held in state or federal prison and local jails, compared to 1,760 Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents and 727 white male inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents.

A convicted con artist from California who roiled a southeastern Montana community with his unlikely bid to take over its empty jail says he intends to return to the state to pursue a military training center. *snip* The company struck a deal last month with unwitting officials in rural Hardin, Mont. to take over its never-used, 464-bed jail. The plan unraveled after media revelations about Hilton's criminal past sparked an investigation by Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock. In his first interview since the jail proposal's collapse, Hilton tells The Associated Press that his intentions had been honest but his "tainted"...

Imagine you are a New Hampshire inmate facing Obama's economy. Your choices have been limited to the picture on the left and the picture on the right. Which would you choose? People at the lowest levels of society (you know, those quieted voices that Obama claims to represent) have realized that hope for them is all but gone in Obama's America, with some preferring to spend their time in prison to testing their prospects on the outside. "Inmates know that the economy is still weak and the job prospects aren't good, officials say. With no job and nowhere to live,...

Sex felon haunts jail at age 100 Here's proof that only the good die young. Meet Theodore Sypnier, the oldest inmate in New York. The geriatric jailbird celebrated his 100th birthday in upstate Groveland Correctional Facility in May and has spent most of his 90s in prison after pleading guilty to attempted sodomy of a child. Sypnier said he is treated no differently than the spring chickens behind bars with him. He catches Z's in a standard prison bed, wears a two-piece forest-green uniform and chows down on regular mess-hall slop. "It's probably just as bad as being the youngest...

A sobbing spokeswoman for the secretive company occupying the Hardin jail welcomed an investigation by Montana's attorney general Friday and expressed concerns for her own safety amid rumors about her company. Becky Shay, in a 45-minute, wide-ranging press conference during which she occasionally broke into tears, said the California-based American Police Force welcomed an information request made Thursday by Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock. Meanwhile, an attorney involved in the project cut ties with APF Friday and a second company, once named as a subcontractor, denied any involvement. Shay said she hadn't been formally served papers by the attorney...

CODY, Wyo. - Michael Hilton of American Police Force arrived in Hardin with promises of Mercedes police cars and expertise in operating prisons. He delivered the cars last week, but may have learned about prisons following a 1993 conviction for grand theft. Public records from police and state and federal courts in California show that Michael Anthony Hilton, using that name and more than a dozen aliases over several years, is cited in multiple criminal, civil and bankruptcy cases, and was sentenced in 1993 to two years in state prison in California. Hilton pleaded guilty in March 1993 to 14...

LONDON — Willy Wonka would be horrified. Children who eat too much candy may be more likely to be arrested for violent behavior as adults, new research suggests. British experts studied more than 17,000 children born in 1970 for about four decades. Of the children who ate candies or chocolates daily at age 10, 69 percent were later arrested for a violent offense by the age of 34. Of those who didn't have any violent clashes, 42 percent ate sweets daily. The study was published in the October issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. It was paid for by...

Below is a posting at Resistnet of someone in the town of Hardin, Montana witnessing BO's thugs taking over a town with a civilian police force with the purpose of forcing people to take the swine flu vaccination. The private police force has plans for thirty other town across the U.S. according to the eyewitness account. The eyewitness account is verified by an article at http://www.kulr8.com/news/local/61320122.htmlFrom: A Good Friend in Montana Subject: OUT OF TIME: CITY OF HARDIN, MT NOW BECOMING A POLICE STATE! TV Ch8 Verified This came to me from a faithful watchman! WE ARE OUT OF TIME!...

HARDIN - Officials from American Police Force, a California security company working to lock down a contract with Two Rivers Authority to fill and operate Hardin's new but empty jail, provided more details Saturday of how the finished facility will look and operate. At a Saturday morning press conference, Becky Shay, APF's new public-relations director, said the company hopes to build a 30,000-square-foot military-style training facility northeast of the jail and a 75,000-square-foot dormitory for the trainees to the southeast, all on a 50-acre plot of land. She said the buildings would be paid for by APF's "business activities," including...

...[W]e're reprising the harrowing 1977 grand jury testimony of the 13-year-old California girl with whom the director had sex after plying her with Champagne and a Quaalude at the Los Angeles home of Jack Nicholson. Polanski, now 74, fled the U.S. for Europe before he could be sentenced for the sex crime and remains a fugitive from justice. In graphic testimony, Samantha Gailey described the illicit encounter with Polanski, which began with her posing naked in a Jacuzzi for him as he purportedly snapped photos for French Vogue. From there, Polanski approached her in a bedroom of Nicholson's Mulholland Drive...

Ultimately the government's ability to force people to comply with its regulations involves the threat of imprisoning those who refuse to comply. If the Democrat controlled Congress decides to arbitrarily force some people to purchase health insurance will it adopt severe measures to insure compliance with its requirement. Will any government requirement to purchase health insurance include the threat to imprison those who refuse to purchase insurance or pay a fine? Will government confiscate money or property from those who refuse to purchase health insurance or pay a fine? President Barack Obama falsely compares the purchase of health insurance to...

Simple place for a simple man By Ann Coppola, News Reporter Published: 11/05/2007 The nondescript setting that is Point Lookout Cemetery seems fitting for those who rest here. Austere columns support a wired arch above its entrance that holds the word “cemetery” in large white letters. They match the stark, cross-shaped grave markers, which tell nothing of those buried beneath them. Perhaps there is no story to be told for the dead here, but for Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates this facility's cemetery still serves as a symbol of dignity. Of Angola’s 5,000 inmates, 90 percent are expected to die in...

Nigerian anger over China deaths Nigeria has close ties with China and trade between the countries is booming Nigeria MPs have asked the government to investigate the status of Chinese residents in the country, saying some may be staying there illegally. The demand follows allegations that Nigerians in China, especially those in jail, are being mistreated. The MPs asked the government to reject a request by the Chinese authorities to cremate the bodies of 30 Nigerians who have died in Chinese jails. There are an estimated 700 Nigerians currently in prison in China. The BBC's Chris Ewokor in Abuja says...

An August 10, 2009 National Endowment for the Arts conference call in which artists were asked to help support President Obama's agenda -- a call that at least one good government group called "inappropriate" -- has prompted the White House to issue new guidelines to prevent such a call from ever happening again. "The point of the call was to encourage voluntary participation in a national service initiative by the arts community," White House spokesman Bill Burton told ABC News. "To the extent there was any misunderstanding about what the NEA may do to support the national service initiative, we...

Airplane shoe bomber Richard C. Reid no longer faces severe limits on his prison activities or communications after the Obama administration quietly ended years of hard-nosed curbs against the British-born al-Qaeda terrorist. This summer the Justice Department halted six years of measures that kept Reid from associating or praying with fellow jailed Muslim terrorists, and limited his access to the news media and pen pals. That move has outraged victims of al-Qaeda and security experts. The recommendation to lift the restrictions was made with input from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston, which prosecuted Reid in 2002, federal officials said......

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday will submit to a panel of three federal judges a plan that would reduce the inmate population at California’s overcrowded prisons by substantially less than what the court has ordered, a move that a top prison administrator acknowledged will place state officials at risk of being held in contempt. Although the final plan will not be submitted until late Friday, administration officials have briefed other parties involved in the court proceedings on its major elements. They said exact projections of how much the prison population will be reduced have not yet been calculated,...

CAMP BUCCA, Iraq - The U.S. military on Wednesday closed Camp Bucca, an isolated desert prison that was once its largest lockup in Iraq, as it moves to release thousands of detainees or transfer them to Iraqi custody before the end of the year.

SAN FRANCISCO, (AP) -- A federal judge has sentenced a Silicon Valley financier to more than 8 years in prison for bilking banks and investors out of millions of dollars in an attempt to buy a pro hockey team and finance a lavish lifestyle. William "Boots" Del Biaggio III was sentenced Tuesday in San Francisco. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to a felony charge of forging financial documents to obtain $110 million in loans from several banks and two NHL owners.

Here is a video report about Maryland Prison officials who are struggling to prevent the illegal use of cell phones by prison inmates. More than 900 cell phones were confiscated from inmates last year. Inmates have reportedly used smuggled cell phones to make extortion calls, and even order hits on witnesses. NOTE: It makes you wonder just how prevalent this problem is around the country. . . . (VIDEO)

Wrongly convicted Texans become instant millionaires New law makes Texas most generous state for payments to cleared prisoners.DALLAS — Thomas McGowan's journey from prison to prosperity is about to culminate in $1.8 million, and he knows just how to spend it: on a house with three bedrooms, stainless steel kitchen appliances and a washer and dryer. "I'll let my girlfriend pick out the rest," said McGowan, who was exonerated last year based on DNA evidence after spending nearly 23 years in prison for rape and robbery. He and other exonerees in Texas, which leads the nation in freeing the...

One in 35 Americans are caught up in the corrections system and incarceration is on the rise. Why is this when the US crime rate has dropped so remarkably? The United States incarcerates more of its own citizens than any other nation. It has only 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s prisoners. If you count everyone ensnared in the corrections system – on probation or parole – millions of Americans (one of every 31) are anything but free in the land of liberty (1). “Incarceration is a rich country’s hobby,” says Scott Henson, a Texan journalist...

Some wonder why Phillip Garrido, accused of taking Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991, served only 11 years of a 50-year federal sentence for a similar 1976 crime.As details continued to emerge about Jaycee Lee Dugard's alleged kidnapper, questions intensified Monday over how Phillip Garrido could have served only 11 years in prison after a 1976 rape and kidnapping for which he had been given a 50-year federal sentence as well as a life term in Nevada. Garrido was convicted of kidnapping in federal court for abducting Katherine Callaway in South Lake Tahoe on a November night nearly 33 years ago...

Take it from those who have been there: Prison life is hard on people who need to be in control. Especially politicians accustomed to giving orders, cutting deals, spending millions - and getting their way. Former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo is due to report to federal prison tomorrow, assigned to serve his 55-month sentence at a low-security institution in Ashland, Ky. His attorneys have fought that, wanting Fumo placed closer to family in Philadelphia. What's definite, experts say, is that prisons specialize in turning people like Fumo from kings to peasants. In free society, his dominion included four homes,...

PHILADELPHIA – A former Pennsylvania state senator convicted on fraud charges is scheduled to report to federal prison in Kentucky on Monday. Sixty-six-year-old Vincent Fumo has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for defrauding the Senate and two nonprofits of several million dollars. ... The 66-year-old Fumo was a wealthy Democratic power broker during a 30-year state Senate career.

In a case that's been widely ignored by the mainstream media, justice prevailed today as Letalvis Cobbins was found guilty of the vast majority of charges, including that of first-degree murder. Cobbins was one of a group of thugs who carjacked, then raped, tortured and murdered two Knoxville residents. For more on the story, see the Knoxville News-Sentinel. http://digg.com/d311xYc

Bernie Madoff had little to lose by confessing to masterminding the world's biggest Ponzi scheme -- he's dying of cancer, sources told The Post. Madoff, who is serving 150 years at a North Carolina federal lockup after pleading guilty to swindling more than $65 billion, has been telling fellow inmates he does not have much longer to live. "He's been taking about 20 pills a day for his cancer," said one inmate. "He talks about it all the time. He's not doing very well." There's been much speculation as to why Madoff took the entire fall for the scheme --...

Music legend-cum-murderer Phil Spector is whining about being locked up in a "snake pit" of a prison with such other high-profile killer nutjobs as Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan -- but California corrections officials say Spector is full of beans. "Imagine sending me to the same prison -- shows how low they can go," fumes Spector in a letter to a buddy, Bay Area music manager Steve Escobar. "They'd kill you in here for a 39-cent bag of soup!" SNIP Spector wrote Escobar that Phil's 29-year-old wife, ex-Playboy model Rachelle Short, has begun making an 800-mile round trip drive to...

Spector: I’m scared in this snake pit prison By JAMES CLENCH Published: Today rigTeaserImage JAILED music legend Phil Spector has told of his terror at being held in a "snake pit" prison with crazed killers. The record producer, 69, is banged up in the same nick as cult massacre maniac Charles Manson.

SNIPPET: "Since 9/11, the general focus on prison radicalism in the media and in government has been on the process of certifying imams and literature available to inmates. Fully understanding the impact of this phenomenon, however, requires a historical look back at Islam in prison. The seeds of jihad were planted in the prison soil by men like Warith Deen Umar long before we were attacked in 2001. Having spent 26 years working in New York 's Department of Correctional Services, I have witnessed this process of radicalization first-hand. Sometimes it was monitored; sometimes a recruitment cell was infiltrated. As...

In January 1968, Johnny Cash set up his band on a makeshift stage in the cafeteria at Folsom State Prison in California. "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash," he said in his deep baritone to thunderous applause. Song after song, the inmates thumped their fists and cheered from the same steel benches now bolted to the floor. The morning that Cash played may have been the high-water mark for Folsom — and for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The men in the cafeteria lived alone in their own prison cells. Almost every one of them was in school or learning...

There’s a boom in rodeos in America, but I doubt that many riders would want to find themselves in this ring. These photographs by Mark Saltz (click to expand them) are of the Angola Prison Rodeo, staged by the fearsome Louisiana State Penitentiary, which sells tickets to it on its website. Why do the prisoners take such insane risks? Because it’s the nearest many of them will get to a taste of freedom. Also, the last man left in the poker game (see below) wins $150, which makes you a rich man in jail. Hat tip: Richard O’Connor.

Despite the repugnant abuses inflicted on guards by the terrorist detainees at GITMO, that facility must remain open. Irrespective of critics, who are angered over the Ritz-Carlton treatment accorded to some of the world's most loathsome terrorists who must be confined in that facility. Ritz-Carlton treatment? You bet! Scores of terrorist complicit detainees who were ordered released from GITMO have returned to their Islamist jihad against the West. Unlike detainees at GITMO confined in that facility for attacking U.S./Coalition forces in Afghanistan, or engaging in other terror activity, -- the detainees in seven secret Iranian political prisons are in real...

SNIPPET: "The following are excerpts from the letter, as published by norooznews . [1] "...The people who gave me this information hold sensitive positions in the regime... They say that all sorts of incidents are occurring in the prisons... Mr. Hashemi... Some of the detainees say that [certain] people [in the prisons] are raping girls who have been arrested, causing them vaginal tearing and injuries. They are also raping young boys, causing them depression and severe physical and emotional harm... so that [today, after their release] they hide in the corners of their homes. "In light of the gravity of...

Hundreds Hurt in 11-Hour California Prison RiotSOLOMON MOORE Published: August 9, 2009 LOS ANGELES — Rioting inmates smashed and burned a large California prison on Saturday night and Sunday morning, injuring 250 prisoners and hospitalizing 55. The 11-hour riot, at the Reception Center West at the California Institution for Men in Chino, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, broke down along racial lines, with black prison gangs fighting Latino gangs in hand-to-hand combat, the authorities said. No prison employees were injured, no deaths were reported, and no inmates escaped, state officials said. But 10 of the 33 prisons in...

Senate Seeks FCC Approval To Jam Prison Cell Phones Legislation aims to stop organized-crime members from using smuggled cell phones to conduct criminal activities from prison. By W. David Gardner InformationWeek July 15, 2008 04:00 AM With strong bipartisan support to permit the jamming of cell phone signals in prisons, the issue will head to the Federal Communications Commission, which has had longtime jurisdiction over wireless jamming and interference measures. The debate has received widespread attention this week in hearings conducted by the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee. The Safe Prisons Communications Act, co-sponsored by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The son of actor Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas could face life in prison for selling large amounts of an illegal drug over a three-year period before his arrest late last month, court records show. Cameron Douglas, 30, a sometimes actor who appeared with his father and grandfather Kirk Douglas in "It Runs in the Family," is accused of selling tens of thousands of dollars worth of methamphetamine, according to a complaint unsealed this week. Douglas was arrested at a Manhattan hotel on July 28, and had charges against him read in Manhattan federal court the next...

ROME, GA—JOSHUA DAVID LOWE, 25, of Aragon, Georgia, a former sergeant at the Polk County Jail, pleaded guilty today in federal court to a civil rights charge of using excessive force against an inmate in his custody. United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said, “We recognize that detention officers have a difficult job as they guard inmates in our jails and prisons. The vast majority of officers serve with honor and courage. But under no circumstances can we allow a detention officer to abuse his authority to commit an unnecessary and violent assault on an inmate. We are committed to...

OF THE 2.3 million people in prisons and jails in the United States, roughly 140,000, or 6 percent, are serving life sentences. Of that number, about 41,000 - 1.8 percent of all inmates - were sentenced to life without parole. Both numbers are at an all-time high. Should Americans be troubled by this? The Sentencing Project thinks so. In a new report, the liberal advocacy group complains that the growth in life sentences has been costly and unjust. It “challenges the supposition that all life sentences are necessary to keep the public safe,’’ and particularly disapproves of life without parole....

CHARLES Manson secretly runs an autograph business out of his cell, peddling his signature to sicko collectors of crime memorabilia, a new book claims. In "Five to Die," out this month from Thor Publishing, veteran journalist Ivor Davis claims the homicidal cult leader has become one of the richest inmates in the California corrections system by selling signed photos and other mementos he quietly smuggles out of Corcoran State Prison. "Only he doesn't even sign the pictures. He has fellow inmates doing an assembly line of signatures for him. It shows you he's still manipulating people. It really boggles the...

International diplomacy has failed to end Iran's nuclear program, halt its support for terrorist groups, or force the regime to respect basic human rights. But a new strategy is at hand: In a four-part National Post series, presented in partnership with the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, prominent writers explain how the world can apply pressure on Iran. In today's instalment, Canadian human-rights activist Nazanin Afshin- Jam explains how Iran's persecution of its own citizens is feeding the nation's appetite for reform.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Ranking Member on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, today during a Commerce Committee hearing pushed to allow prisons to block calls from smuggled inmate cellular phones. Senator Hutchison earlier this year introduced bipartisan legislation, the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009 (S. 251), that would prevent prison inmates from using smuggled cellular phones by allowing states to petition to operate wireless jamming devices in particular correctional facilities. "We are seeing a dramatic rise in the number of ongoing criminal enterprises orchestrated from prison via cell phones including drug trafficking, credit...

RALEIGH - The prosecution of former state House Speaker Jim Black wound to a close Thursday, when he received the minimum 11- to 14- month state sentence for bribery after having paid a $1 million fine. But Black, who is already serving a 63-month sentence in federal prison, will serve his state sentence concurrently and will therefore likely not spend any additional time in a prison cell. "He is an old man who is sick and who will stay in prison, perhaps the rest of his life," said Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens, in explaining his leniency. "I...

A prison officer claims she was hounded out of her job by repeated criticism for being 'too sexy' and 'glammed up'. Amitjo Kajla, 22, is demanding compensation from Justice Secretary Jack Straw. The 5ft officer told an employment tribunal how colleagues complained that she wore too much make-up and that her clothing was more revealing than the standard-issue uniform, which had to be adapted to her tiny size-four frame. One young inmate told her: 'Miss, you look sexy', prompting colleagues to warn the officer that her glamorous appearance left her at risk of being dragged into a cell. Another inmate...

An $11,000, high-definition audio/video teleconferencing system. A $4,300, 58-inch plasma screen TV for "talking head viewing." A $3,400 interactive tablet. The high-tech amenities of a multinational corporation? No. It's the warden's conference room at Minnesota's juvenile prison in Red Wing. Work was recently completed on a remodeling of the conference room that included $60,000 in new electronics, funded by what the Department of Corrections said was "end of year savings due to responsible management of the budget." Coming at a time of major state budget cuts and layoffs in other state departments, the Red Wing project has drawn criticism from...