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A Mass. prisoner has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Correction and a prison superintendent claiming he has been denied access to items, including but not limited to ritual oils, herbs, teas, robes, medallions, colored pens, and cakes, which are necessary to properly exercise his Wiccan faith. Daniel LaPlante, who is currently serving a life sentence at MCI-Norfolk for the murder of a Townsend woman and her two children, claims both the DOC and MCI-Norfolk Superintendent Gary Roden have refused to allow him the ability, time, place, and manner to work his magic, perform his rituals, and cast the...

14 inmates seen on a shocking video shot in Orleans Parish Prison have been arrested [sic] on contraband and weapons charges, according to the Orleans District Attorney's office. [snip] The shocking videos shown in federal court showed a loaded handgun, drugs, and alcohol inside a locked cell at Orleans Parish Prison. The video was shown turning [sic]testimony during a lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center over conditions at the troubled jail facility. In the video, inmates can be seen pulling cans of beer from a cooler in the cell, and another inmate displays an apparently loaded Glock handgun....

'A cleaner version of Hell' ADX Florence is a federal supermax prison with a capacity of 490 male inmates in central Colorado, about 40 mi. south of Colorado Springs. Part of the Florence Federal Correctional Complex -and operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (a division of the Department of Justice)- the daunting facility only takes-on the MOST dangerous and difficult-to-contain in the entire country. The immaculate, hyper-secure prison was built at a cost of $60M, and largely in response to high-profile security lapses at other federal penitentiaries, particularly a pair of 1983 incidents at Marion, Ill that left two guards dead....

My favorite jailhouse sex scene is the one in The Longest Yard. Burt Reynolds is in the Florida state pen. A fellow inmate boasts of his powers as a fixer. “I can get you anything in here! I can get you laid in here!” Burt is skeptical, so the fixer sets him up on some petty mission to the warden’s office. No one is there but the secretary, Bernadette Peters. She locks the doors and starts undressing Burt. Burt (at 1:11 here): “You do this very often?” Bernadette: “I’m just as far from Tallahassee as you are, honey.” Life’s been...

Woman refuses judge’s suggestion to marry man in consensual sex case Duo admit to having sex outside of marriage Dubai: A woman startled a judge on Tuesday when she refused to marry a worker, with whom she is accused of having consensual sex, in order to be granted a suspended prison sentence. The suspects, a Filipina and the Pakistani worker, pleaded guilty when they appeared before the Dubai Misdemeanour Court on Tuesday. “In an obvious attempt to convince the defendants to get married and obtain a lenient judgment, the judge asked the worker: “Are you willing to marry her?” “I...

Michael Hough, a second-term Republican state legislator from Frederick County, Md., is about as conservative as blue-state legislators come. He played a prominent role in opposing the state’s new gay marriage law, holds an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association, and received a 100 percent score from the state’s business lobby. The major focus of his legislative agenda, however, crushes any stereotypes that might come to mind, given his résumé. Hough wants to reform America’s prisons and help the more than 500,000 people who come home from correctional facilities every year. In the past few years, he’s successfully pushed...

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California may speed up the release of some inmates while allowing other inmates with a violent history to become firefighters, under a proposal to cut crowding in state prisons filed by Gov. Jerry Brown late Thursday night. Brown filed the plan "under protest," said Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard. Brown warned that the options he presented to the court would undermine public safety, and Beard reiterated that the state plans to appeal in an attempt to avoid going through with the measures. The governor's plan calls for increasing early release credits for inmates and paroling elderly and incapacitated prisoners, while...

Source: Sheriff deps call #Gosnell "Kermit." He demands: "You will address me as Dr. Gosnell." They say "You're just an inmate now, Kermit."—   (@jdmullane) May 02, 2013 Abortionist and accused baby butcher Kermit Gosnell is reportedly not winning popularity points with felons at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. It seems he’s not faring any better with the sheriff’s department: "@jdmullane: Deputy calls Gosnell "Kermit." He demands: "You will address me as Dr Gosnell." They say "You're just an inmate now, Kermit"— Sean Agnew (@seanagnew) May 02, 2013 Oh, snap. @jdmullane he'll be addressed as something else in prison.— Francis Adolf...

BALTIMORE CITY, MD — A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people — including 13 women working as corrections officers — who face racketeering, drug and money laundering charges. It alleges that Tavon White, an inmate known as “Bulldog,” took control of the prison gang soon after his arrival in 2009 on an attempted murder charge.

Gang Leader Impregnates Four Female Prison Guards 13 female corrections officers, seven inmates and five others with gang ties have been charged with plotting to smuggle drugs, cellphones and other contraband into Baltimore's jail and other correctional facilities. By RUSSELL GOLDMAN April 24, 2013 Four female correction officers were impregnated by the reported leader of a Maryland prison gang, which used a network of female prison guards to help launder money, run drugs and smuggle contraband into state detention facilities, according to a federal indictment. One of the guards was twice impregnated by Tavon White, identified in court papers as...

Control of a Baltimore prison was effectively handed over to a group of gang member inmates who seduced and bribed the female guards. Federal prosecutors say 13 female correctional officers, seven inmates and five others with gang ties have been charged with plotting to smuggle drugs, cellphones and other contraband into the Baltimore jail and other corrections facilities. An indictment unsealed Tuesday said the ring also involved sex between inmates and guards that led to four of the officers becoming pregnant by Tavon White, leader of a jailhouse gang called the Black Guerrilla Family. He is held at the Baltimore...

I saw this at iOwnTheWorld (with a much more hilarious post title) and thought it was brilliant, I would love to know how their policies, for these reasons, don't create a prison for the American psyche.I wanted to try to make it more evocative than the original, and I got this.

UNIONTOWN, Pa., - A Pennsylvania prison inmate who admitted to having a cellphone told the judge he kept the object hidden in his prosthetic leg for a year. Christopher Glen Greer, 28, who pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge Monday in Judge John Wagner Jr.'s courtroom, told the judge he smuggled the phone and charger into the Fayette County Prison in the pocket of his cargo pants and kept the objects concealed in his prosthetic leg for a year, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Tuesday. Greer said the objects were discovered after he was transferred to a state prison and...

The videos, which aired during a federal court hearing over Orleans jail reforms, show one inmate shooting up heroin. Others freely snort drugs behind bars and chat on cell phones. Another inmate releases bullets from a long-barreled handgun onto the ground inside the jail, behind bars.

The man suspected of killing Colorado's prisons chief was still supposed to be behind bars. But because of a clerical error, Evan Ebel was let out of prison in January -- four years early. Authorities suspect he went on to kill Tom Clements, who led the state's prison system, last month. They have also said there is a "strong connection" between that killing and the murder of Nathan Leon, a pizza delivery driver who was found dead in suburban Golden, Colorado.

<p>A high-speed chase through two North Texas counties this morning may involve the suspect wanted in connection with Tuesday’s murder of the head of Colorado’s Department of Corrections.</p> <p>This morning’s incident began in Montague County, where, just north of Bowie, a sheriff’s deputy pulled over a man driving an older model black Cadillac with Colorado license plates. According to several news accounts, that man then fired three times at Deputy James Boyd, who took two bullets to the chest — he was wearing a bullet-proof vest — and one in the ear. Boyd was transported, via helicopter, to a Fort Worth hospital; his condition is unknown at present, but Wise County officials say his injuries are non-life-threatening.</p>

Ma'lik Richmond, center, reacts as the verdict for his and Trent Mays' rape trial is delivered. (Reuters) Inside a small Steubenville, Ohio, courtroom filled with sobbing and exhausting emotion, Judge Thomas Lipps found Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond guilty Sunday of raping an intoxicated 16-year-old girl. Lipps sentenced both defendants to a minimum of one year in a youth correctional institute with the determination for a longer sentence coming from child-service experts. Mays received an additional year for transmission of nude photos, to be served after his rape sentence is completed. Mays and Richmond also will have to register as...

The Jackson file... Ensconced in the safety of their home in Washington, D.C., former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife, former Ald. Sandi Jackson, are struggling to make ends meet before their sentencing in June. To wit: The shattered couple, who recently pleaded guilty to felonies, could lose their law licenses. They are desperately trying to pay the bills and figure out a financial plan for their two children. Although writing a memoir is on the table if Jackson Jr. can find a publisher (or publish it himself), Sneed is told their major financial support now is Triple J’s...

In response to Gov. Rick Snyder's proposal to increase the gas tax and auto registration fees, many legislators are looking for alternatives. This has increased the emphasis on trying to squeeze as many dollars as possible out of existing revenue. As lawmakers search for potential road funding dollars, one of the state's most expensive departments isn't likely to be left out of the equation. Costing $2 billion annually, the Michigan Department of Corrections continues to take a big bite out of Michigan's budget. The problem is, the process of how the Department of Corrections spends its money is a bureaucratic...

The US Is Putting More White People In Prison, And Meth Could Be To Blame Erin FuchsFebruary 28, 2013There's been a huge shift in the racial makeup of U.S. prisons in the past decade, The New York Times reports. The Sentencing Project analyzed prison populations from 2000 to 2009, finding the rates of incarceration for blacks dropped sharply during that period: 30.7 percent for black women and 9.8 percent for men. The report also found a major spike in incarceration rates for white men and women during the same period, according to The Times. The rate for white women increased...

A compulsive liar made almost a dozen false claims that she was raped in nearly a decade after making her first complaint at the age of 13, a court has heard. Elizabeth Jones, 22, admitted she lied about the latest rape allegation because she “did not like” the man she accused of attacking her, Southampton Crown Court was told. Her latest victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested and questioned for nine hours before being released without charge. After a judge jailed her for 16 months, it emerged today that she made her first complaint in 2004...

Start-up mania hits San Quentin prison as inmates turn entrepreneurs One by one, the entrepreneurs, clad in crisp blue jeans and armed with PowerPoint presentations, stood before a roomful of investors and tech bloggers to explain their dreams of changing the world. For these exuberant times in Silicon Valley, the scene was familiar; the setting, less so. With the young and ambitious flocking again to northern California to launch Internet companies, there were signs one recent morning that start-up mania has taken hold even behind the faded granite walls of California's most notorious prison. 'Live stream has gone mainstream. Mobile...

<p>JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri lawmaker is proposing to send colleagues to prison for introducing gun control legislation — a plan that even its sponsor acknowledges has no chance of passage but nonetheless highlights the increasingly strident tone of gun measures in Missouri’s generally pro-gun Legislature.</p>

YPSILANTI, Mich. — More than 21 years after she went to prison, Barbara Hernandez enters the cinderblock visitation chamber at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in the turquoise blouse with applique flowers she keeps for special occasions. Her makeup is carefully applied but cannot hide the age lines that spread, thin but unmistakable, from the corners of her eyes. "Thank you for coming," the 38-year-old inmate says softly. Her eyes, chestnut and brooding, are offset by a gentle smile. She holds out a hand in welcome.

A federal prison officer became pregnant after secretly carrying on a prohibited sexual relationship with a cop-killer inmate she was supposed to be guarding, prosecutors announced today. The feds say that Nancy Gonzalez, 29, a federal Bureau of Prisons officer was arrested this morning at her home in Huntington, LI, after she tried to hide her intimate prison affair with Ronell Wilson, an inmate convicted of gunning down two undercover NYPD detectives in a point-blank execution in Staten Island.

PHOENIX (CN) - The Arizona Department of Corrections said it will replace its for-profit prison health care company with another profit-seeking firm, after a federal class action that claimed the state provides "grossly inadequate" medical care to prisoners. Corizon Inc., of Brentwood, Tenn., "will be responsible for the provision of health care to inmates at the Arizona Department of Corrections' ('ADC') state-run facilities" beginning March 4, according to a filing in the pending court case. Corizon will replace Pittsburgh-based Wexford Health Sources. The ACLU, which filed the class action nearly a year ago, was not impressed.

The United States houses more human beings in prisons than any other country, both in terms of actual numbers and in relation to population size. The U.S. prison population began to grow dramatically in the 1970s. Professor Daniel D’Amico examines the data behind the alarming increase in the number of prisoners in the United States and finds that much of the growth in the last 40 years has been driven by the war on drugs. From 1980 to 1990, the total U.S. prison population more than doubled. In that same time, the proportion of people in prison for nonviolent drug...

Three terrorists imprisoned in Israel filed an appeal to the Supreme Court on Tuesday over a Prison Services decision to stop providing them the opportunity to earn an academic degree while in jail. Previously terrorists were allowed to take university courses in prison, a benefit that was taken away last year as part of an effort to pressure Hamas to agree to a deal to release Gilad Shalit. Terrorists say their conditions should be identical to those of non-terrorist prisoners, who are allowed to pursue university studies...

Officials say they had to put one of Illinois' maximum-security prisons on lockdown not because of an inmate riot but because dozens of guards called in sick. The movement of inmates was limited for most of Friday at the Stateville Correctional Center in suburban Chicago. Nearly 60 employees failed to turn up to work, an occurrence that Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Stacey Solano called "unusual."

Shocked guards at the northeast Brazil prison 'detained' the feline, which was afterwards taken to a vet for medical treatment All 263 inmates are considered suspect in the plot...

Random thought of the day...or maybe not given all the fiscal cliff nonsense.

Somehow, left-liberals have associated the cause of gun rights with white racism, when if anything it is gun control that has a racist legacy. In the United States, early gun laws targeted recently freed blacks, and open carry first became banned in California under Governor Ronald Reagan to disarm groups like the Black Panthers. Today, blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately subjected to humiliating stop-and-frisk searches in the name of gun control. Perhaps the most telling data concerns the racial makeup of who goes to prison for gun violations. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, for Fiscal Year 2011, 49.6% of...

Four murderers and a drug dealer are in line for taxpayer-funded fertility treatment so that they can father a child from behind bars. The killers are demanding to be allowed to take part in IVF treatment despite serving life sentences. Ministers may be powerless to refuse because of a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights concerning the right to a private and family life. Turning down the prisoners’ demands could lead to court action and compensation claims running into tens of thousands of pounds.

Prisons for Haiti: U.S. to Build Two Complexes Near Port au Prince (NEWS BRIEF)By Steve Peacock, U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor (Dec. 20, 2012) The U.S. Department of State is arranging the construction of two prison facilities outside Haiti's capital of Port au Prince. The project, with an estimated top-cost of $10 million, includes a 150-bed prison and 200-bed womens prison in Petit Goave and Cabaret, Haiti, respectively. State tentatively scheduled a "pre-proposal conference and site visit" for prospective prison-industry contractors in Port au Prince for February 5-6, 2013. Source document: Solicitation #SAQMMA13R0067. FOR ADDITIONAL COVERAGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES,...

FULL TITLE: 'He's treated like the worst of the worst': Sandusky put on hard routine and separated from other inmates for his own protection Serial child sex offender Jerry Sandusky lives under tight restrictions in prison for his own safety, it has been revealed. The former Penn State coach is on hard routine after he asked for more prison privileges and then received threats from inmates. 'He is being housed in the appropriate facility in order to assure his safety,' said Susan McNaughton, press secretary for the Pennsylvania state Department of Corrections. She responded to questions from Reuters after one...

Someone stopped by searching for “guns prevented crimes 2012.” I assume the search was for something like “how many crimes did guns prevent in 2012.” If so, the searcher is “rushing the growler,” since 2012 is not over yet. However, this is another of those questions with insufficient data for a precise answer. Since prison surveys show the overwhelming majority of crimes prevented by guns are “never attempted because of the possibility the intended victim may be armed,” most intended victims are never aware that they are under consideration for victimhood. As a result, the only source of credible data...

If you thought President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder had given up on closing Guantanamo Bay and bringing jihadists to American soil, think again. Two troubling developments on the Gitmo front should have every American on edge. The first White House maneuver took place in October, while much of the public and the media were preoccupied with election news. On Oct. 2, Obama's cash-strapped Illinois pals announced that the federal government bought out the Thomson Correctional Center in western Illinois for $165 million. According to Watchdog.org, a recent appraisal put the value of the facility at $220 million. Democratic...

A man who killed two teenagers in his home in Little Falls on Thanksgiving Day told investigators he shot and wounded the two at close range before "finishing" them with shots to the head. Byron David Smith, 64, was charged Monday, Nov. 26, in Morrison County District Court with two counts of second-degree murder without premeditation in the deaths of Nicholas Brady, 17, and his cousin Haile Kifer, 18. Smith claims Brady and Kifer broke into his home and he was "fearful" they had weapons, according to the criminal complaint.

Congressmen: Jackson Jr. suffering tremendouslyAssociated Press 3:54 p.m. CST, November 24, 2012 **SNIP** After Saturday's service, Davis and Rush said they have not seen Jackson and don't know where he is. But they said they understand why he has not yet spoken publicly about his resignation. "He can't take the pressure," Rush said. Rush said when he and Davis visited with Jackson a few weeks ago, the 47-year-old son of a civil rights icon broke down in tears several times. They said they don't want others to see him that way. "He's suffering under a tremendous, tremendous toil," Rush said....

The Norwegian convicted of the massacre of 77 people last year has said he is being held in "inhumane" conditions. Anders Behring Breivik complained in a letter to the prison service that his coffee is served cold, he does not have enough butter for his bread, and he is not allowed moisturiser. Breivik is serving a minimum 21-year sentence for the bombings and shootings in Oslo and Utoeya island last July. The Norwegian authorities have not commented on the letter. However his lawyer has confirmed that the details of the 27-page document leaked to Norway's VG newspaper are authentic. Continue...

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky on Wednesday was sent to serve his child molestation prison sentence at an institution in far southwestern Pennsylvania that includes most of the state's death row inmates. The Corrections Department said Sandusky was transferred to Greene State Prison after being evaluated at a facility outside Harrisburg. Prison officials said he will be housed in protective custody. "We make individual decisions based on facts," Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said in a written statement. "Given the high profile nature of this individual, coupled with the nature of his crimes, this makes him very vulnerable...

Iran's judiciary has rejected a request by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Tehran's Evin prison, its spokesman said on Sunday. "As we are faced with special circumstances and the country's priorities are the economy and people's living conditions, all authorities should focus on solving key issues... visiting a prison is extraneous," chief prosecutor Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie told ISNA news agency. "More than seven years of his presidency have passed, and no request was made during that time," he said. Mohseni Ejeie, who also acts as the judiciary's spokesman, suggested that Ahmadinejad's sudden interest in Evin was linked to "a...

Spanish man home from prison finds his wife mummified in bed Eduardo Ruiz grew concerned when he stopped hearing from his wife, Ángeles Fernández. But authorities refused to allow anyone to enter the home, despite complaints of an unpleasant smell in the area — until he managed a conditional release and broke in himself. A man in Spain came home from prison last week to find his wife mummified on her bed. Eduardo Ruiz, from the town of Ciempozuelos just outside Madrid, had not heard from his wife for a year when he complained to police in 2011. At the...

Federal government to buy closed Ill. prison for $165M, vows will not house Gitmo detainees Article by: SOPHIA TAREEN , Associated Press Updated: October 2, 2012 - 1:23 PM CHICAGO - The federal government has agreed to buy the closed Thomson Correctional Center in western Illinois for $165 million after the sale was held up for three years, state leaders announced Tuesday. Many Illinois leaders — including U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Gov. Pat Quinn who spoke to The Associated Press ahead of a news conference to announce the sale — supported the purchase because they said it would bring...

EBENSBURG, Pa., -- A Pennsylvania municipality is seeking a buyer or tenant for a unique property -- the former county prison. The Ebensburg Borough Council said the back portion of the facility, which is newer than the front, is being used to house county records, but the front portion, which was the original Cambria County Prison, has been vacant for 15 years, WJAC-TV, Johnstown, Pa., reported Thursday. "If it wasn't the landmark that it is in town, if it wasn't on the national list of historic places, we still couldn't tear it down," Ebensburg Borough Manager Dan Penatzer said. "I...

City of Eagle Pass International Bridge No. 2 closed due to bomb threat By: Jose G. Landa© The City of Eagle Pass International Bridge No. 2 located on 400 Garrison Street has been closed down today, Wednesday, September 26, 2012, at approximately 10:30 a.m. due to a bomb threat on the bridge. Federal and City of Eagle Pass officials decided to close down the International Bridge No. 2 after locating a suspicious package at the bridge. Maverick County Sheriff Tomas S. Herrera stated that his deputy monitoring the bomb threat on behalf of his department reported that there appears to...

Devin Zentmyer of Illinois wants an end to American democracy.A conference convened last month by the Islamic extremist group Hizb-ut Tahrir in Chicago cheered the fall of secular governments in the Middle East and the political rise of groups advocating for the re-imposition of Islamic law and the revival of the global caliphate, such as the Muslim Brotherhood. The speakers at the conference also endorsed a similar program in the West, particularly America.One of the attendees at the conference is doing his part to make that dream of Islamic rule in America a reality.Devin Zentmyer, who also goes by his...

Source: Obama Administration in Talks to Transfer ‘Blind Sheikh’ to Egypt Posted on September 17, 2012 at 5:31pm by Erica State Department in Talks to Transfer Blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman to Egypt, Source Says An Egyptian follower of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman flashes his poster outside in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Sept.11, 2011. The U.S. State Department is currently in negotiations with the Egyptian government for the transfer of custody of Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as “the Blind Sheikh,” for humanitarian and health reasons, a source close to the the Obama administration told TheBlaze.

Robert Kosilek was married to a woman. Then he murdered her and went to prison, where he changed his name to Michelle and began identifying as a woman. Now a federal judge in Boston has ruled that Kosilek is entitled to a taxpayer-funded sex-change operation because he has “gender-identity disorder.” “Everybody has the right to have their health care needs met, whether they are in prison or out on the streets,” the AP quotes Kosilek as saying. “People in the prisons who have bad hearts, hips or knees have surgery to repair those things. My medical needs are no less...

Mass killer's Norwegian prison cell has treadmill, computer access Accused mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik's Norwegian prison cell is more spacious than most New York City apartments. The confessed killer, who will receive his sentence Friday for killing 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage at a youth camp, was transported Wednesday to Norway's Ila Prison, just outside Oslo. The high-security prison offers Breivik not one, but three 86-square-foot cells. One cell functions as a bedroom, another as an exercise room, complete with treadmill, and the third is a study, where Breivik can use a laptop computer. Officials at...