http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/prisoners/ en-us Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:54:38 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408612/posts Note: The following text is a quote: Some Guantanamo Detainees to Move to Illinois Prison By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2009 – President Barack Obama’s administration plans to transfer a limited number of detainees held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a prison in rural western Illinois, senior administration officials said here today. The federal government plans to acquire Thomson Correctional Center, a 10-year-old maximum security prison in Thomson, Ill., a farming community about 150 miles west of Chicago, officials said in a background briefing. The administration would need to work... DEFENSE.gov - American Forces Press Service http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408612/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:54:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2377836/posts Currently, the constitution allows prisoners to perform work for governmental agencies during their prison sentence, but the amendment would allow them to volunteer for religious, charitable and educational groups as well. Letting inmates work for non-profits was common practice for jails across the state until the state Commission of Correction determined it was unconstitutional about three years ago, state Sheriffs' Association Counsel Thomas Mitchell said. The nonprofit work could be used as an incentive for good behavior. Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2377836/posts#comment Wed, 4 Nov 2009 00:38:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2377005/posts Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson’s controversial program to charge inmates for rent, haircuts, medical visits and high school equivalency tests raised $750,000, but outraged inmate advocates who said the fees violated their constitutional rights and amounted to an unlawful tax. Five years after a judge struck down the program - ruling that county sheriffs do not have the authority to charge such fees - Hodgson is reviving the proposal. The state’s highest court will hear arguments in Hodgson’s appeal today. When he initially imposed the fees in 2002, Hodgson said he believed they could help teach inmates to accept responsibility... Boston Herald http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2377005/posts#comment Tue, 3 Nov 2009 01:03:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2373202/posts Even as some Americans await the arrival of their swine flu vaccines, the Pentagon has decided to vaccinate both soldiers and terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There was no word Wednesday on when the the first vaccines would reach the remote base in southeast Cuba. But U.S. military there were notified late last week that service members would get their H1N1 virus vaccinations first. Private contractors and sailors' wives and children could get theirs afterward ``as the supply permits.'' And that means the 221 war on terror captives would also be vaccinated first, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt,... Miami Herald http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2373202/posts#comment Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:57:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2356198/posts Being Supreme Leader of the Free World is a tough job; but someone's got to do it. Enter Barack Hussein Obama. Mmm....mmm...mm. When he's not pushing Obamacare, bashing FOX News for linking him to ACORN and other radical associations, hiding in the closet on gay rights, what's he doing? Why he's busy taking heat from all sides in the Afghanistan debate. I guess you just can't please all the people, all of the time. Or in this case, any of the people on all sides of the debate. Health care legislation has been hard for President Obama, but Afghanistan... Flopping Aces http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2356198/posts#comment Tue, 6 Oct 2009 20:51:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2350020/posts CONVICTED criminals are being employed as telemarketers to cold-call people as part of a radical new prison employment program. But those called will have no idea they are talking to an inmate and the State Government will not say which organisations are using the convicts as part of a confidentiality deal. The program is designed to prepare women prisoners from Windsor's low and medium-security Dillwynia Correctional Centre for life on the outside, training them for work and stopping them from reoffending. However it is also being used as a low-cost way for companies to get cheap telemarketing work and for... The Daily Telegraph http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2350020/posts#comment Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:45:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2348007/posts Alcohol hand gel meant to combat swine flu has been banned from a prison after inmates became embroiled in a drunken brawl after drinking it. Hand gels supplied to a prison to combat the risk of swine flu have been removed after inmates realised it contained alcohol and began drinking it to try to get drunk. At least one prisoner at HMP The Verne on Portland, Dorset, was found intoxicated. The Prison Service confirmed that this case was being investigated but meanwhile antibacterial gel pumps had been removed as a "precautionary measure". Andy Fear, a member of the Verne's Prison... Guardian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2348007/posts#comment Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:41:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2321935/posts California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass plans to strip the most controversial provisions from a Senate-approved plan that would have trimmed the state's prison population by 27,000 inmates. The Assembly version would keep about 10,000 more inmates behind bars and leave the state with a new, nearly $200 million budget hole, Bass said early Friday. Bass said the new plan -- to be considered Monday -- would do away with proposals by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to allow home detention with electronic monitoring for inmates with less than 12 months to serve, who are over age 60 or who are medically incapacitated.... cnn.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2321935/posts#comment Sat, 22 Aug 2009 12:45:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2319841/posts WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration plans to transfer six prisoners abroad from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, part of the effort to close the controversial facility by early 2010. The detainees include those previously ordered released by U.S. courts or whose release has been approved through the Obama administration's review process, a Justice Department official said, declining to give further details. The administration notified Congress around August 6-7 of the planned moves, starting a 15-day waiting period before the transfers can begin. One, Mohammed Jawad, could be sent back to Afghanistan as... Reuters on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2319841/posts#comment Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:53:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2305392/posts "17,000 prisoners were freed after amnesty and commutation of punishment term of a number of prisoners by the Supreme Leader," State Prisons Organization's Deputy Director for Management and Resource Development Mohammad Ali Zanjirehi told FNA on Friday. "40 percent of the country's inmates, who account for around 68,000 people, were liable to the amnesty," Zanjirei said, adding that 17,000 out of the 68,000 inmates have been freed and the rest have enjoyed commutation of their terms or will be granted leaves in final months of their incarceration. FARS News Agency http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2305392/posts#comment Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:23:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2285292/posts According to news received by the International Committee against Executions, 29 people are to be executed tomorrow, Saturday, in Ghezal Hesar prison in Karaj. It has been reported that the 29 have been separated from other prisoners. There is no information on their charges. The executions are being carried out in order to intimidate people and is directed at the protesting people of Iran. Revolutionary Road http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2285292/posts#comment Sat, 4 Jul 2009 06:08:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2281940/posts LANSING, Mich. -- Empty Michigan prisons could become home to hundreds of California inmates if a deal can be struck. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm sent a letter Monday to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formally offering space for some of the inmates California is running out of room to house to Michigan. Download: Ganholm Letter To Schwarzenegger Michigan plans to close two prisons by the end of September. They are the Standish Maximum Correctional facility about 145 miles northwest of Detroit and a medium-security prison in Muskegon, about 45 miles northwest of Grand Rapids. Michigan could save the jobs of about... ClickOnDetriot http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2281940/posts#comment Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:27:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2279086/posts Tens Of Thousands Pennsylvania Prison Inmates ... ... will still be paid for the jobs they do at state correctional institutions even as the people who guard them and see to their welfare run the risk of going unpaid in the event of a budget impasse this summer, The Morning Call has learned. Concerns about public safety helped drive the decision to continue paying the 31,175 inmates who do everything from serve meals to sweep cell-blocks at the state’s 27 correctional institutions. They’re paid 19 cents to 42 cents an hour for their labors, spokespeople for Gov. Ed Rendell and... Capital Ideas http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2279086/posts#comment Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:02:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276683/posts Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has ordered the release of 'all' Hamas prisoners, including those held on security charges, a senior aide told al-Jazeera from Ramallah on Monday. Azzam Ahmed, the head of the parliamentary bloc of Abbas’ Fatah party charged with holding reconciliation talks with the rival Hamas movement ruling Gaza, told the Doha-based channel the release would get underway in the coming days. The Palestinian Ma’an news agency, however, quoted sources close to Abbas as saying Hamas prisoners would only be released on “condition they do not pose a threat to general security and law and order.” Abbas had... Khaleej Times Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276683/posts#comment Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:12:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275810/posts NORRISTOWN — When Wendy Lavin discovered that jail cell writings from her daughter's killer were for sale on the Internet, she was horrified. "I was disgusted. I felt sick to my stomach," said Lavin, whose 20-year-old daughter, Jennifer Louise Still, was stabbed to death by serial killer John Charles Eichinger in 1999. "I could not believe that after everything I had been through with the murder and trial, it was like it was happening all over again. I could not believe that something so horrific was going on and I wasn't aware of it." Lavin discovered the Web site when... The Pottstown Mercury http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275810/posts#comment Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:35:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2261926/posts GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- A session of the Guantanamo war crimes court that began Sunday will likely show the difficulties President Barack Obama faces in changing the system and closing the prison by January. The case in question, of a Canadian charged with killing an American soldier, is stalled by infighting among lawyers. Other defendants have even more complex legal issues, and officials say the U.S. may have to choose between delaying Guantanamo's closure or quickly finding somewhere else to hold the trials. "I don't think they'll get a single trial done by January," said Michael Berrigan,... Orange County Register http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2261926/posts#comment Mon, 1 Jun 2009 03:54:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2260779/posts HARDIN, Mont. (AP) - On Capitol Hill, politicians are dead-set against transferring some of the world's most feared terrorists from Guantanamo to prisons on U.S. soil. But at City Hall in this impoverished town on the Northern Plains, the attitude is: Bring 'em on. Hardin, a dusty town of 3,400 people so desperate that it built a $27 million jail a couple of years ago in the vain hope it would be a moneymaker, is offering to house hundreds of Gitmo detainees at the brand-new, never-used institution. The medium-security jail was conceived as a holding facility for drunks and other... Associated Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2260779/posts#comment Fri, 29 May 2009 19:37:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2258983/posts In California's latest doom-and-gloom announcement, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance on Tuesday proposed closing the state's main welfare program, releasing nonviolent prisoners one year early and shuttering up to 80 percent of state parks to shrink the state's $24.3 billion budget deficit. Schwarzenegger wants $5.6 billion in new cuts to replace a like amount of borrowing he proposed in his budget plan earlier this month. The Republican governor previously asked for more than $15 billion in other savings by slashing schools and Medi-Cal, laying off 5,000 state workers and borrowing money from local governments. The governor's plan would release... Sacramento Bee http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2258983/posts#comment Wed, 27 May 2009 13:04:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2254817/posts With the Democratic no-go on Guantánamo (I'll leave it to the better informed to ascertain the degree that the Democratic Congress came to the rescue of an embarrassed Obama administration and cut off funding for the shutdown to allow him an out with the now familiar excuse of "they did it — not me, who keeps promises"), I think we now have come to the end to the five-year left-wing attack theme of Bush "shredding the Constitution." Except for the introduction of euphemisms and a few new ballyhooed but largely meaningless protocols, there is no longer a Bush-did-it argument. The... National Review Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2254817/posts#comment Wed, 20 May 2009 17:32:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2220749/posts WASHINGTON – A federal judge ruled on Thursday that prisoners in the war on terror can use U.S. civilian courts to challenge their detention at a military air base in Afghanistan. U.S. District Judge John Bates turned down the United States' motion to deny the right to three foreign detainees at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to challenge their detention in court. But the government had argued that it did not apply to those in Afghanistan. AP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2220749/posts#comment Thu, 2 Apr 2009 16:16:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2212481/posts Israeli Minister: "Two-Thirds of Freed Hamas Prisoners Returned to Terror and Murdered Israelis" Voice of Israel Radio-Hebrew - via dailyalert.org ("Voice of Israel Radio-Hebrew - via dailyalert.org") via INTERNET-HAGANAH.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2212481/posts#comment Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:48:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2208525/posts During a special cabinet meeting called to discuss the status of negotiations for the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, ministers were presented on Tuesday with a list of ten high-profile Palestinian prisoners which Israel was willing to release so long as they were not allowed to return to the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. The ministers were also read a list of prisoners which Hamas has demanded be included in the deal, but which Israel adamantly refuses to free. In an unprecedented move, the cabinet voted to publish the names of the latter ten prisoners. Below are... The Jerusalem Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2208525/posts#comment Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:32:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2186972/posts ~ EXCERPT ~ Three times a day, the inmates at Madison Correctional Institution discover what a budget deficit tastes like. >>> snip <<< Corn bread replaces sliced bread at some meals. Inmates will get one sweetener packet instead of four. In the Sunshine State's prisons, orange juice is made from concentrate. "It's all right, but 100 percent juice is better," said Charles Christian, 24, six months into a two-year term at Madison for drug and weapon offenses. "Sometimes it's all right – like the peanut butter. They give you enough, but it's hard to eat, it's so thick. And they... Miami Herald http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2186972/posts#comment Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:16:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2182194/posts Federal judges on Monday tentatively ordered California to release tens of thousands of inmates, up to a third of all prisoners, in the next three years to stop dangerous overcrowding. As many as 57,000 could be let go if the current population were cut by the maximum percentage considered by a three-judge panel. Judges said the move could be done without threatening public safety -- and might improve a public safety hazard. The state immediately said it would appeal the final ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Trend-setting California, the Golden State, has an immense prison system responsible for nearly... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2182194/posts#comment Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:35:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2175115/posts It was less than a Great Escape. Two New Zealand prisoners who were handcuffed together as they fled a courthouse foiled their own getaway when they ran to opposite sides of a light pole you tube http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2175115/posts#comment Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:13:11 GMT