Free Republic

Employees at federal prisons aren’t able to collect a paycheck during the government shutdown, even though the inmates they are overseeing are being paid. A group of 100 guards at a federal prison camp in Yankton, S.D., still have to work in order to “protect human life and property,” but will have to trust the government to make good on their promise to retroactively pay them. In a cruel twist, the criminals locked up in the facility are still receiving their money for services rendered while they are in custody because there is a different funding tier for the prisoners’...

Iran released eight political prisoners on Wednesday in a diplomatic move that could pave the way for a face-to-face meeting with Obama administration officials. The White House has said there are “currently no plans” for President Obama to meet his Iranian counterpart at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Other top officials might run into each other, however, which would mark the resumption of direct U.S.-Iranian contacts for the first time since diplomatic relations were cut in 1980.

Terrorists from Gaza “thanked” Israel for releasing 26 terrorists by firing two rockets. One rocket exploded within Gaza. Terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza “thanked” Israel for releasing 26 terrorist murderers by firing two rockets at the southern part of the country on Tuesday night. One rocket exploded in an open area near the city of Sderot. There were no physical injuries or damages. Kol Yisrael radio reported that a second rocket exploded within Gaza.

U.S. Senate committee OKs Thomson prison funding By A U.S. Senate committee has approved funding to re-open the prison in Thomson as a federal facility. Sen. Dick Durbin is a member of the Appropriations Committee that approved $166 million Thursday to reactivate Thomson and two other prisons, buy 1,000 prison beds from private contractors and expand a program to reduce recidivism. The state opened the prison in northwestern Illinois in 2001 but never fully opened it because of budget problems. The federal government bought it for $165 million last fall. Durbin and Rep. Cheri Bustos (BOO’-stohs) — both Illinois Democrats...

The Associated Press reported as an “exclusive” earlier this morning that the Taliban have offered to release an American held for almost four years in a swap for Taliban members at Guantanamo Bay. The offer comes as the US tries to salvage the peace talks after pushback from Kabul: The Afghan Taliban say they are ready to hand over a U.S. soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their senior operatives being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison.A Taliban spokesman, Shaheen Suhail, says U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl “is as far as I know in good condition.”...

"Unlike Jews and others targeted by the Nazis, the Witnesses were prisoners of conscience. They could have bought freedom by signing a declaration card that renounced their faith and pledged allegiance to Hitler. Few took the offer. Most stayed, and many died. Why Hitler bothered to single out such a minor group - and the tenacity with which the Witnesses resisted him - is what makes their story significant, says Michael Berenbaum, director of the Research Institute at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington. "The Jehovah's Witnesses were literally the only martyrs of the Holocaust," Mr. Berenbaum says."

Just because they're already behind bars doesn't mean they aren't making out like bandits. Prisoner tax fraud has ballooned in recent years. In 2010, more than 91,000 inmate returns claimed $758 million in fraudulent refunds, a new audit from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration finds. That's more than double the previous year. While the IRS stopped the vast majority of fraudulent refunds from actually getting into the hands of prisoners, $35 million still slipped through the cracks.

ne-fourth of terrorists from Gaza, Judea and Samaria serving time in Israeli prisons are getting an education through Hamas, according to a report by the Hamas government in Gaza that was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). A Hamas project titled Jamat el-Ahrar (Sons of Freedom) allows prisoners to continue their studies in prison via Hamas. Terrorists in Israel’s prisons were previously eligible for free studies in Israeli schools. In 2010, the number of inmates enrolled in the Open University stood at 270, of which 210 were classified as “security prisoners” jailed for terror-related offenses. The practice...

In just 14 months, Americans will be required to prove that they have federally "qualified" health insurance or face an Obamacare tax of $695 to $2,085. That is unless you are in prison, below the poverty line, or are an undocumented immigrant, according to the anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform. When added together, those three groups total up to one-sixth of the nation's population of 314 million: 218,929 are in federal prisons, 12 million are illegals and 42 million are below the poverty line and eligible for welfare, though some fit into all three categories, according to federal reports....

The Gaza-based Salafist group Jaysh al-Umma accused the ruling Hamas movement on Monday of arresting and torturing six of its members, including its leader. In a statement obtained by AFP, the group said it was breaking the "media blackout" over the arrest of its leader Sheikh Ismail Hamid, also known as Abu Hafs al-Maqdisi. He is "languishing in the dark cells of the Hamas government, subjected to harsh interrogation," the group said, adding that five other members were also being held ...

(title continued) Americans held in Egypt Shocking. This would be the nadir of Obama's craven foreign policy of surrender, releasing the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured more than a thousand. Treason. Al-Arabiya: US in talks to swap jihad terror Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman & 49 others for 19 Americans held in Egypt thanks to Robert Spencer

Indeed, at the precise moment Panetta was meeting Morsy, the new president was releasing Islamist terrorists from Egyptian prisons. These include terrorists from Islamic Jihad, which is part of the al-Qaida coalition! How do you square that one, secretary Panetta? And finally, Morsy pointed out to Panetta that his own son was born in California, when the future Egyptian president was studying there. His son, Morsy pointed out, could be the president of the United States one day. This is all you need to know: The US government asked its good buddy Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy to inspect an Iranian...

The Western World is waiting for what’s coming next regarding Iran, so perhaps now is the time for President Obama to show his leadership. We know the president has been outspoken against Israel striking Iran, and he’s removed troops from Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere – so there’s no “American imperialism” taking place. Maybe it’s time for America to make some unique moves in the interest of peace, as is so often demanded of Israel. Maybe America should free all the Taliban prisoners it holds around the world, or open the doors of Guantanamo Bay, in exchange for Iran stopping any...

One in ten Florida adults -- and nearly one in four African Americans – cannot vote because of a felony conviction, by far the highest rate in the nation, a report released on Thursday indicated. The report by The Sentencing Project, an advocate for voting rights, found that more than 1.5 million felons were disenfranchised in Florida in 2010, including 1.3 million who were longer behind bars. Florida, a big swing state known for close elections and snafus at the polls, sends an extraordinary number of its residents to prison and has imposed some of the nation's toughest requirements for...

On Tuesday, Tom Brown at Reuters (HT CounterContempt.com aka "Republican Party Animals") wrote about the case of Quartavious Davis, a 20 year-old sentenced to life (and then some) after being "convicted of participating in a string of armed robberies in the Miami area in 2010." In the process, Brown, whose column title was inadvertently humorous ("Insight: Florida man sees 'cruel' face of U.S. justice"), demonstrated his lack of knowledge and failure to confirm through research by asserting that "United States ... prisons house fully one-quarter of all the prisoners in the world, most of them black." As David Stein at...

Welcome To The World's Nicest Prison BASTOY, Norway (CNN) -- Jan Petter Vala, who is serving a prison sentence for murder, has hands the size of dinner plates and shoulders like those of an ox. In an alcoholic rage, he used his brutish strength to strangle his girlfriend to death a few years ago. On a recent Thursday, however, at this summer-camp-like island prison in southern Norway, where convicts hold keys to their rooms and there are no armed guards or fences, Vala used those same enormous hands to help bring life into the world. The 42-year-old murderer stood watch...

A Palestinian Authority lawmaker says a deal has been reached with Israel to end a hunger strike by Arab prison inmates. The announcement confirmed a statement made earlier in the day by the Hamas terrorist organization that an agreement was in the process of being formulated. Hundreds of prisoners agreed Monday to end their strike after concessions were agreed to by the two sides, according to PA Minister for Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqe, who spoke with reporters. The agreement, brokered by Egyptian mediators, was reached at a prison in Ashkelon, with representatives of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and...

Hamas and Fatah are preparing to release the lion's share of their respective 'political prisoners' by the end of the year. “By the end of the year, all political detainees will be released except those who wish to remain in custody for special reasons related to their security both in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip,” the PA-affiliated Ma'an News Agency quoted PA negotiator Munib al-Masri on Saturday. The move comes on the heels of reconciliation talks between the rival factions in Cairo on Thursday that resulted in an announcement that Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other terror factions...

EXCLUSIVE    Perv lags getting paid to do rehab Fury at paedo jail ‘bribes’   Courses ... inmates can even pick up the cash by not attending the sessions   JAILED paedophiles are being PAID to take courses inside to stop them offending. Under prison rules, sick inmates who attend "offender behaviour programmes" get wages the same as if they have a job in jail. They can even pick up the cash by NOT attending the sessions — if they show they were willing to go but there were no spaces available. Last night Lyn Costello, of campaigning group Mothers Against...

Two female Afghan prisoners want to tell their stories. One is serving 12 years in jail for being raped; the other is in prison for running away from an abusive husband. With the help of the European Union, a London-based filmmaker made a documentary in late 2010 that exposed the plight of abused women in Afghanistan but the EU has now backtracked on the project. It wants to block the release of the film “In-Justice: The Story of Afghan Women in Jail” as it might upset “relations with the justice institutions.” Clementine Malpas, who was given financial aid for making...