Free Republic

<p>Most people realize that the court and penal systems in North America are seriously broken and must be fixed. With the possible exception of China, the United States currently imprisons more of its population than any other nation: the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports 2,033,331 imprisoned as of December 31, 2002.</p>

<p>A University of California-Berkeley student -- who spent nine days of anonymity in a San Jose jail as an act of civil disobedience -- was ordered Wednesday to pay restitution to a Sunnyvale company she had denounced as a war profiteer.</p>

<p>This is no fairy tale, even though it involves a centuries-dead British knight, a lady distressed, heraldry, provenance and a joust for justice.</p> <p>It is instead a present-day international art story in search of a happy ending, a drama being played out among a 12th-century church in a tiny English village, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a Grove City family and a Tennessee art professor.</p>

Air Force will pay $12,000 for bomb damage to home 12/28/2002 Associated Press EL PASO - Gloria Aker got a late Christmas present this week when the U.S. Air Force agreed to settle a claim for damage it caused when it accidentally bombed her Monahans home in July. Ms. Aker's home was hit by a dummy bomb accidentally dropped from an Air Force F-177A Nighthawk on a practice run from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. Although the dummy didn't contain explosives, it pierced the roof of Ms. Aker's home, flew across a bathroom, slammed through a wall...

Canal Area to try 'justice boards' By Rebecca Rosen Lum In communities throughout the nation, victims are facing down those who have hurt them and are designing restitution in "accountability boards" that have taken the place of traditional courtrooms. The Canal Area of San Rafael is next. The method is called "restorative justice." It's a diversion program open to misdemeanor offenders who plead guilty and agree to abide by the terms set by a board made up of residents - and victims, if they choose to participate. "We've been talking about this for a couple of years," San Rafael...