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Record-high ratio of Americans in prison
For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of ever
100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report
documenting America’s rank as the world’s No. 1 incarcerator. It
urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-
risk offenders behind bars. For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of ever 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report ... more -
Woman kept prisoner by husband for 50 years
A woman in Italy was kept a prisoner in her own home by her husband for 50 years. During her ordeal, she was only allowed out of the house when accompanied by her husband and was not allowed to speak with anyone else.
She managed to escape when she was admitted to a hospital at Trento, a few miles from her home in the nearby Val di Non in norhern Italy, for heart trouble. She told doctors that her jealous husband had kept her a prisoner in their home virtually since the day they married in 1958.
A police spokesman said: "It appears that the woman was kept a virtual prisoner in her own home for 50 years. She was only allowed out when her husband was with her and if he went out on his own he would lock all the doors and windows. At 5pm when he came back he would lock the place down, She was not even allowed to see her children and they were not allowed to visit. The TV was also forbidden and there were also times when he would beat her. It's a very sad story and the woman's life has been made a misery by her husband - if it wasn't for the fact she was admitted to hospital and bravely decided to speak out her ordeal would have continued."
The couple, who were not identified, are both in their seventies and are believed to have two grown-up children. A woman in Italy was kept a prisoner in her own home by her husband for 50 years. During her ordeal, she was only allowed out of the h... more -
Revealed: "secret" executions being carried out in Saddam's old int...
Hundreds of "insurgents" have been executed since 2003, victims of the same summary justice they mete out to their own captives.
Like all wars, the dark, untold stories of the Iraqi conflict drain from its shattered landscape like the filthy waters of the Tigris. And still the revelations come.
The Independent has learned that secret executions are being carried out in the prisons run by Nouri al-Maliki's "democratic" government.
The hangings are carried out regularly -- from a wooden gallows in a small, cramped cell -- in Saddam Hussein's old intelligence headquarters at Kazimiyah. There is no public record of these killings in what is now called Baghdad's "high-security detention facility" but most of the victims -- there have been hundreds since America introduced "democracy" to Iraq -- are said to be insurgents, given the same summary justice they mete out to their own captives.
The secrets of Iraq's death chambers lie mostly hidden from foreign eyes but a few brave Western souls have come forward to tell of this prison horror. The accounts provide only a glimpse into the Iraqi story, at times tantalizingly cut short, at others gloomily predictable. Those who tell it are as depressed as they are filled with hopelessness.
"Most of the executions are of supposed insurgents of one kind or another," a Westerner who has seen the execution chamber at Kazimiyah told me. "But hanging isn't easy." As always, the devil is in the detail.
"There's a cell with a bar below the ceiling with a rope over it and a bench on which the victim stands with his hands tied," a former British official, told me last week. "I've been in the cell, though it was always empty. But not long before I visited, they'd taken this guy there to hang him. They made him stand on the bench, put the rope round his neck and pushed him off. But he jumped on to the floor. He could stand up. So they shortened the length of the rope and got him back on the bench and pushed him off again. It didn't work."
There's nothing new in savage executions in the Middle East -- in the Lebanese city of Sidon 10 years ago, a policeman had to hang on to the legs of a condemned man to throttle him after he failed to die on the noose -- but in Baghdad, cruel death seems a specialty.
"They started digging into the floor beneath the bench so that the guy would drop far enough to snap his neck," the official said. "They dug up the tiles and the cement underneath. But that didn't work. He could still stand up when they pushed him off the bench. So they just took him to a corner of the cell and shot him in the head."
The condemned prisoners in Kazimiyah, a Shia district of Baghdad, are said to include rapists and murderers as well as insurgents. One prisoner, a Chechen, managed to escape from the jail with another man after a gun was smuggled to them. They shot two guards dead. The authorities had to call in the Americans to help them recapture the two. The Americans killed one and shot the Chechen in the leg. He refused medical assistance so his wound went gangrenous. In the end, the Iraqis had to operate and took all the bones out of his leg. By the time he met one Western visitor to the prison, "he was walking around on crutches with his boneless right leg slung over his shoulder."
********CONTINUES**************** Hundreds of "insurgents" have been executed since 2003, victims of the same summary justice they mete out to their own capti... more -
McCains noisy ghost in closet
The Wall Street Journal touches on the Keating Five scandal and suggests that McCain may have to answer to it after all:
The latest salvo came on Monday when an Obama spokesman, Bill Burton, invoked Charles Keating in hitting back at the McCain campaign for suggesting that Barack Obama had received a pass from the press. Burton said John McCain had been little scrutiny of his association to Keating despite being "centrally involved" in "the last major financial regulatory crisis, resulting in a huge bailout."
Asked by reporters if the Obama campaign planned to make Keating an issue, senior strategist Robert Gibbs was coy: "If we're going to talk about what's fair game in terms of people in a relationship, I don't see how... that wouldn't be important."
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who was labeled the leader of a "corrupt" machine in a McCain campaign ad yesterday, suggests he's all for it.
"You had the Keating Five. We had the biggest scandal in America called savings and loan. The biggest scandal, Daley told the Chicago Sun-Times. "So, if people start throwing dirt and mud, remember it comes back and hits you right in the face ... It would be a great ad. Remember: People lost their life savings, their own homes for a guy named Keating out of Arizona." The Wall Street Journal touches on the Keating Five scandal and suggests that McCain may have to answer to it after all: ... more -
Music helps to rehabilitate prisoners
New research has shown that music projects help to improve prisoners' learning skills.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge examined the impact of programmes in which inmates took part in learning and creating music. About a quarter of these prisoners were illiterate - and the study found that music projects had "discernible impacts on participants' learning skills" and significantly increased their readiness to learn to read and write.
The study, called Beats and Bars, was an evaluation of the Irene Taylor Trust Music in Prisons project which, for 13 years, has been using music as a way of "raising life aspirations" among prison inmates. The project has run in 51 prisons and young offenders institutes and spends time with inmates in learning, rehearsing and performing music. It aims to help prisoners develop a more positive and creative view of life and improve their chance of successful rehabilitation.
Researchers Alexandra Cox and Loraine Gelsthorpe of the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, said that such music projects improve the "motivation to participate in additional learning and skills projects". New research has shown that music projects help to improve prisoners' learning skills. ... more -
Caring makes us human
Troy Chapman on National Public Radio
We have some very exciting news... On Sunday, Sept. 28 somewhere around 9:30-10:00 a.m. ET, Troy Chapman can be heard reading his essay for the "This I Believe" radio series during Weekend Edition Sunday on National Public Radio.
"This I Believe is an international project engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values that guide their daily lives. These short statements of belief, written by people from all walks of life, are archived here and featured on public radio in the United States and Canada, as well as in regular broadcasts on NPR. The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow." (—from the series Web site)
Troy joins others whose essays have been produced for radio, including authors, artists, musicians, statesmen and -women, academics, entertainers, and many more who are unknown outside their circle of family, friends and associates. Troy Chapman on National Public Radio ... more -
Jail Kids
An undercover investigation into the abuse of children in Philippine jails.
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In the end, OJ Simpson comes up a loser in Vegas
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- In a city where luck means everything, O.J. Simpson came out the big loser - and his unlucky number in a case full of bizarre twists was 13.
He was convicted of an armed robbery that happened on Sept. 13 and was found guilty on the 13th anniversary of his Los Angeles murder acquittal. The Las Vegas jury deliberated for 13 hours after a 13-day trial.
And then, as only the sobs of Simpson's sister broke the silence late Friday, the lights went out.
Court marshals flipped on flashlights and shouted for everyone to stay seated. Only the judge knew what had happened. It was 11 p.m. and the courthouse lights had shut down automatically.
"Timed out," Judge Jackie Glass said in a fitting epitaph for the story of O.J. Simpson, which has long haunted America.
The 61-year-old Hall of Fame football star was convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery and 10 other charges for gathering five men a year ago and storming a room at a hotel-casino to seize Simpson sports mementos - including game balls, plaques and photos - from two collectors. Prosecutors said two of the men with him were armed; one said Simpson had asked him to bring a gun.
After the verdict, Simpson, the sports-idol-turned-celebrity-pariah, was handcuffed and led from the room with his co-defendant, Clarence "C.J." Stewart. They could spend the rest of their lives in prison.
"There is justice," said attorney Gloria Allred, who has represented the family of his slain ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson. "Justice was delayed, but in this case it was not denied. Now that he may spend the rest of his life in prison, the law, and not O.J. Simpson, will have the last word."
Some observers said the Las Vegas case paled in comparison to the "trial of the century" in 1995, a yearlong opus in which Simpson was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend Ronald Goldman.
A rapt nation followed the Los Angeles trial. Tales of a gruesome murder and a bloody glove, as well as the celebrity defendant, drew a media frenzy.
In Las Vegas, Simpson's fate played out in a small courtroom dotted with empty seats. Even the stunning verdict came as most of America slept, oblivious to the irony that Simpson might spend the rest of his life in prison for what most perceived as a petty crime, a tussle among dysfunctional middle-aged men. LAS VEGAS (AP) -- In a city where luck means everything, O.J. Simpson came out the big loser - and his unlucky number in a case full o... more -
Chuck D's Influence
Beastie Boy Adam Yauch reflects on the influence of Chuck D on his perception of race in America, as well as shares his assessment of how things are going in the present with regard to black-white race issues. Beastie Boy Adam Yauch reflects on the influence of Chuck D on his perception of race in America, as well as shares his assessment of ... more
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5 Star Prison // Comment Picked For TV
Thanks to Ryansgirl253 for her thoughts on the pod "5 Star Prison". Check out this pod and leave your own comments at http://current.com/items/86263181_5_star_prison Thanks to Ryansgirl253 for her thoughts on the pod "5 Star Prison". Check out this pod and leave your own comments at http:/... more
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Thief forced on a walk of shame
Simon Cremer and three of his employees allegedly wrestled Mark Gilbert to the ground, tied his hands behind his back and bundled him into a van. Cremer, who suspected him of theft decided to make an example of him - and throw political correctness out of the window at the same time.
What price should Simon Cremer pay for taking justice into his own hands? Simon Cremer and three of his employees allegedly wrestled Mark Gilbert to the ground, tied his hands behind his back and bundled him ... more -
Conservatives to crack down on youth crime
The Tories have carved out a niche as the tough-on-crime party, focusing on stiff punishment because they say it is a deterrent.
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The Changing of the Guard
IN her 19 years as a corrections officer on Rikers Island, Barbara Williams has been trapped in a mess hall with rioting inmates and thrown against an iron gate by a man twice her size who left her with a fractured shoulder. But nothing makes her wince like remembering the time an inmate commented on the way her hips swayed ever so slightly beneath her boxy blue uniform, back when she first came on the job.
“He said: ‘Damn! You remind me of a pantyhose commercial,’ ” recalled Ms. Williams, who is in her late 40s and has a compact build and a deep, raspy voice. “The feeling I had all that day was as if he had touched me or something.”
She spoke of the episode one recent afternoon at Horizon Academy, a high school for male inmates that is in the George Motchan Detention Center, one of eight jails on the island holding inmates awaiting trial. Ms. Williams cited the man’s comment as a crucial moment in her career.
“I saw right off that I have to change my demeanor: I have to be more forceful; I have to harden myself,” said Ms. Williams, a single mother of two grown daughters. That very night, she went back to her apartment in Jamaica, Queens, and practiced stiffening her walk in front of a mirror.
“It’s like I tell my daughters: In life, you have to know when to be a woman and when to be a lady,” she said. “I don’t feel that ladies belong in jail. So, that softer part of me, I try to leave outside. I walk in here, and I try to be 110 percent woman.”
Women have worked in the city’s Department of Correction for decades, but never in such large numbers as they do today. Women make up 45 percent of about 9,300 uniformed employees of the department, according to the agency. From guards to wardens to the four-star chief, Carolyn Thomas, they fill almost every rank. And in many respects, they are changing the culture of the city’s jails. IN her 19 years as a corrections officer on Rikers Island, Barbara Williams has been trapped in a mess hall with rioting inmates and t... more -
Pictures: "Lego Block" Prison Cells Readied In Utah
Pictures of concrete prison cells being unloaded from wagons in Utah earlier this month have surfaced on the internet, causing a storm of debate over their purpose.
The cells are designed specifically so they can be snapped together side by side and on top of each other like lego blocks to form rows and columns. Pictures of concrete prison cells being unloaded from wagons in Utah earlier this month have surfaced on the internet, causing a storm... more -
Conservation at Her Majesty's Pleasure
Prison inmates around the UK are using their time to create paradises of conservation for rare species such as kingfishers, barn owls and slow-worms within the grounds of jails.
Nine of the UK's 140 prisons are now internationally recognised sites of special scientific interest; 2 are European special areas for conservation, and one is an 'internationally important wetland'.
The initiative, which costs next to nothing to run, has been found to reduce reoffending rates among prisoners, and has even drawn support from individuals campaigning for tougher sentencing conditions. Prison inmates around the UK are using their time to create paradises of conservation for rare species such as kingfishers, barn owls ... more -
Man jailed for killing his Hare Krishna mother
Evidence at trial painted a picture of a violent and dysfunctional home, headed by a controlling father and drug-addicted mother, both of whom were adherents of the Hare Krishna faith. Evidence at trial painted a picture of a violent and dysfunctional home, headed by a controlling father and drug-addicted mother, both... more
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Innocent and sentenced to 40-80 years at 17 years of age
In 1977, when Johnnie Lee Savory was 14, he was falsely accused and unjustly convicted for killing his best friend and his best friend's sister in their hometown of Peoria, Illinois. With the help of the Center on Wrongful Convictions and the support of groups like the Innocent Project, he was recently paroled and released in late 2006, after spending 30 years in prison.
In this video, Johnnie describes how the results of his first trial were thrown out, but he was convicted a second time when the prosecution manufactured a case against him. In 1977, when Johnnie Lee Savory was 14, he was falsely accused and unjustly convicted for killing his best friend and his best friend... more -
Craig Meehan, ex-partner of Shannon Matthews' mother Karen, guilty of child p...
The former partner of Shannon Matthews' mother has been sentenced to 20 weeks in jail for possessing child pornography.
But Craig Meehan, 22, is expected to be released from custody imminently because he has already spent 166 days in prison on remand.
He was convicted at Dewsbury Magistrates' Court of 11 counts relating to 49 images on a computer.
Meehan left the court under police escort in an unmarked car and he has been taken to a secret location.
His computer was seized from the home he shared with Karen Matthews, on Moorside Road, Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire, by police searching for Shannon earlier this year.
Indecent images of children aged between four and 16 were found on one of two computers at the home where Meehan lived with Matthews, 32, for around five years. The images were graded on a scale on which one is the least serious and five the most.
Meehan was found guilty of possessing 31 images at level one, 10 at level two, two at level three and six at level four.
District Judge Jonathan Bennett told Meehan: "The damage that has been caused to the children in these photographs is unimaginable."
Police experts told the court the computer contained 653 references to "Lolita" - a term commonly used by people interested in searching for child porn.
Officers searching for Shannon, who is now 10, seized the second-hand computer the day after she went missing in February.
Meehan was subsequently charged with child pornography offences in April.
He denied all the charges and told the court he had never searched for, or viewed, child porn. The former partner of Shannon Matthews' mother has been sentenced to 20 weeks in jail for possessing child pornography. ... more -
Winehouse's boyfriend Blake decides to stay in prison!
The husband of Amy Winehouse Blake Fielder-Civil, has chosen to stay in prison, despite reports he was offered the chance to move in with his mother while wearing an electronic tag.
why why why? The husband of Amy Winehouse Blake Fielder-Civil, has chosen to stay in prison, despite reports he was offered the chance to move in w... more -
Immigrant Prisoners Riot and Set Fires
Big Spring pigs rushed to the scene of a riot and fire from the Flightline Correctional Center near the Big Spring airport. The facility takes prisoners from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services. There were fires reported in the building.
Eight facility staff were injured and were treated for minor injuries.
The Flightline Correctional Center will not disclose any information on the reason people were rioting, nor how it started and how many prisoners were injured. Big Spring pigs rushed to the scene of a riot and fire from the Flightline Correctional Center near the Big Spring airport. The facili... more
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