Published: August 4, 2009
LOS ANGELES — A panel of federal judges ordered the California prison system on Tuesday to reduce its inmate population of 150,000 by 40,000 — roughly 27 percent — within two years.
The judges said that reducing prison crowding in California was the only way to change what they called an unconstitutional prison health care system that causes one unnecessary death a week.
In a scathing 184-page order, the judges said state officials had failed to comply with previous orders to fix the prison health care system and reduce crowding.
August 3, 2009
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter
More prisons are not the answer to America’s crime problems, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told the nation’s lawyers Monday.
“We will not focus exclusively on incarceration as the most effective means of protecting public safety,” Holder told the American Bar Association delegates meeting here for their annual convention. “Since 2003, spending on incarceration has continued to rise, but crime rates have flattened.”
Holder conceded that the massive build-up of prisons — a seven-fold increase over the past 40 years — probably has something to do with the crime rate dropping 40 percent since 1991.
Under a proposal, suspected terrorists would be tried and held in a hybrid ‘courtroom within a detention facility’ at an existing U.S. maximum-security prison.
By Josh Meyer and Julian E. Barnes
August 3, 2009
Reporting from Washington — The Obama administration could transfer Guantanamo inmates to be tried and detained at a hybrid military-civilian prison in the United States as part of a proposal being examined by U.S. security agencies, officials said Sunday.
The proposal for creating a combined detention and trial facility for Guantanamo inmates in an existing U.S. maximum-security prison is likely to be controversial. Congress has opposed bringing detainees to the United States, despite President Obama’s vow to close the naval prison in Cuba by January.
Cell phones have been a problem for prisons in other states
By Jackson Holtz
Herald Writer
MONROE — Prisons are using the finely tuned snout of a Labrador mix to sniff out illegal cell phones.
Jessie, 5, is stationed at the Monroe Correctional Complex. Along with border collie Razor — named after the popular Motorola handset — the dogs are trained to find high-tech contraband.
Cell phones can run up to $1,000 on the black market behind bars, said Chad Lewis, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. Once smuggled inside, prisoners can use them for a variety of illegal and possibly dangerous activities.
In the past, the state prison’s remote location meant cell phones wouldn’t work because they were out of range, Lewis said. Today, wireless signals easily breach prison walls.
By JESSICA GRESKO (AP) – 19 hours ago
MIAMI — In her online profile, Paula Jones says she is 42, “nonjudgmental” and likes fishing, gardening and cuddling. There’s a catch, though. Jones’ picture shows her in her blue Florida prison uniform. She won’t be out until at least 2010.
Her listing is posted on a Web site called WriteAPrisoner.com. She’s looking for a pen pal.
“If you’re looking for someone genuine and true, I’m looking for you,” her profile says. “I’m just a stamp away.”
By posting her profile, however, Jones is breaking a rule. Florida officials have banned inmates from having the Match.com-style listings, saying prisoners just create problems for their outside-the-pen pals.
