prison

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Obama Books Banned for Jailed Terrorist

(Newser) - Prison officials refused to let an al-Qaeda terrorist serving 30 years in Supermax, a prison in Colorado, read Barack Obama's books, the Daily Telegraph reports. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, an American citizen convicted of conspiring to, among other things, assassinate then–President George W. Bush, was told that the books...

Madoff Won't Appeal
 Madoff Won't Appeal 
Jul 9, 2009 2:59 PM CDT

Madoff Won't Appeal

Conman resigned to life in prison

(Newser) - Bernie Madoff will do his time, his lawyer said today. The 71-year-old con man sentenced to 150 years in prison on a slew of fraud charges related to his massive Ponzi scheme won’t file an appeal, Bloomberg reports. “In terms of the appeal, done, over,” Madoff’s...

Video Prison Visits Bring Inmates Home

Pioneering program lets loved ones visit jail without leaving home

(Newser) - Families can visit incarcerated relatives from the comfort of their living rooms through a first-of-its-kind program in Indiana, the AP reports. Visitors on the approved list are allowed to schedule video conferences with inmates from anywhere they choose. Prisoners use ATM-like machines set up and paid for by a private...

Madoff Sentence a Massive Waste: Alec Baldwin

(Newser) - Alec Baldwin throws water on the general celebration of Bernie Madoff's prison sentence, arguing that the 150-year term handed down to the fraudster Monday was a wasted opportunity. "I want to suggest, as I am confident others have, that Madoff be given a reduced sentence in exchange for answering...

US Won't Charge Ruth Madoff

Not enough evidence to nab Bernie's wife in Ponzi scheme

(Newser) - Ruth Madoff won’t be prosecuted in her husband’s giant Ponzi scheme, insiders tell the New York Post, because the feds didn't find enough evidence against her after a 6-month probe. She had “no criminal exposure,” one source says. But if something new turns up, authorities could...

Rikers Officials Fawned Over Foxy Brown

Rapper wore designer duds, did photo shoot

(Newser) - Rapper Foxy Brown received star treatment on Rikers Island, wearing designer clothes and enjoying visits from prison officials during her 9-month stay on a parole violation, the New York Post reports. Angry Department of Corrections insiders say Brown was allowed private meals and cosmetics, unlimited TV and phone use, and...

Lavish Bar Prison Bar Mitzvah Leaves Mayor Fuming

Dozens of guests allowed into jail for catered party; city sprang for overtime

(Newser) - Embarrassed New York City officials are investigating how a well-connected inmate was allowed to hold a bar mitzvah for his son inside a prison gym, the New York Post reports. Caterers, entertainers, and 60 guests were allowed into the jail to celebrate the milestone for the son of convicted scam...

Gambling NBA Ref Gets Early Release After Mob Beating

(Newser) - The NBA ref imprisoned for betting on games will finish his 15-month sentence in a halfway house, the Tampa Tribune reports; he’ll be released Wednesday. A press release from a “prisoner advocacy group” said Donaghy is being sprung early because he “was injured during an assault in...

Phil Spector, Unveiled
 Phil Spector, Unveiled 
Jun 10, 2009 9:26 PM CDT

Phil Spector, Unveiled

(Newser) - What a difference a wig—or lack of one—makes. California released the prison mug shot of Phil Spector today, revealing him to be a rather ordinary looking bald guy, the Daily News reports. The renowned music producer, always seen in public (and court) with a very full head of...

Journalists Face Hellish Sentence in Korean Gulag

Survivors describe torture, starvation in 're-education' camps

(Newser) - The 12 years of hard labor facing Euna Lee and Laura Ling hardly seem like a weekend in county lockup, but yesterday's sentence is particularly brutal in North Korea, where prisoners routinely face torture and often death. The two journalists may be sent to a re-education reformatory, reports the Los ...

Heartsick Journo Families Plead for Mercy

(Newser) - The "shocked and devastated" families of two San Francisco journalists sentenced to 12 years hard labor in North Korea have pleaded with authorities to show compassion and free the women from a grueling future behind bars. The families are concerned about the "wellbeing and mental state" of Euna...

Never Mind Gitmo—the Real Prison Problem Is Here

(Newser) - The collective freak-out over closing Guantanamo proves that Americans do care about prisons and prisoners, but Gitmo “is a mere speck in the eye of America’s larger prison program,” writes Dahlia Lithwick in Newsweek. That’s why Sen. Jim Webb of the “lock ‘em up”...

Colorado Town Would Welcome Gitmo Inmates

Supermax is already home to Unabomber, '20th hijacker'

(Newser) - Members of Congress have protested President Obama's efforts to move Guantanamo inmates to US prisons, but residents of Florence, Colo., say they wouldn't mind taking in a few enemy combatants. The supermax prison near town already holds some of the world's most infamous terrorists: a 1993 World Trade Center assailant,...

French Cons Roll in 'Penal Tour de France'

Breakaway sprints banned as prisoners set off on 1,500 mile exercise

(Newser) - Nearly 200 French prisoners hit the road today for the first penal Tour de France, the BBC reports. The inmates, accompanied by over 100 cycling gendarmes, will make stops in 17 towns—each with a prison—over the course of the 1500 mile race. The prisoners will cycle in a...

Pregnant Brit Gets Life Sentence in Laos

Convicted of trafficking 1.5 pounds of heroin

(Newser) - A pregnant British woman convicted of drug trafficking in Laos last year has been handed a life sentence, AFP reports. Samantha Orobator, 20, who was nabbed while trying to board a plane to Thailand, had been found found guilty of trafficking 1.5 pounds of heroin, said a UK embassy...

Freed Would-Be Ford Assassin: 'It Was Wrong'

She thought it would spark revolution

(Newser) - The woman who attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975 says she was “misled” and “mistaken” to do so. “I really thought that it would trigger a new revolution,” Sara Jane Moore told NBC today after serving 32 years in prison. “I think I...

Peterson Calls Radio Show to Joke About Prison

(Newser) - That Drew Peterson is quite a card. In prison on charges of murdering his third wife, Peterson called a Chicago radio station this morning to crack jokes about prison life, reports TMZ. Among other things, Peterson told the Mancow & Cassidy show on WLS-AM that they should run a “...

TI Checks Into Jail Early
 TI Checks Into Jail Early 
May 26, 2009 1:39 PM CDT

TI Checks Into Jail Early

Rapper will serve 366 days on weapons charges

(Newser) - Rapper TI began his prison sentence early today, leaving his home in Georgia and checking into the Arkansas federal facility before the noon deadline, TMZ reports. The time is a year and a day in the minimum-security Forrest City prison; the crime was attempting to buy unregistered machine guns and...

How Many Cigarettes for a Cell Phone?
How Many Cigarettes for
a Cell Phone?
May 26, 2009 12:40 PM CDT

How Many Cigarettes for a Cell Phone?

Prisons awash in smuggled phones as authorities crack down

(Newser) - We know the kind of thing that gets traded on the prison black market: weapons, alcohol, drugs, cigarettes. Now add cell phones to the list, Time reports: Authorities say there is an epidemic of smuggled cell phones, which have been used to orchestrate crimes, plot escapes, and harass witnesses, in...

Journalist Saberi Back in US
 Journalist Saberi Back in US 
May 22, 2009 6:12 PM CDT

Journalist Saberi Back in US

(Newser) - Roxana Saberi, the journalist who spent 4 months in an Iranian prison, was greeted this afternoon with cheers and hugs from friends as she returned to her native US. Saberi, 32, told reporters at Washington Dulles International Airport that singing the national anthem helped keep her going. "And it...

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