prisoners

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Colo. Fire Forces Evacuation of 900 Prisoners

4 blazes have destroyed dozens of homes

(Newser) - Wildfires are raging in Colorado, and one of them caused more than 900 prisoners to be evacuated from a state prison early today. The medium- and low-risk prisoners were taken by bus to other prisons, a spokesperson tells the AP . The fire hasn't actually reached the Colorado Territorial Correctional...

Inmates Host Raunchy Party at Prison Nightclub

Venezuelan prisoners invite friends, family to bash

(Newser) - For a fun night, visit the local ... prison? Seems inmates in Venezuela have built their own nightclub and hosted an inaugural bash including strippers and a light show, AFP reports. According to a local paper, the inmates at a prison on Margarita Island invited friends and family over for the...

Single Round Fired at Gitmo as Tensions Mount

Lawyer says detainees growing more desperate

(Newser) - The US military is admitting a Guantanamo guard fired "one non-lethal round" at prisoners in a Jan. 2 incident, possibly marking the first gunfire response inside the detention camp, reports the Miami Herald . (Rubber bullets may have been used during a 2006 prisoner uprising.) The event occurred on...

Palestinians Sneak Sperm Out of Israeli Prisons

Fertility doctor cooks up smuggling scheme

(Newser) - The wives of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons are getting pregnant in an odd way—by smuggling out the prisoners' sperm, NBC News reports. But the families won't say how they get the sperm past a glass separation, body search, and an airport-style scanner. "If I told you...

Afghanistan Tortures Prisoners: Report

The NDS has 'secret places' for torture, official says

(Newser) - Afghanistan is torturing nearly a third of prisoners handed over by NATO and using secret facilities to do it, according to an anticipated UN report . What's more, several hundred prisoners interviewed for the report offered "credible and reliable evidence" that more than 50% of them have been abused...

Escaped Convict Told Judge: 'You'll Hear From Me'

Fellow escapee's mother offers police a lead

(Newser) - The bank robbers who scaled the side of a high-rise Chicago prison are still eluding police, though officials have an informant: The mother of one of the men says they visited her in the suburbs. Kenneth Conley's mom told the pair she couldn't help them. "Then she...

Chicago Inmates Escape ... From 17 Floors Up

Bank robbers hunted after daring escape

(Newser) - Cops in Chicago are hunting two bank robbers who pulled off a daring escape from one of the world's only high-rise prisons yesterday morning. Cellmates Joseph "Jose" Banks and Kenneth Conley are believed to have squeezed through a narrow window and scaled down 17 stories to the ground,...

NC Inmates: Guards Tortured Us With Hot Sauce

State probing claims prisoners were forced to kiss snakes

(Newser) - Prison officials in North Carolina are calling for a criminal investigation after inmates alleged correctional officers forced them to rub habañero sauce on their genitals, resulting in painful blisters. A state Department of Public Safety spokeswoman says officials have asked the State Bureau of Investigation to review conduct at...

Jesse Jackson Convinces Gambia to Free US Prisoners

President suspends dozens of executions: Jackson's group

(Newser) - Gambia's president has agreed to release a pair of Americans imprisoned for treason, thanks to the work of Jesse Jackson, CNN reports. President Yahya Jammeh will also indefinitely suspend the executions of dozens of death-row inmates, says Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition, after Jammeh planned to execute all of...

Pagan Prisoners: Let Us Wear Robes or Go 'Skyclad'

British prisoner says hooded robe should be kosher, too

(Newser) - Pagans say they're fed up with prejudicial treatment in British prisons. Two in particular are complaining that prison rules won't let them pray as Pagans traditionally do—either wearing a druidic robe or going "skyclad" (known to the rest of us as naked). Other prisoners can wear...

Torture Kills Hundreds of Syrian Prisoners

 Torture Kills Hundreds 
 of Syrian Prisoners 
says group
Jan 6, 2012 8:45 AM CST

Torture Kills Hundreds of Syrian Prisoners

Prisoners are deprived of sleep, shocked, claims human rights group

(Newser) - A suicide bomb in Syria's capital, reportedly aimed at a police bus, killed and wounded dozens today, the AP reports, as the country's political turmoil continues. And more disheartening news: A human rights group yesterday claimed that the government regularly tortures hundreds of prisoners; according to its research...

Vegas Prisoners Restore Classic Cars

It's an 'amazing' program, says one inmate

(Newser) - When it comes to behind-bars occupations, it’s not all license-plate-making anymore: At the Southern Desert Correctional Center, near Las Vegas, some 33 medium-security inmates show up Monday through Friday to restore vintage cars. "We've got a '56 Jaguar, a '48 Rolls Royce, and a Studebaker...

Texas Prisons Cut Lunch on Weekends

Measure is designed to save money

(Newser) - Texas prisons are taking some heat over a decision to keep cooks out of their kitchens. Since April the state has been serving prisoners just two meals a day on weekends in some prisons, in an effort to cut food service costs, the New York Times reports. (Amusingly, the meal...

Afghanistan Routinely Tortures Prisoners: UN

'Even stones confess here,' one guard said; Kabul promises reform

(Newser) - A UN investigation has uncovered “a compelling pattern … of systemic torture and ill-treatment” in Afghan prisons, with prisoners reporting being beaten and shocked with electrical cables, hung by their hands, and having their genitals twisted until they passed out, the New York Times reports. Nearly half of all...

LA to State: We Can't Watch All These Cons

California dumps responsibility onto county, city

(Newser) - The good news for California is that its state prison system has a lot fewer prisoners and parolees to deal with. The bad news, according to the mayor and police chief of Los Angeles, is that crime on the streets is going to rise. The state last weekend shifted responsibility...

California Prisons Set to Release 4K Moms

But female inmates who don't have kids are out of luck

(Newser) - Thousands of mothers currently doing time will head home soon as California rushes to shrink prison populations . Moms with 2 years or less left to serve for “non-serious, non-sexual” crimes—possibly half of the state’s 9,500 female prisoners—may be released within days; once home, they’ll...

UK, CIA Linked to Rendition Plot With Gadhafi Regime

One victim is now head of anti-Gadhafi forces

(Newser) - Today's bloodthirsty dictator was apparently yesterday's Western helpmate. Documents discovered in an abandoned Libyan government office reveal that the Brits, CIA and Libya were involved in a plan to deliver a terror suspect—with his wife and children—to a Tripoli prison where they likely faced torture, reports...

Inmate Sues Michigan Over Prison's No-Porn Policy

Calls lack of smut 'psychological warfare against prisoners'

(Newser) - No porn in prison? That's against the Constitution—or so says one brazen bank robber in Michigan, who's suing the governor and the state over Macomb Country Jail's no-porn policy, calling it cruel and unusual punishment. In a five-page, handwritten lawsuit, the 21-year-old prisoner says not having...

US May Allow Family Visits for Gitmo Prisoners

Red Cross is pushing for greater access

(Newser) - Gitmo prisoners may soon get a long-sought privilege: family visits. The Washington Post reports that the Pentagon and the international Red Cross are in hush-hush negotiations to make it happen. Some of the 172 detainees at Guantanamo Bay are currently allowed to take part in monitored video chats with their...

South Carolina Goes After Facebooking Prisoners

Would tack 30 days on to the sentence of those found updating their status, etc.

(Newser) - It doesn't seem too hard to get access to a cellphone in prisons these days (see here and here )—and, by extension, update one's Facebook status. And South Carolina has had enough. The state is hoping to be the first in the nation to make in-prison status updates a...

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