The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk.The government says in new court filings that those interrogation methods are now among the nation's most sensitive national security secrets and that their release -- even
One sordid revelation pursues another in the gradual unravelling of the Bush administration's "extraordinary rendition" programme. This is, perhaps, because "extraordinary rendition" is a newfangled phrase for an ancient crime - aggravated kidnapping. Hardly surprising, then, that each time something trickles out, the news is always bad. Yesterday's disclosure - reported on the front page o
The United States military s now holding at least 500 children in prison within Iraq and another ten in Iran at the Bargram base. The American government informed the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that over 2,500 children have been imprisoned since the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. According to informaton [...]
She describes being put in a cell one meter by one meter where she was able to sit with her arms around her knees and not allowed to sleep. "Every time I started to sleep they came and took me for more questions. They thought if I was tired I would say something about my brother or my friends. I never said anything." Approximately 10,000 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons. One hundred of t
The Bush administration faced a new barrage of questions and criticism Tuesday over the US policy of kidnapping and torturing suspects in the so-called “war on terror.” One victim of the illegal US practice of “rendition” filed suit against the US government in a Washington-area federal court, while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice faced mounting political controversy in the course of h
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is prepared to defy the weight of medical and scientific opinion in order to issue togher new laws today on possessiion of cannabis. He is overruling his own expert advisers and will reverse the downgrading of illegal drugs from a Class B to a Class C substance. He is threatening cannabis [...]
Photo by Robert Silverwood
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder or at least that’s how the saying goes. For a few people, beauty, is a bit more relative the people perceive it. Someone might consider an abstract painting horrific, while the other might find it simply enchanting. However there’s something truly magical about something [...]
General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2001 to 2005 was misled by Bush officials into believing interrogation techniques employed in the Guanatanamo prisons were based on Army field manuals. In his new book, “Torture Team,” Philippe Sands, professor at University Collge in London, reveals senior Bush administration leaders pushed through [...]
It looks like some interesting news came out of yesterday’s hearing on the joint select committee overseeing the Texas Youth Commission:
The Texas Youth Commission’s conservator is taking steps toward abandoning the state’s long-time strategy of farming youth offenders out to large, remote prisons.
Richard Nedelkoff said Wednesday that he has the wheels in motion to move juveniles to the facilities closest to their homes – which will probably mean phasing out or closing less-populated rural prisons.
Lawmakers believe the isolation of the youth prisons, which were the subject of widespread reports of physical and sexual abuse last year, contributed to their poor conditions.
“Right now we have kids all over the place,” Mr. Nedelkoff said at a legislative he
As if the Ed Okun embezzlement case does not have enough stress and heartache for the victims, aka “Train Wreck Victims” who lost their life savings, now a cursory check of the Bureau of Prison’s inmate locater shows the following status dated April 13, 2008 for Ed Okun: “RELEASED”
Although this is most likely an oversight, [...]
Since when is a can of vegetables a WEAPON that deserves two years in a prison system that is already bursting at the seams with murderers and rapists and pedophiles?
2 UI students charged with throwing cans from 6th story window
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- Two University of Iowa students who police say threw cans of food from sixth-story dorm window have been arrested.
William John Rinn
From the Yale Daily News : " ...One in 100 American adults is behind bars. That's 2.3 million people total. America imprisons more of its citizens than any other country in the world. China runs a close second, but of course, China has four times as many people as the U.S and is also a Communist dictatorship. America's incarceration rate is higher than every country in Europe combined. In fact, the prison population in the U.S. is equivalent to five Luxembourgs. [ ... ] Although American prisons are financially and ethically grievous, the incarceration rate continues to skyrocket with hardly a peep from politicians. This may be because the prison system impacts our society's most disempowered. Once you're convicted of a felony, you are stripped of your rights
Sample this little bit of bullshit from the Yale Daily News
“Prisons also typically fail to rehabilitate. In fact, they actively do the opposite. Inmates are exploited for cheap labor and endure overcrowding, brutality and poor services. They don’t cure criminal minds, but perpetuate violence. The United States increasingly builds its prisons as giant Supermax facilities [...]
CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE voice for the voiceless MARCH 2008 The religious rights of prisoners of conscience are systematically violated in Cuban prisons, according to a new report released by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) in London: Report distributed via internet by the Coalition of Cuban-American Women / Joseito76@aol.com
We are at the cloth market in downtown Guangzhou. In exchange for me putting on a thousand and one pashminas but not buying any because the patterns ‘aren’t quite right’, we stop off at the electronics market so Wilken can browse the, um, electronics. For ‘a minute or two’.
Six hours and twelve (Mandarin) magazines later [...]
Cross posted on Grizzly Groundswell
 This feel good liberal puff piece that appeared in today’s New Hampshire Union Leader is enough to make you throw up in your mouth a couple of times. It is all about how New Hampshire prisoners now have a vegan diet available to them as well as healthy dietary meals. Well thank God for that. I have to be honest, I couldn’t believe what I was reading, so let’s take a look at it, shall we?
“Prison food has traditionally gotten a bad rap, but you won’t hear many complaints from vegetarians and vegans who are serving time in New Hampshire. The delicious vegetarian shepherd’s pie, pot pies, lentil ‘meatballs,’ and tofu sandwiches have inmates asking for seconds,” PETA said in an announcement of the rankings yesterday.
 Now doesn’t that help you sleep at night? Just knowing that criminals are enjoying delicious tofu sandwiches on the taxpayer’s dime makes me feel as though my tax dollars
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
(Most wonderful time)
With the kids jingle-belling
And everyone telling you
Be of good cheer
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
(Wonderful time)
It’s the hap-happiest season of all (wonderful time)
With those holiday greetings
And great happy meetings
When friends come to call
It’s the hap-happiest season of all
There’ll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for roasting
And caroling out in the snow (out in the snow)
There’ll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories
Of Christmases long, long ago
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year – Andy Williams
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Asking Price: $630,000
Income Requirement: $157,500
Downpayment Needed: $126,000
Purchase Price: $436,500
Purchase Date: 12/13/2002
Address: 219 Terra Cotta, Irvine, CA 92603
First Mortgage $629,600
Second Mortgage $157,400
Total Debt $787,000
Beds: 3
Baths: 2.5
Sq. Ft.: 1,510
$/Sq. Ft.: $417
Lot Size:
According to Reuters, things are even worse in Israel-
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli judge has ordered the country’s prison authority to pay an inmate over $1,000 in compensation after he complained of having to share a cell with cockroaches.
Mordechai Yehudai filed a lawsuit complaining of poor hygiene, a lack of fresh air, broken windows and inmates who smoke in a handful of cells, a spokeswoman for the Israel Prisons Service said
“The Prisons Service mistreated the plaintiff in a number of ways, including … broken windows, cockroaches as well as incarceration with smokers,” judge Irit Cohen wrote in her verdict, according to newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
The spokeswoman said the inmate’s cell would be cleaned up. Yehudai has been held in three different prisons and has had complaints about conditions in all of them.
“Prisoners have the right to sue us whenever they see fit and we comply with the court’s rulings,” she said.
The last
Overcrowding and poor sanitation in Indonesian prisons were believed to have caused the deaths of some 440 inmates so far in 2007, a local media report said Saturday. Various diseases have caused the deaths of hundreds of inmates in the country within January to August alone this year. Ninety-two inmates reportedly died of respiratory problems, 88 died of HIV/AIDS and hundreds died from tubercolosis, digestive problems and other diseases, the leading daily Kompas reported. Indonesia News Blog: http://indosnesos.blogspot.com
We all know Sony have had problems with their launch of the Ps3, and now there’s the devastating news that prisoners will not be allowed to play the new console in British jails! I’m kidding of course, Sony probably see it as a good thing, it certainly won’t hurt their sales much as Britain’s prisons are so overcrowded it was going to be like…hmm one console for 5,000 prisoners or something stupid.
Home Secretary John Reid announced the ban amid fears that “the PlayStation 3 machine could be used to send and receive radio signals” in jails across the country. The Wi-Fi feature in every Ps3, as well as the ability to transfer information over to the Sony PSP was thought to be behind the scaremongering in the government.
According to ITV News, Mr Reid was replying in a written answer to shadow home secretary David Davis who asked what guidance the Home Office had issued concerning the use of Sony PlayStations.
Mr Reid said: “Advice was is
A report was published today in the UK about women's prisons and the reforms needed. The whole review was sparked off by a spate of deaths in women's prisons. They have a much higher suicide rate than men's prisons. This fact in itself tells you there is something wrong in the system. Wrong, not because women try to kill themselves more, but because they succeed more. The system itself, whether for men or women, is supposed to be the limiting factor on the rate of suicides, not the determination of the prisoners.UK prisons are used to house a lot of people with mental health problems. Its a simple system: you wait until somebody with a mental health problem commits a crime and then lock them up. The process of arrest and trial is much more expensive than Sectioning, but I guess the housing cost must be less (and it comes out of the Home Office Budget rather than the DoH).But isn't all this just special pleading for women. Perhaps the report is claiming that women have unfair
In the nation’s response to the tragedy that occurred in 9/11 attacks, the border acquired new significant importance in the “war on terror.” Among the most relevant of the changes that transpired, the immigration issue is now assigned to the Department of Homeland Security. Although Mexico has no significant Islamic population and houses no known [...]
In the nation’s response to the tragedy that occurred in 9/11 attacks, the border acquired new significant importance in the “war on terror.” Among the most relevant of the changes that transpired, the immigration issue is now assigned to the Department of Homeland Security. Although Mexico has no significant Islamic population and houses no known [...]
Former Polish prime minister denies country had secret CIA prisons, speaking with Blair Deutsche Presse Agentur Published: Thursday March 8, 2007 http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Former_Polish_prime_minister_denies_report_0308.htmlrelated...Bush Brandishes Jail Time at Critics - military - mediaTop CIA Official Under Investigation CIA - Cunningham - Goss, and some humor 9-11 Review Humor Phonenix Program's Rep. Simmons: "The CIA Doesn't Torture!"More on ACS, 9/11, Atta, Torture, CIA, Dekkers, Bribery, etc.Bradhttp://911review.org
Murray Light thinks we should.
Now a new governor is in place and he’s proposing a commission to look at what he considers to be an excess of correctional facilities in the state. Spitzer cites the fact that the state’s prison population, which peaked at more than 71,000 in 1999 has dropped dramatically and now stands at about 63,000.
Eliot Spitzer should go beyond simply creating a Prison Commission to study closing prisons in light of a drop of approximately 8,000 in the prison population.
Approximately 35% of the prison population is due to drug offenses. Of those people, about 71% are repeat offenders. The War on Drugs is clearly not working and the costs to society are astronomical. Prison costs are just one part of the overall cost.
The drug laws turn people who might ordinarily be law abiding citizens in to criminals because of the profit involved in drug transactions. Some of these people are in dire financial straits and view selling drugs
Usage of security cameras in prisons and correctional institutions
Many people still believe that prisons are neutral places where criminals gradually loose their evil side and begin to behave like peaceful loving citizens. Whil
Fox 26 Reports: " HOUSTON -- When you are putting on a concert at a maximum security prison, you don't expect to see teenagers in the audience as young as 14. But that's what two nationally known rappers got on their prison tour"
