Free Republic

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A federal judge ordered Missouri prison officials to drive a pregnant inmate to a clinic and let her get an abortion despite a state law that forbids the spending of tax dollars to facilitate an abortion. U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple ruled Thursday that the prison system is blocking the woman from exercising her right to an abortion. On Friday, he refused to stay the ruling, and ordered that the woman be taken to the clinic on Saturday. The woman, whose name was not disclosed in court papers, has said she will borrow money for the...

Why Have Penitentiaries Anyway? Most people realize that the court and penal systems in North America are seriously broken and must be fixed, yet contemplating doing away with penitentiaries sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Barely 200 years ago, an experiment began which has cost us untold billions of dollars. Just last year, this experiment resulted in 1.4 million adults incarcerated in federal and state penitentiaries (a figure which has quadrupled since 1980) at a cost of nearly $40,000 each. As Alan Elsner pointed out in a recent Washington Post article, 2.2 million people are engaged in catching criminals and putting and...

...Ashcroft.... will go down in history as the Attorney General who led the legal fight against terrorism. Every wartime AG has had to make tough calls about the balance between civil liberties and national security, and in a better world Mr. Ashcroft would be retiring to bipartisan accolades for taking on these difficult issues.... Yet no one in this Administration has endured more personal and political abuse. Granted Mr. Ashcroft isn't the smoothest public spokesman, and his cultural conservatism and strict interpretations of the law on the death penalty, partial-birth abortion and sentencing guidelines incensed liberals.... The irony is that...

...Mr. Gonzales has many things going for him, not least his relationship with the President, whom he has served for more than a decade starting in Texas. These personal ties -- much like those between Californians Ed Meese and Ronald Reagan -- will give him a stronger influence in the Cabinet than Mr. Ashcroft had. But his job will nonetheless be to build on the Ashcroft legacy. That includes moving ahead with terror cases, riding hard on the FBI as it reshapes itself to fight terrorists, and working for the renewal of the Patriot Act, portions of which expire next...

Dateline Charlotte, North Carolina. This story aired on News 14 Carolina, but I cannot find a direct link on their website to source it. The website posting and video is cut short from what the television broadcast reported. So that is why I have posted it in general chat. Let me introduce you to Mr. Alfred Adams, currently facing eight different charges including first-degree rape, kidnapping and burglary. He was also charged with simple assault, communicating threats, and two counts of first-degree sex offense. Adams has been arrested eight times since November 2002 on charges including burglary and assault on...

Forgive Us Our Injustices Paul Craig Roberts Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2003 How would you like to spend Christmas season in prison? Millions of Americans do. Many are imprisoned for victimless crimes, such as marijuana possession. Others are totally innocent. Experts estimate that there are several hundred thousand innocent Americans in prison. Among these many is Christophe Yves Gaynor. In my considered opinion, Gaynor was framed by a corrupt Arlington, Va., prosecutor and railroaded by a corrupt Arlington, Va., judge. Gaynor was a skateboard coach in Virginia who took his team to a New York competition. One of the team members...

Public defenders in Massachusetts aim to help the sexually dangerous beat the rap at all costs, according to an advertisement posted online for a state-funded seminar. The Boston Herald reports the full-day seminar, originally titled, "Winning Despite the Bastards: Sexually Dangerous Persons Litigation and You,'' was slated to be held today at the downtown office of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, or CPCS. The program was reportedly canceled due to "lack of interest," however. You can't fault the writer of the proposed session outline for not trying hard to drum up interest. The paper reports the seminar's agenda listed...

<p>WASHINGTON -- One in every 32 adults in the United States was behind bars or on probation or parole by the end of last year, according to a government report Sunday that found a record 6.6 million people in the nation's correctional system.</p>

BEAUMONT - Two former prison guards have pleaded no contest to charges they engaged in improper sexual activity with inmates at an all-male prison in Beaumont in December. Monica Mahoney, 22, and Ingrid Fisk, 22, entered pleas before State District Judge Charles Carver on Monday. They will be sentenced July 29. A Jefferson County grand jury also has indicted Latisha Trahan, 25, of Port Arthur and Chastity Broussard, 21, of Beaumont. All four women were arrested in January after a Texas Department of Criminal Justice investigation of the alleged sexual misconduct was captured on hidden surveillance cameras. The equipment was...