Free Republic

Two women who went to visit a Washington Parish Jail inmate on the same day ended up facing their own legal troubles after authorities say they attacked each other during the visit.

A former Philadelphia police officer who sat next to the First Lady during President Obama's 2009 State of the Union Address has been spared jail after an attack on his ex-girlfriend. Richard DeCoatsworth, 28, was sentenced Monday to 18 months' probation for a misdemeanor assault conviction on Sadie Martinez, 29. The judge also ordered DeCoatsworth to get counseling and issued a stay-away order barring him from contact with Martinez, who he had been with for 15 years, reports Philly.com.

The ACLU calls the U.S. the largest jailer in the world, holding roughly 25 percent of the world’s prison population despite the fact that national population represents only 5 percent of the world’s. After a three-year decline in the incarcerated population that began in 2010—a hopeful counter to decades of growth—the number of people in prison in the United States increased again last year, according to a report released on Friday by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The U.S. has the highest prison population rate in the world, according to the U.K.-based International Centre for Prison Studies’ most recent...

The US corrections population dropped to its lowest point since 2003, US Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday. The number of Americans in prison, jail, parole, or probation dropped to less than 6.9 million in 2013, down 41,500 compared to 2012 and hitting the lowest point since 2003, according to a report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Until 2008, the corrections population had been steadily growing for decades as all levels of government enforced tough-on-crime policies — particularly against drug offenses — that tied up more people in the criminal justice system. But states and the federal government, facing...

It sounds like a radical idea: Stop incarcerating women, and close down women’s prisons. But in Britain, there is a growing movement, sponsored by a peer in the House of Lords, to do just that. The argument is actually quite straightforward: There are far fewer women in prison than men to start with — women make up just 7 percent of the prison population. This means that these women are disproportionately affected by a system designed for men. But could women’s prisons actually be eliminated in the United States, where the rate of women’s incarceration has risen by 646 percent...

A ballot measure passed by voters this week is already freeing California suspects from jail as their felony charges are reduced to misdemeanors, and people previously convicted of the charges receive reduced sentences as they appear in court. Sheriffs across the state immediately began implementing Proposition 47, which calls for treating shoplifting, forgery, fraud, petty theft and possession of small amounts of drugs, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines, as misdemeanors instead of felonies. Two-dozen suspects who were being held on those charges walked out of Sacramento County jail two days after 58 percent of voters approved the initiative on Tuesday....

Published on Oct 31, 2014 ANDREW TAHMOORESSI FREED FROM MEXICAN JAIL, ARRIVES IN SAN DIEGO, OTAY MESA OTAY MESA - October 31, 2014 Address: 1424 Continental St, San Diego Interviews: Montel Williams New Mexico former Governor Bill Richardson

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order Friday to stop officials in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, from forcing two ordained Christian ministers to perform wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples. City officials told Donald Knapp that he and his wife Evelyn, both ordained ministers who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, are required to perform such ceremonies or face months in jail and/or thousands of dollars in fines. The city claims its “non-discrimination” ordinance requires the Knapps to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies now that the courts have overridden Idaho’s voter-approved...

A private investigator working on what’s become a botched murder case sought evidence North Las Vegas police didn’t: video from the suspect’s alibi. That suspect was Patrick Wayne Harper, the 16-year-old cleared in the killing of Andrea Lafon. Police said she died during a marijuana deal gone bad. Investigator Toby Tobiasson, working for lawyer Kristina Wildeveld, got a court order for surveillance video from the convenience store Harper said he was at when Lafon was shot about 7:15 p.m. Sept. 5. The video shows Harper leaving the AMPM at 5th Street and Washburn Road — more than two miles from...

The totalitarian impulse is all too familiar: since I represent Progress (and, of course, everyone who acts in the political realm fervently believes that he represents Progress) those who stand in my way are retrograde–evil, really–forces, that belong in the dustbin of history. Therefore, I might have to lock them up or kill them to ensure that Progress prevails. Until recently, the totalitarian impulse has been blessedly absent from American politics. Now, however, the American left has caught the totalitarian bug that infected Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Castro, and so many others. A case in point:...

CENTENNIAL, Colo., Sept. 13 (UPI) -- A man is suing the Arapahoe County jail and its contracted health care company after most of his right foot was amputated due to infected blisters.

The White House has responded to a popular petition that demands the release of U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi from a Mexican prison, explaining that the Obama administration respects the rule of law and will continue to monitor the situation to make sure the soldier is treated fairly. More than 134,000 people signed a petition on the White House’s “We the People” website asking the president to demand the release of Sgt. Tahmooressi, who was imprisoned nearly five months ago for illegally crossing from California into Mexico with three firearms in his truck. The Marine maintains that he crossed the...

BEFORE he was named as a key suspect in the brutal beheading of two western journalists, the man who has become known as Jihad John was an aspiring rapper with a dark message. Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, who released music videos under the name L Jinny and even had a few songs played on BBC radio, has gained notoriety for darker reasons other than his music. The British man has gained worldwide attention after he was named as the chief suspect in the gruesome beheading of American journalist James Foley. Police and intelligence officials told Britain’s Sunday Times that “MI5 and...

A California state assemblyman plans to stage a protest outside the governor’s mansion next week to demand that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who is to be honored at luncheon there Aug. 26, ensure the release of a U.S. Marine held captive in Mexico. Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, who recently lost in a bid to become the Republican nominee in the gubernatorial election in November, declined an invitation to the luncheon and assailed Gov. Jerry Brown for hosting the luncheon in honor of the Mexican president. "I am writing to decline your luncheon invitation,” read the letter Donnelly sent Brown, which...

Police: Inmate hid in laundry basket to escape ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Authorities say a New Mexico inmate has been captured after he escaped from jail by hiding in a laundry basket. Officials say 28-year-old Kevin Matthew Perkins packed himself in the basket on Monday to get away from the Metropolitan Detention Center. Authorities say the laundry basket was headed to another facility. When an officer opened a truck door, officials say Perkins jumped out of the basket and ran. Albuquerque police later received a breaking and entering call at an assisted living complex. That's where they found broken glass from...

Sarah Palin on Tuesday joined a growing chorus of Republicans calling for the impeachment of President Obama, writing in a Breitbart op-ed that the influx of young illegal immigrants over the southern border "is the last straw that makes the battered wife say, 'no mas.' " Mixed/careless metaphors aside, this is nothing but bad news for Republicans — especially four months until the 2014 election. Palin is hardly the first GOP politician to raise the issue of impeachment over the past couple years. Others include Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Reps. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.),...

There’s something about this time of year. Perhaps it’s because MPs and school children are gearing up for their holidays, or incessant televised sporting events give a sort of generalised carnival-type feel, or simply the fact that it’s so uncharacteristically hot – but current affairs always goes a little bit bonks in summer. Some of the news items they manage to dig up during this season defy belief. And winner of "most fist-munchingly ridiculous story" must this year be awarded to the ongoing saga of Jeremy Meeks. For those unfamiliar, Meeks is an American man recently arrested in relation to...

It appears that our government is working hard for the citizens. Unfortunately, they’re not the citizens of the United States. Fox News’ Todd Starnes reports shocking allegations that a government-contracted security force is threatening to arrest medical personnel at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, if they reveal information about the rampant disease among the illegal migrants at the facility. Nonetheless, several of these workers have decided to come forward, fearing the contagion risk posed to Americans. Starnes has kept their identities secret, as they could be subject to persecution.

Ogden • A Plain City man accused of beating a fellow churchgoer last year at a Mormon baby blessing and mission farewell was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail. Wayne Dodge, 52, pleaded guilty last month in Ogden’s 2nd District Court to one count of class B misdemeanor assault. One charge of felony aggravated assault was dismissed, according to court records. Judge W. Brent West ordered Dodge to complete an anger management class as part of a 12-month probation. The judge also ordered Dodge to pay a $550 fine and have no contact with the victim. Dodge, who faced...

In one case, a mentally ill New York City inmate hanged himself from a shower pipe on his third try in three days. During that stretch, orders to put him on 24-hour watch were apparently ignored, along with a screening form that said he was “thinking about killing himself.” Another inmate hanged himself with a bedsheet from an air vent in a solitary-confinement cell after repeatedly telling guards he was suicidal.