Free Republic

Scores of inmates serving time on Rikers Island are set to be sprung prematurely as part of a desperate bid by Mayor Bill de Blasio to deal with the shortage of correction officers willing to work there, The Post has learned. The horde of ex-cons would comprise the second wave of convicted criminals granted early release since last year, when officials used the COVID-19 pandemic to justify putting around 180 jailbirds back on the streets. Those inmates were among more than 1,500 who were freed last year due to the coronavirus crisis, reducing the city’s jail population to 4,363 —...

When much of this nation started embarking on unprecedented shutdowns in March – closing our factories, our stores, our restaurants and schools… evacuating our hospitals to make room for the millions of patients that were sure to flood them in a matter of days, as soon as the CCP Virus caught on – one of the oddest choices that some state governments made was to set their prisoners free. The peculiar, misguided fear that criminals in jail might catch this virus prompted certain hard leftist governors – New York’s Cuomo, Washington’s Inslee, California’s Newsom, Illinois' Pritzker, and others – to...

Throughout the country, law enforcement has set free thousands of prisoners to "protect them" from COVID-19 inside jails and prisons. While innocents are locked in their homes hiding from "the invisible enemy," as President Trump calls it, county sheriffs, prison overseers, and governors have been busy freeing convicted criminals to stop them from getting the coronavirus. The rogue's gallery of convicts is a justice reformer's dream. Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva bragged he let prisoners out of his jail before he was even asked by the ACLU and other justice groups – this while he shut down gun stores so...

A U.S. charity worker returned home after President Trump and aides quietly worked to secure her release from from an Egyptian jail after nearly three years, according to the Washington Post. Aya Hijazi, a U.S. citizen, her Egyptian husband Mohamed Hassanein and four other humanitarian workers were freed after weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiation by the Trump administration.

On July 13, 2015, Barack Obama proudly announced 46 commutations at a federal prison. It’s not unusual for a president to pardon people or commute sentences. Many presidents and governors do so occasionally, hopefully when they are absolutely convinced that the criminal justice system otherwise failed an innocent defendant. There are exceptions, of course. Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, in a well-intentioned effort to heal the nation after the Watergate “scandal” (though calling any political kerfuffle a “scandal,” in light of the Obama administration’s notorious daily crimes, does seem an abuse of the word). And Bill Clinton used...

Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz (Likud-Beytenu) noted with satisfaction Saturday night that the date set for freeing the fourth and final tranche of Palestinian Arab terrorist prisoners has passed without them having been released. “We passed the set date yesterday and no terrorist wasd freed,” he said. “Not [Marwan] Bargouti, not the Israeli terrorists and not the rest of the terrorist murderers. "Jew-killers belong between the crosshairs of a gun, and if not that – then in jail,” he stated. Terror victims' organization Almagor held a rally of identification with the bereaved families protesting outside the Prime Minister's Residence in...

Names of prisoners chosen for release must be made public for 48 hours, not including Shabbat, in order to allow appeals to the High Court. Israel will not release a fourth batch of 26 Palestinian security prisoners Saturday night as stipulated under the framework deal that led to the renewal of negotiations last July. The five-minister committee chaired by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that is empowered to choose which convicted terrorists will be released would need to have met on Wednesday to make a Saturday-night release possible. The names must be made public 48 hours – not including Shabbat –...

They regard the prisoner release as something Israel was supposed to have done anyway, many years ago. Many will continue to see it as as part of an Israeli-American scheme to extract concessions, and will continue to attack Abbas for "succumbing" to US pressure. The argument that the release of Palestinian prisoners boosts the standing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and "moderate" Palestinians and facilitates the resumption of peace talks with Israel is not necessarily true. Many Palestinians do not see Israel's decision to release more than 100 Palestinians who were imprisoned before the signing of the Oslo Accords...

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s plan to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians calls for the release of some 103 Palestinian prisoners serving time in Israeli prisons from a time prior to the signing Oslo accords, London-based Al Hayat reported, citing Western diplomatic sources. According to the report, Kerry’s plan for renewed negotiations also includes a freeze in construction in settlements outside the main settlement blocs and a three-pronged economic renewal project for the Palestinian economy. … Sources close to the issue were quoted as saying the plan also includes a public statement by Prime Minister Benjamin...

Britain's justice system has come under fire after revelations that a man serving a manslaughter sentence has been repeatedly released to go partying. Adam Briggs, 23, was sentenced to nine years behind bars for his role in arranging the death of a teenage girl but has been allowed out of prison for weeks at a time, the Daily Mail reports. Under a government release scheme, Briggs has been able to pursue a relationship with a new girlfriend and go to parties only three-and-a-half years into his jail term. The scheme allows prisoners who usually have less than two years to...

* The Israeli Cabinet approved on August 17 the release of almost 200 Palestinian security prisoners as a "goodwill gesture" to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. The list includes several prisoners "with blood on their hands," who, by definition, were involved in the murder of Israelis. * According to an informal estimate by Israeli security bodies, about 50 percent of the terrorists freed for any reason whatsoever returned to the path of terror, either as a perpetrator, a planner, or as an accomplice. In the terror acts committed by these freed terrorists, hundreds of Israelis were murdered, and thousands were...

The era of suicide bombing in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be over and the culture of violence is changing in the region, said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an interview aired on Sunday. Abbas made his comments hours after Israel's government agreed to release 400 Palestinian prisoners and days after landmark talks with President George W. Bush, who sought to strengthen the Palestinian leader, in part, by not demanding publicly that he crack down on militants. In an interview broadcast on ABC-TV in the U.S. last night, Abbas renewed calls for Hamas to renounce violence and enter into dialogue with...

A former security prisoner released in January 2004 in the deal struck with Hizbullah to secure the return of the bodies of three soldiers and businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum was one of two gunmen shot and killed by soldiers last Tuesday night while attempting an attack at Har Bracha, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Atsem Mansour, 29, a Fatah Tanzim member from the Balata refugee camp was imprisoned in Israel between October 2001 and January 2004 for his involvement in terrorism. He was one of 462 security prisoners released in exchange for Tannenbaum and the bodies of Staff-Sgts. Benny Avraham, Adi...

The High Court of Justice examined on Wednesday a petition filed by the Legal Center for Research on Terrorism against the government's decision to release 500 Palestinian prisoners as goodwill gesture to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The Israel Prison Service published Wednesday the names of the prisoners to be released in the next few days. The name were published in order to allow the filing of petitions against the release. In an unusually political reply, the High Court of Justice Vice President, Justice Mishael Cheshin said: "The prime minister says that in his opinion the release of 500 Palestinian...

150 detainees freed; more expected soon The Bush administration has begun to comply with last month's Supreme Court decision ordering the release of Mariel convicts in indefinite detention. By ALFONSO CHARDY Miami Herald In response to last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling, federal officials have released nearly 150 people who came to the United States from Cuba in the 1980 Mariel boatlift and later were convicted of crimes. About 600 more Mariel convicts remain in prisons and jails nationwide, along with more than 100 non-Cuban detainees, said Manny Van Pelt, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security in Washington,...