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Currently, the constitution allows prisoners to perform work for governmental agencies during their prison sentence, but the amendment would allow them to volunteer for religious, charitable and educational groups as well. Letting inmates work for non-profits was common practice for jails across the state until the state Commission of Correction determined it was unconstitutional about three years ago, state Sheriffs' Association Counsel Thomas Mitchell said. The nonprofit work could be used as an incentive for good behavior.

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson’s controversial program to charge inmates for rent, haircuts, medical visits and high school equivalency tests raised $750,000, but outraged inmate advocates who said the fees violated their constitutional rights and amounted to an unlawful tax. Five years after a judge struck down the program - ruling that county sheriffs do not have the authority to charge such fees - Hodgson is reviving the proposal. The state’s highest court will hear arguments in Hodgson’s appeal today. When he initially imposed the fees in 2002, Hodgson said he believed they could help teach inmates to accept responsibility...

Even as some Americans await the arrival of their swine flu vaccines, the Pentagon has decided to vaccinate both soldiers and terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There was no word Wednesday on when the the first vaccines would reach the remote base in southeast Cuba. But U.S. military there were notified late last week that service members would get their H1N1 virus vaccinations first. Private contractors and sailors' wives and children could get theirs afterward ``as the supply permits.'' And that means the 221 war on terror captives would also be vaccinated first, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt,...

Being Supreme Leader of the Free World is a tough job; but someone's got to do it. Enter Barack Hussein Obama. Mmm....mmm...mm. When he's not pushing Obamacare, bashing FOX News for linking him to ACORN and other radical associations, hiding in the closet on gay rights, what's he doing? Why he's busy taking heat from all sides in the Afghanistan debate. I guess you just can't please all the people, all of the time. Or in this case, any of the people on all sides of the debate. Health care legislation has been hard for President Obama, but Afghanistan...

CONVICTED criminals are being employed as telemarketers to cold-call people as part of a radical new prison employment program. But those called will have no idea they are talking to an inmate and the State Government will not say which organisations are using the convicts as part of a confidentiality deal. The program is designed to prepare women prisoners from Windsor's low and medium-security Dillwynia Correctional Centre for life on the outside, training them for work and stopping them from reoffending. However it is also being used as a low-cost way for companies to get cheap telemarketing work and for...

Alcohol hand gel meant to combat swine flu has been banned from a prison after inmates became embroiled in a drunken brawl after drinking it. Hand gels supplied to a prison to combat the risk of swine flu have been removed after inmates realised it contained alcohol and began drinking it to try to get drunk. At least one prisoner at HMP The Verne on Portland, Dorset, was found intoxicated. The Prison Service confirmed that this case was being investigated but meanwhile antibacterial gel pumps had been removed as a "precautionary measure". Andy Fear, a member of the Verne's Prison...

California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass plans to strip the most controversial provisions from a Senate-approved plan that would have trimmed the state's prison population by 27,000 inmates. The Assembly version would keep about 10,000 more inmates behind bars and leave the state with a new, nearly $200 million budget hole, Bass said early Friday. Bass said the new plan -- to be considered Monday -- would do away with proposals by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to allow home detention with electronic monitoring for inmates with less than 12 months to serve, who are over age 60 or who are medically incapacitated....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration plans to transfer six prisoners abroad from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, part of the effort to close the controversial facility by early 2010. The detainees include those previously ordered released by U.S. courts or whose release has been approved through the Obama administration's review process, a Justice Department official said, declining to give further details. The administration notified Congress around August 6-7 of the planned moves, starting a 15-day waiting period before the transfers can begin. One, Mohammed Jawad, could be sent back to Afghanistan as...

"17,000 prisoners were freed after amnesty and commutation of punishment term of a number of prisoners by the Supreme Leader," State Prisons Organization's Deputy Director for Management and Resource Development Mohammad Ali Zanjirehi told FNA on Friday. "40 percent of the country's inmates, who account for around 68,000 people, were liable to the amnesty," Zanjirei said, adding that 17,000 out of the 68,000 inmates have been freed and the rest have enjoyed commutation of their terms or will be granted leaves in final months of their incarceration.

According to news received by the International Committee against Executions, 29 people are to be executed tomorrow, Saturday, in Ghezal Hesar prison in Karaj. It has been reported that the 29 have been separated from other prisoners. There is no information on their charges. The executions are being carried out in order to intimidate people and is directed at the protesting people of Iran.

LANSING, Mich. -- Empty Michigan prisons could become home to hundreds of California inmates if a deal can be struck. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm sent a letter Monday to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formally offering space for some of the inmates California is running out of room to house to Michigan. Download: Ganholm Letter To Schwarzenegger Michigan plans to close two prisons by the end of September. They are the Standish Maximum Correctional facility about 145 miles northwest of Detroit and a medium-security prison in Muskegon, about 45 miles northwest of Grand Rapids. Michigan could save the jobs of about...

Tens Of Thousands Pennsylvania Prison Inmates ... ... will still be paid for the jobs they do at state correctional institutions even as the people who guard them and see to their welfare run the risk of going unpaid in the event of a budget impasse this summer, The Morning Call has learned. Concerns about public safety helped drive the decision to continue paying the 31,175 inmates who do everything from serve meals to sweep cell-blocks at the state’s 27 correctional institutions. They’re paid 19 cents to 42 cents an hour for their labors, spokespeople for Gov. Ed Rendell and...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has ordered the release of 'all' Hamas prisoners, including those held on security charges, a senior aide told al-Jazeera from Ramallah on Monday. Azzam Ahmed, the head of the parliamentary bloc of Abbas’ Fatah party charged with holding reconciliation talks with the rival Hamas movement ruling Gaza, told the Doha-based channel the release would get underway in the coming days. The Palestinian Ma’an news agency, however, quoted sources close to Abbas as saying Hamas prisoners would only be released on “condition they do not pose a threat to general security and law and order.” Abbas had...

NORRISTOWN — When Wendy Lavin discovered that jail cell writings from her daughter's killer were for sale on the Internet, she was horrified. "I was disgusted. I felt sick to my stomach," said Lavin, whose 20-year-old daughter, Jennifer Louise Still, was stabbed to death by serial killer John Charles Eichinger in 1999. "I could not believe that after everything I had been through with the murder and trial, it was like it was happening all over again. I could not believe that something so horrific was going on and I wasn't aware of it." Lavin discovered the Web site when...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- A session of the Guantanamo war crimes court that began Sunday will likely show the difficulties President Barack Obama faces in changing the system and closing the prison by January. The case in question, of a Canadian charged with killing an American soldier, is stalled by infighting among lawyers. Other defendants have even more complex legal issues, and officials say the U.S. may have to choose between delaying Guantanamo's closure or quickly finding somewhere else to hold the trials. "I don't think they'll get a single trial done by January," said Michael Berrigan,...

HARDIN, Mont. (AP) - On Capitol Hill, politicians are dead-set against transferring some of the world's most feared terrorists from Guantanamo to prisons on U.S. soil. But at City Hall in this impoverished town on the Northern Plains, the attitude is: Bring 'em on. Hardin, a dusty town of 3,400 people so desperate that it built a $27 million jail a couple of years ago in the vain hope it would be a moneymaker, is offering to house hundreds of Gitmo detainees at the brand-new, never-used institution. The medium-security jail was conceived as a holding facility for drunks and other...

In California's latest doom-and-gloom announcement, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance on Tuesday proposed closing the state's main welfare program, releasing nonviolent prisoners one year early and shuttering up to 80 percent of state parks to shrink the state's $24.3 billion budget deficit. Schwarzenegger wants $5.6 billion in new cuts to replace a like amount of borrowing he proposed in his budget plan earlier this month. The Republican governor previously asked for more than $15 billion in other savings by slashing schools and Medi-Cal, laying off 5,000 state workers and borrowing money from local governments. The governor's plan would release...

With the Democratic no-go on Guantánamo (I'll leave it to the better informed to ascertain the degree that the Democratic Congress came to the rescue of an embarrassed Obama administration and cut off funding for the shutdown to allow him an out with the now familiar excuse of "they did it — not me, who keeps promises"), I think we now have come to the end to the five-year left-wing attack theme of Bush "shredding the Constitution." Except for the introduction of euphemisms and a few new ballyhooed but largely meaningless protocols, there is no longer a Bush-did-it argument. The...

WASHINGTON – A federal judge ruled on Thursday that prisoners in the war on terror can use U.S. civilian courts to challenge their detention at a military air base in Afghanistan. U.S. District Judge John Bates turned down the United States' motion to deny the right to three foreign detainees at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to challenge their detention in court. But the government had argued that it did not apply to those in Afghanistan.

Israeli Minister: "Two-Thirds of Freed Hamas Prisoners Returned to Terror and Murdered Israelis" Voice of Israel Radio-Hebrew - via dailyalert.org

During a special cabinet meeting called to discuss the status of negotiations for the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, ministers were presented on Tuesday with a list of ten high-profile Palestinian prisoners which Israel was willing to release so long as they were not allowed to return to the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. The ministers were also read a list of prisoners which Hamas has demanded be included in the deal, but which Israel adamantly refuses to free. In an unprecedented move, the cabinet voted to publish the names of the latter ten prisoners. Below are...

~ EXCERPT ~ Three times a day, the inmates at Madison Correctional Institution discover what a budget deficit tastes like. >>> snip <<< Corn bread replaces sliced bread at some meals. Inmates will get one sweetener packet instead of four. In the Sunshine State's prisons, orange juice is made from concentrate. "It's all right, but 100 percent juice is better," said Charles Christian, 24, six months into a two-year term at Madison for drug and weapon offenses. "Sometimes it's all right – like the peanut butter. They give you enough, but it's hard to eat, it's so thick. And they...

Federal judges on Monday tentatively ordered California to release tens of thousands of inmates, up to a third of all prisoners, in the next three years to stop dangerous overcrowding. As many as 57,000 could be let go if the current population were cut by the maximum percentage considered by a three-judge panel. Judges said the move could be done without threatening public safety -- and might improve a public safety hazard. The state immediately said it would appeal the final ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Trend-setting California, the Golden State, has an immense prison system responsible for nearly...

It was less than a Great Escape. Two New Zealand prisoners who were handcuffed together as they fled a courthouse foiled their own getaway when they ran to opposite sides of a light pole

DURHAM – After the inauguration of the first black president, America is now on the precipice of changes that were never before possible, 1960s radical turned academic Angela Davis told a crowd of hundreds at the University of New Hampshire last night. The vestiges of slavery, colonization and exploitation remain rife throughout America, as is evidenced by the over-representation of minorities in prison, Davis said. The prison population, now estimated to be one in 100 adult Americans, only contributes to the oppression of minorities, she said. It is a pattern seen across the country, even in New Hampshire, Davis said....

Two men released from the US “war on terror” prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have appeared in a video posted on a jihadist website, the SITE monitoring service reported. One of the two former inmates, a Saudi man identified as Abu Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri, or prisoner number 372, has been elevated to the senior ranks of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, a US counter-terrorism official told AFP. [...] The Defense Department has said as many as 61 former Guantanamo detainees — about 11 percent of 520 detainees transferred from the detention center and released — are believed to have returned to the...

President Obama's plan to close Guantánamo Bay within a year appeared to be unravelling yesterday with the emergence of former inmates on terrorist websites, fierce opposition in the US and a lukewarm response to taking detainees from the European Union. After signing an executive order last week to close the US military prison, Mr Obama has been confronted with myriad obstacles that are making his ambitious pledge look unrealistic. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, ruled out the prospect of Britain taking any more inmates, claiming that it had already made a significant contribution. (snip) Javier Solana, the EU's foreign and...

NEW YORK — Their budgets in crisis, governors, legislators and prison officials across the nation are making or considering policy changes that will likely remove tens of thousands of offenders from prisons and parole supervision. Collectively, the pending and proposed initiatives could add up to one of biggest shifts ever in corrections policy, putting into place cost-saving reforms that have struggled to win political support in the tough-on-crime climate of recent decades.

The German doctor who invented the process that led to hundreds of human bodies being put on display around the world, says he has stopped using bodies from China because some of them may be those of executed Chinese prisoners. The body shows, which have drawn millions of paying customers in more than 30 cities, show human bodies that have been preserved with a liquid plastic process. The bodies are shown skinned and trimmed, in a variety of poses, including throwing a football, playing poker or at a chess board. In an interview to be aired Friday on the ABC...

The ACLU has successfully gotten the Wyoming Department of Corrections to cater to the demands of its Muslim prisoners. Originally prisoners had to eat their meals within twenty minutes of delivery of that meal.

MUSLIM prisoners have launched a reign of terror inside a top security British jail. The fanatics are forcing fellow inmates to convert to Islam or face punishment beatings. One man who stood up to the thugs was branded with a lump of hot metal, according to a prison source. The crisis at Whitemoor jail in Cambridgeshire has led to calls by staff for the 100 Muslim inmates there to be dispersed to other prisons round the country. Some Al Qaeda supporters have set up a kangaroo court, sitting in judgment on prisoners and ordering punishments, the source said. The violent...

President-elect Obama has promised to close the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo (Gitmo) Bay, Cuba even though the alternatives are unattractive. But before he shutters that facility the new president must resolve the underlying problem that made Gitmo infamous. The problem that torpedoed Gitmo was the government's failure to identify the appropriate means to handle captured terrorists who haven't committed a "crime" but undoubtedly would if left free to roam. To what legal process are these terror suspects entitled if they are going to be detained long-term? Otherwise, the legal issues related to Gitmo have been resolved by three Supreme...

Israeli security forces have apprehended a Hamas operative who planned to capture Israeli soldiers and smuggle them into the Gaza Strip to be used in future prisoner swaps, the army said on Sunday. An army spokesman said Israeli troops and intelligence agents arrested Gamal Abu Duabah, a 21-year-old Gaza resident, on September 21 after he attempted to infiltrate Israel from Egypt. "Under questioning he admitted to being part of a Hamas plot to kidnap Israeli soldiers," the spokesman said. "He also mentioned that he was sent by seniors in the Hamas organisation who trained his squad and funded its operations,...

Psychologists in the Prison Service will try to ‘cure’ extremist Muslim inmates of their political beliefs with controversial therapies similar to those used to ‘de-programme’ members of religious cults.The experimental treatments are being developed by a special Extremism Unit set up by the Ministry of Justice in January last year, The Mail on Sunday has discovered.Sources say the therapy forms part of a wide-ranging strategy to combat Islamic extremism in Britain’s jails. Experimental techniques: One of Whitemoor Prison's Muslim inmates There are 90 Muslim prisoners serving time for terrorist offences, and the Ministry fears that, if left unchallenged, their violent,...

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel's cabinet voted on Sunday to release about 200 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to president Mahmud Abbas aimed at bolstering slow-moving US-backed Middle East peace talks. The August 25 release will coincide with a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice aimed at encouraging the negotiations, which have shown little visible sign of progress since they were revived in November. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev called the move a "confidence-building measure" towards Abbas, adding: "We hope the release will help strengthen the peace process." The list, which will be considered for final...

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has agreed to free 120-150 Palestinian prisoners later in August as a gesture of goodwill, Palestinian officials said. Israel confirmed some prisoners would be released but would not say how many. The announcement followed a meeting between Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. It was their first talks since Mr Olmert announced he would stand down from his position after being questioned on corruption allegations. Correspondents say Mr Olmert's decision to step down when his Kadima party selects a new leader is likely to complicate efforts to reach a peace deal this year. Israel...

FORT HUACHUCA — Some of the most dangerous detainees in American custody in Iraq have established sharia courts within the compounds in which they are held and have tried and executed fellow detainees who refused to join them, the Army’s senior military police officer said Wednesday. “Detainees do not stop fighting just because they are detained. Their new environment is merely an extension of the battlefield,” said Brig. Gen. Rodney L. Johnson, the provost marshal general of the Army and the commander of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. He made his comments to about 300 people attending the first...

"On the Palestinian street there is now an understanding that without kidnapping soldiers, we can't get prisoners released. Through negotiation, we haven't managed to get prisoners released," the Palestinian Authority's minister for Prisoners Affairs, Ashraf al-Ajami, said over the weekend. He also offered biting criticism of Israel's willingness to trade security prisoners with Hamas and Hizbullah in exchange for kidnapped soldiers, while continuing to drag its feet on prisoner-release negotiations with the PA. Ajami said the PA had repeatedly requested a negotiated release of longtime prisoners with terminal illnesses. "But we make requests, and Israel does the opposite." Ajami said...

BERLIN, May 28 (UPI) -- Israel and Hezbollah are nearing a prisoner-swap deal brokered by Germany, according to a report. The online version of German newsmagazine Der Spiegel said Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah in 2006, would be exchanged for five Lebanese terrorists held in Israeli prisons. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah himself indicated that the report was true. In a speech released Tuesday, he said one of the Lebanese prisoners, Samir Quntar, would "soon be among us." The deal was brokered by a German spy who enjoys great respect from both parties; the...

US to release 12,000 prisoners in Iraq By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 7:03pm BST 18/04/2008 America plans to halve the number of detainees it is holding in Iraq by releasing more than 12,000 under a scheme designed to promote reconciliation with communities formerly sympathetic to the insurgency. US officers in Iraq told the Wall Street Journal yesterday that more than 50 prisoners per day would gain their freedom through the end of 2008. Over 12,000 prisoners are to be released from Iraqi prisons The vast majority of those in American custody are Sunni Muslims, including a hardcore...

Serb prisoners 'were stripped of their organs in Kosovo war' By Harry de Quetteville in Berlin and Malcolm Moore in Rome Last Updated: 10:28am BST 11/04/2008 Serb prisoners had their internal organs removed and sold by ethnic Albanians during the Kosovo war, according to allegations in a new book by the world's best known war crimes prosecutor. Harry de Quetteville: Snippets from Carla Del Ponte's bookCarla Del Ponte, who stepped down in January as chief prosecutor at the Hague tribunal for crimes committed in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, said investigators found a house suspected of being a laboratory...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Lawmakers from California to Kentucky are trying to save money with a drastic and potentially dangerous budget-cutting proposal: releasing tens of thousands of convicts from prison, including drug addicts, thieves and even violent criminals. Officials acknowledge that the idea carries risks, but they say they have no choice because of huge budget gaps brought on by the slumping economy. <[>"If we don't find a way to better manage the population at the state prison, we will be forced to spend money to expand the state's prison system — money we don't have," said Jeff Neal, a...

NEWS RELEASE Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms 12500 N.E. Tenth Place Bellevue, WA  98005 PRISON RELEASE IDEA ‘AN OUTRAGE,’ SAYS CCRKBA; ADVISES CITIZENS TO ARM THEMSELVES For Immediate Release: April 4, 2008 BELLEVUE, WA – Reports that state lawmakers are considering the release of thousands of prison inmates across the country to save money amount to a public outrage, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. The Associated Press reported Friday morning that legislators in several states are considering the move to prop up state budgets. One report...

JURF AS SAHKR — After serving their sentences in U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, 25 detainees were released under the supervision of a local sheikh in Jurf as Sahkr, March 28. Sheikh Sabah al-Janabi, captain of the Janabi tribe and leader of Jurf as Sahkr, said he is confident the men will return to peaceful, productive lives in the community. “Almost all of the bad people here changed their mind, so we must give these men another chance to be good people,” Sheikh Sabah said. “I will see that these men will serve Jurf as Sahkr, their families and the future...

Lt. Col. Thomas Boccardi, a native of Colorado Springs, Colo., shakes hands with a newly freed man, March 19, in Tarmiya. Seven men were released from prison to Tarmiya, and 15 were transported to Taji. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. William Greer. Face of released man blocked for his protection. CAMP TAJI — Twenty-two detainees were released as part of Operation Forgiving Dragon, March 19.  Seven of the detainees were released back to the city of Tarmiya and the remaining 15 to Taji.  Both cities are located northwest of Baghdad. The Iraqi Army, Iraqi police and local leaders...

CAMP FUTURE — Dr. Saleh Al-Mutlaq, the head of the Dialogue Front Group of Iraqi Parliament officiated a release ceremony for roughly 300 detainees at Camp Future March 15 with a message of national reconciliation and rejuvenation. “I see in your faces and your eyes how happy you are, but your country is happier to see you back to help build it and build a new democratic Iraq,” said Al-Mutlak. Also in attendance were Mr. Misha’an Al-Saadi, Mr. Ameer Muhamed, and Mr. Thamer Al-Hindy. Release ceremonies are held once a month as a continuation of ongoing efforts by the Government...

NINEWAH — Soldiers of 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, Task Force Iron, discovered two caches next to each other in Ninewah Province Feb. 17 after receiving information from detainees. The cache included rockets, washing machine timers, a suicide vest, grenades and receivers, as well as magazines for different weapons systems. The contents of the cache were transported to a remote location and destroyed by an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A group of Sudanese released from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay demanded cash payouts and an apology from the United States on Saturday, for mental and physical torture suffered during years spent in jail there. "We have asked for compensation and an apology," aid worker Adil Hassan Hamad told a conference in Khartoum, which was organized by local rights groups to demand the release of seven Sudanese still held at Guantanamo Bay. Hamad, freed just over one month ago, wore orange overalls like those worn by detainees in the U.S. prison camp. He was working with...

Confronting the biggest crisis of his political career, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today proposed slashing payments to schools by billions of dollars, releasing tens of thousands of "low risk" inmates from prison early, and closing a number of state parks as part of a plan to fill a gaping $14 billion hole in the state budget. The proposal immediately triggered howls of protest from lawmakers across the political spectrum and among some of the most powerful interest groups in the Capitol. The governor said he hopes to start a debate among Californians about what services they want from state government and...

KETZIOT PRISON CAMP, Israel (AP) - Israel on Monday began releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in a gesture meant to strengthen moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after the two sides' recent agreement to try to reach a peace deal. The release of the 429 prisoners began a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was not bound by the December 2008 target for the peace agreement set at last week's U.S.-hosted Mideast summit in Annapolis, Md. At the Ketziot Prison Camp in the southern Negev Desert, dozens of prisoners lined up at dawn in a courtyard. Wardens and...