Free Republic

Donald Trump just made it harder to go to federal prison. On Friday, President Trump issued a new executive order with a remarkably broad scope and deep implications, under the title “Fighting Overcriminalization in Federal Regulations.” It starts with plain, clear, direct language: "The Code of Federal Regulations contains over 48,000 sections, stretching over 175,000 pages — far more than any citizen can possibly read, let alone fully understand. Worse, many carry potential criminal penalties for violations. The situation has become so dire that no one — likely including those charged with enforcing our criminal laws at the Department of...

When Nashville real estate broker and one-time House candidate Stewart Parks was convicted on Jan. 6 riot charges of trespassing and theft and sentenced to eight months in the Memphis Federal Correctional Institute, he expected the worst. “When I went in, the plan was I was just gonna keep my head down low and good time my way out,” Parks, 31, said. “I wasn't gonna tell anybody like, ‘Hey, I'm Jan. 6.’” Parks couldn’t hide his status, though, because when he was handed off to a Mexican American inmate leader to get him situated, the prison guard said, “Hey, he’s...

Derek Chauvin the former Minneapolis police officer convicted in state and federal courts in connection with George Floyd's death stabbed in a federal prison... In Los Angeles hundreds of Pro-Palestinian protesters swarming The Grove shopping center and other parts of the Fairfax District... Today a deadline for filing sex abuse lawsuits involving historic allegations of abuse in the state of New York... The Turkish military striking 17 targets in northern Iraq ... North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un inspecting spy satellite photos of 'major target regions'... The Russian military in Syria reports six violations of Syrian airspace by US-led coalition drones...

"Death and destruction are central to their whole operation," DEA chief Anne Milgram Milgram said Friday, calling the Chapitos and the global network they operate "a network that fuels violence and death on both sides of the border." El Chapo, the Sinaloa cartel's founder, is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado after being convicted in 2019 on charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons-related offenses. In January, El Chapo sent an "SOS" message to Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, alleging that he has been subjected to "psychological torment" in prison.

It was not the first death reported at USP Hazelton. According to the Associated Press, an inmate at the prison was killed in a fight in September, and another inmate was killed in a fight there in April.

This just in from multiple broadcast stations here in Chicago: Jesse Jackson Jr filed for divorce from his fellow convict wife at 430pm today in Chicago. More to come...running on FOX 32 and WGN-TV right now.

US Attorney recommends 8 years in prison for Leland Yee Known as being "tough on guns," disgraced former California State Sen. Leland Yee may get 8 years in federal prison for his 2015 plea to racketeering charges. Yee, ironically known for his gun control legislation, was arrested in 2014 on a host of charges including plotting to smuggle guns into the country via Islamic terror groups. This left many gun control advocates, who up until that time held the San Francisco-based politician as a champion in the crusade for tougher gun laws, dismayed. Facing potentially the rest of his life...

President Barack Obama said Monday he will ban the use of solitary confinement for juvenile and low-level offenders in federal prisons, citing the potential for "devastating, lasting psychological consequences" from the use of the isolation as punishment. "It has been linked to depression, alienation, withdrawal, a reduced ability to interact with others and the potential for violent behavior," Obama wrote in an op-ed posted Monday evening on The Washington Post's website. "Some studies indicate that it can worsen existing mental illnesses and even trigger new ones. Prisoners in solitary are more likely to commit suicide, especially juveniles and people with...

President Barack Obama’s push for a fairer justice system is literally sending him to prison. As part of a week-long focus on inequities in the criminal justice system, Obama will meet separately Thursday with law enforcement officials and nonviolent drug offenders who are paying their debt to society at the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution, a medium-security prison for male offenders near Oklahoma City. He’ll be the first sitting president to see the inside of a federal prison, the White House said. […] The goal is usually to keep people with criminal histories far away from a president, not to...

End prison perks for ‘fake’ Muslims President Obama and his administration seem quick to assert that the multitude of terrorist acts perpetrated in recent history are done by individuals who do not represent the religion of Islam. This is their justification for not identifying these enemies of freedom as Islamic radicals or Islamic terrorists. The Obama administration would have America believe that killers such as Sept. 11, 2011, mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and U.S. Army “workplace violence” purveyor Nidal Hasan are somehow false Muslims because their terrorist crimes are not in accordance with the tenets of Islam. If all this...

DENVER (AP) - A 19-year-old suburban Denver woman who tried to go to Syria to help Islamic State militants has been sentenced to four years in prison. Shannon Conley learned her punishment in Denver federal court on Friday as her parents watched. She wore a black and tan headscarf with her jail uniform. Conley pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization in September under a deal that requires her to divulge information she may have about other Americans with similar intentions. FBI agents say Conley wanted to marry a suitor she...

Former Illinois Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., once one of the most promising black politicians in the United States, reported to federal prison on Monday to begin serving a 2-1/2 year sentence for misusing campaign funds, according to a family spokeswoman. Jackson, a former Democratic representative and the son of civil rights leader the Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr., entered a federal correctional facility in Butner, North Carolina, family spokeswoman Bunnie Jackson-Ransom said in a statement. "I am happy to report that he is in good spirits, all things considered," said North Carolina Representative G.K. Butterfield, who accompanied Jackson to the prison,...

Employees at federal prisons aren’t able to collect a paycheck during the government shutdown, even though the inmates they are overseeing are being paid. A group of 100 guards at a federal prison camp in Yankton, S.D., still have to work in order to “protect human life and property,” but will have to trust the government to make good on their promise to retroactively pay them. In a cruel twist, the criminals locked up in the facility are still receiving their money for services rendered while they are in custody because there is a different funding tier for the prisoners’...

Rod Blagojevich is peeling potatoes in prison Rod Blagojevich is "a lovely guy," according to defense attorney Sam Adam Sr. Apparently he isn't the only one with that assessment. Adam says that Blago's fellow prisoners "just adore him." So what does the Bureau of Prisons have him doing? "They've got him working in the kitchen peeling potatoes just like I did in the Army! They've given him a lot of time to run and exercise. He’s settled in now, which knowing the Bureau of Prisons, they’ll probably transfer him!"

U.S. prison warden: Muslim prayers led to gangs The warden of a U.S. prison holding high-risk inmates, including American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh, insisted Thursday that he was obeying a court order to allow daily group prayer by permitting inmates to pray in pairs within their cells. Warden John Oliver told a federal judge that when the prison allowed group prayer earlier this year, Muslim inmates formed gangs and bullied other prisoners. Lindh attended the hearing by video conference from the high-security unit that houses him and about 40 other inmates, including several convicted on terror charges. A U.S....

Ex-IRS agent sentenced to prison in murder-for-hire plot A former IRS agent who opened a tax preparation business was sentenced Friday to nearly 24 years in prison for defrauding clients out of more than $11 million and then attempting to hire a hit man to kill four of them. Steven Martinez, 51, of Ramona was sentenced in San Diego federal court to 286 months in prison and five years of supervised release. He was also ordered by District Court Judge William Hayes to forfeit all the property, including a home in Mexico, and other possessions that he purchased with clients'...

Father of 'American Taliban' John Walker Lindh 'Proud' of Son's Testimony in Group Prayer Lawsuit The father of John Walker Lindh, the young American who was captured in Afghanistan after 9/11 and sentenced to prison for aiding the Taliban against U.S. troops, said he is proud of his son for fighting in court today for the right to pray with other Muslim prisoners. "I was really proud of John," Frank Lindh told ABCNews.com. "Today he did such a good job of explaining the daily prayer. It was a really well informed testimony. It shows how much depth of knowledge he...

INDIANAPOLIS – An American-born Taliban fighter imprisoned in Indiana will try to convince a federal judge that his religious freedom trumps security concerns in a closely watched trial that will examine how far prisons can go to ensure security in the age of terrorism. John Walker Lindh was expected to testify Monday in Indianapolis during the first day of the trial over prayer policies

Fiery Reaction to Marine’s Stolen Saddam Rifle Is it among the spoils of war? Or worthy of a felony conviction that carries a 10-year prison sentence? The recent conviction of a Twentynine Palms Marine from Hemet has sparked a debate from readers and a fierce defense from the Marine himself. To rewind, Staff Sgt. Joel Cleve Miller was convicted last week of illegal possession of a machine gun. Federal prosecutors said he smuggled a chrome-plated AK-47 that once belonged to Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein’s Royal Guard back to his home in Hemet after a 2005 tour in Iraq. Miller now...

Hemet: Marine convicted of smuggling rifle from Saddam palace - An AK-47 seized from Saddam Hussein’s Royal Guard, belonging to Twentynine Palms Marine Joel Cleve Miller. Federal prosecutors said former Staff Sgt. Joel Cleve Miller, 40, was found guilty of possession of an illegal chrome AK-47 that he smuggled back from Iraq during a 14-month tour in 2005. When he returned to his home in Hemet, he bragged to several friends that he smuggled the gun back after it once belonged to Saddam Hussein’s Royal Guard. The U.S. Marine Corps discharged Miller in December 2011 after 20 years in the...