Free Republic

Reprinted with permission from Tablet magazine. In the September debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, Trump said something so ludicrous that many viewers must have dismissed it out of hand. “She did things that nobody would ever think of,” Trump said, while rattling off a list of some of the vice president’s most radical “Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.” The idea that the vice president “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison” seemed so patently absurd that The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser cited it in...

A bill that would give people serving life without parole a second chance at freedom was brought back in the California Assembly Monday after a year of inactivity. Senate Bill 94, authored by State Senator Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), calls for a second look at Californians serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The bill would allow people convicted of life sentences a chance to lessen their time behind bars if they have been imprisoned since June 1990, or for 25 years. Cortese says this is a chance for those convicted so long ago to have a second...

Bryan Kim, 35, who now goes by 'Amber FayeFox Kim', was caught having intercourse with 25-year-old Sincer-A Marie Nerton at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) on March 14. Months later, Kim, who identifies as female, has been moved back to the Monroe Correctional Facility for men. 'The reason for Kim's transfer was due to ongoing safety concerns,' a Department of Corrections official told the National Review. Kim was convicted in 2008 of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder for fatally stabbing his father, Richard Kim, and bludgeoning and strangling his mother, Terri Kim In March, a corrections officer...

A union that represents Michigan corrections officers asked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Wednesday to deploy the National Guard to help understaffed prisons. Byron Osborn, the president of the Michigan Corrections Organization - SEIU Local 526M, said in a letter to Whitmer that she needs to "take working conditions that have persisted and worsened" throughout her time as governor. The letter says that corrections officers have to work mandatory 16-hour overtime shifts per week, and have to run prison operations with "far less" than the number of officers required. Osborn said officers often have to work in isolated areas by themselves, jeopardizing...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal from California corrections officials who sought immunity from lawsuits claiming they acted with deliberate indifference when they caused a deadly COVID-19 outbreak at one of the world’s most famous prisons four years ago. The justices turned down the appeal without comment or dissent. The lawsuit stemmed from the botched transfer of infected inmates in May 2020 from a Southern California prison to San Quentin, which at the time had no infections. The coronavirus then quickly sickened 75% of inmates at the prison north of San Francisco, leading to the deaths of...

Ukraine is legislating to join Russia in sending recruiters into the nation’s prisons to bolster its military, as Moscow’s invasion grinds on and the casualty list grows ever longer. Ukraine’s Parliament has passed a draft law allowing certain classes of convicts to get out of jail early in return for military service. As noted, Ukraine’s ability to field enough soldiers to sustain the war against Russia is one of the nation’s greatest longer-term challenges of the war, its population considerably smaller than Russia’s and already disturbed and scattered by the conflict. Releasing criminals from prison in return for military service...

Amie Ichikawa spoke about male condom dispensers being installed in female prisons ... Amie Ichikawaregarding predators taking advantage of transgender policies... Gaines spoke to Ichikawa regarding the controversial standards of housing biological males in all-women’s prisons based on them identifying as females. ... "A large percentage of the people who are transferring are individuals the state has a hard time keeping safe because of their status that's not trans related; status with the gangs, being informants, just very problematic individuals. So they're coming from these level four men's prisons, they’re maximum security, and entering women's general population, which is completely...

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, declared on Sunday that “we can fix” the ongoing political turmoil and rampant gang violence in Haiti, equating the images of brutality from the island nation to the state of affairs in his home country before implementing a law enforcement crackdown in 2022. Bukele did not specify who the “we” in his sentence was — whether he meant the government of El Salvador or the international community in general. He later commented that “experts” had declared similar violence in El Salvador “intrinsic” to the country, and the eradication of organized criminal violence from...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Authorities in Haiti have ordered a nighttime curfew after an explosion of violence when gang gunmen overran the two biggest prisons and freed thousands of inmates over the weekend. A 72-hour state of emergency began Sunday night. The government said it would set out to find the killers, kidnappers and other criminals who fled. “The police were ordered to use all legal means at their disposal to enforce the curfew and apprehend all offenders,” said a statement from Finance Minister Patrick Boivert, the acting prime minister. Gangs already were estimated to control up to 80% of...

More than 30 workers with the Kentucky Department of Corrections were caught having sex with inmates behind bars during a 16-month period, while others were found smuggling drugs and guns. A shocking investigation by Herald-Leader revealed 59 cases of employee-on-inmate sexual offenses in the past five years, with 35 cases involving possible criminal charges. Most recently, 42-year-old Amanda Kulka was charged with third-degree sodomy earlier this month for allegedly having a sexual relationship with an inmate half her age. The inmate, who has not been identified, was serving a lengthy sentence for burglary, assault and theft, according to the outlet....

A judge wants to know why two men convicted of secondary roles in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have been transferred to federal prisons out of state. Paul Bellar and Joe Morrison are entitled to appeal their convictions following a trial on state charges in Jackson County in 2022. But their lawyers said it’s extremely hard to work with them hundreds of miles away. They said the distance interferes with a right to have access to Michigan courts. The transfer is "mind-boggling" and "appalling," said Michael Faraone, who represents Morrison. "Whatever we may say about this case,...

Search... Trans women sex offenders in Canadian women's prisons stats are actually SHOCKING Chad Felix Greene Now that you mention it, there does seem to be a lot of stories featuring male sex offenders suddenly announcing they are transwomen and being transferred to women's prisons. Who knew it was so high though? 44 percent of trans-identified males in Canadian prisons are sex offenders https://t.co/W34vwKknRJ — Wesley Yang (@wesyang) September 22, 2023 Over half of those sex crimes, are against children. And 41% were killers 💔 And no, these are not female to male convicts. Some of these men raped and...

Utah mom Kouri Richins, who allegedly killed her husband and wrote a children’s book about grief, reportedly conducted extensive online research after his death – including about “luxury prisons for the rich” and how long it takes life insurance companies to pay. The 33-year-old mother of three — who was charged with murder after she allegedly slipped five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a Moscow Mule she mixed for her husband, Eric Richins, in March 2022 — had a Google history that included disturbing searches, according to KTVX. She scoured the internet for information about Utah’s penitentiaries, as...

Thousands of people are shot, stabbed, beaten, run over – assaulted and murdered – in America’s inner cities, every day. In ones and twos, in fives and tens. Drug crimes, gang wars, imagined insults, intentionally-taught hostility – a cult of violence. When the law-and-order minded conservatives – known as the Right – remind the public of the reasons behind this violence – the welfare state, the pop culture, the easy jail sentences, the early release of prisoners who should have been kept in jail – the Left often accuses us of disregarding all other inputs, and basing our policies on...

Footage inside Washington State’s Correctional Center for Women shows a distressed inmate sounding off about the prison’s transgender friendly policy. As a result of the policy violent male offenders are put in positions where they can take advantage of female inmate including in the same cell.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is testifying today at a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, and in doing so is helping to remind us why we can’t stand him. GRAHAM: “Are you concerned that if a biological male is sent to a female prison, that could be a risk to female prisoners?” GARLAND: "Every person in prison has to be dealt with dignity and respect.” pic.twitter.com/Gj0KswY88O — Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 1, 2023 Transcript: Lindsey Graham: “When it comes to federal prisons, are you aware that 1200 prisoners are requesting to be sent from a male prison to a female prison?”...

Secretary of State for Justice Dominic Raab said that the changes will "ensure a sensitive and common-sense approach to meeting the needs of women in custody." .... The UK government has announced a reform of its transgender prison policy that will mean trans-identified males who have male genitalia or have been convicted of sexual offenses will no longer be held in women’s prisons. The policy will allow for exemptions, to be assessed on a case-by-case basis, but the Ministry of Justice stresses that “only the most truly exceptional cases will be considered.” ... The announcement comes in the midst of...

Ahead of his transfer to a West Virginia prison, inmates there traded bets over how much time mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger had left to live, illustrating how well-known his location was around the time of his move, a Justice Department watchdog found. A remarkable flurry of mishaps and bureaucratic blunders preceded the ill-fated transfer as officials in the federal Bureau of Prisons took minimal security precautions, despite Bulger being a renowned informant to law enforcement, according to the watchdog report. But the DOJ's inspector general report stopped short of accusing BOP workers of acting maliciously. "We found that did...

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...

SACRAMENTO — Assemblywoman Nicole Parra and her father traveled to Cuba in early December on what has reportedly become an annual event organized by one of California’s most powerful lobbyists and political fundraisers. Parra, D-Hanford, and other participants said the trip was arranged by Darius Anderson, founder of one of Sacramento’s premiere lobbying firms and a top fundraiser for former Gov. Gray Davis. Since travel to communist Cuba is generally prohibited except under a license from the U.S. government, Anderson’s repeated trips there with lawmakers, business people and others raise a number of questions. Why is a lobbyist arranging religious...