Latest Prisons News
4 Louisiana men to plead guilty in Mississippi bribe scheme
Four Louisiana men say they'll plead guilty to charges that they tried to bribe a Mississippi sheriff with $2,000 in casino chips, seeking lucrative jail contracts. Michael LeBlanc Sr. of Baton Rouge, Michael LeBlanc Jr. of Prairieville, Tawasky Ventroy of Opelousas and Jacque Jones of LaPlace have filed notices...
Sanders' criminal justice plan aims to cut prison population
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is proposing a criminal justice overhaul that aims to cut the nation's prison population in half, end mandatory minimum sentencing, ban private prisons and legalize marijuana. He says the current system does not fairly treat people of...
2 moms charged in adoption scams were Florida jail inmates
CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — Two Florida women scammed two adoptive couples in cases that appear unrelated but started when they were pregnant in the same jail, authorities said. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that no evidence indicates the scams were coordinated, but acknowledged...
California man convicted of torture of pot dispensary owner
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A California man who previously escaped from jail and was on the run for a week was convicted Friday of kidnapping and torturing a marijuana dispensary owner who he mistakenly believed had buried large sums of money in the desert. A jury in Newport Beach found Hossein Nayeri,...
Family, friends bid goodbye to slain corrections employee
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Hundreds of family and friends gathered Friday in a Tennessee church to bid goodbye to a beloved correctional administrator killed last week, allegedly by an escaped inmate who sparked a four-day manhunt. The 64-year-old Debra Johnson was remembered for being a devout Christian,...
Report: Arizona prison boss slow to react to broken locks
PHOENIX (AP) — Locks failed for years at an Arizona prison and allowed for serious beatings of prisoners and guards, but Corrections Director Charles Ryan failed to appreciate the seriousness of the problem until he saw video of an assault that was broadcast on television, according to a report released...
For inmates like Epstein, suicide watch is meant to be short
NEW YORK (AP) — Suicide is such a constant concern at federal jails that guards have ready access to "the stick," a wooden pole with a sharpened blade at the end that's used to cut down inmates if they try to hang themselves with bedsheets. That's believed to be exactly how Jeffrey Epstein took his life...
Judge: Captured Tennessee inmate could face death penalty
RIPLEY, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee convict accused of killing a corrections administrator and escaping prison could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder, a judge told the prisoner Wednesday. Curtis Ray Watson appeared before Judge Janice Craig in a video arraignment in Lauderdale County...
The Latest: Captured inmate could face death penalty
RIPLEY, Tenn. (AP) — The Latest on a court hearing for a Tennessee convict who escaped from prison (all times local): 2:20 p.m. A judge told a Tennessee convict accused of killing a corrections administrator and escaping prison that he could face death if convicted of first-degree murder. Curtis Ray Watson...
Inmate asks for electric chair death in Thursday execution
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee inmate has made a last-minute request to be put to death in the electric chair, an option his lawyer described as "also unconstitutional, yet still less painful" than the state's preference of a three-drug lethal injection. The state Department of Correction on Wednesday...
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