Latest Prisons News

Amsterdam court sentences 5 men over violence linked to Ajax-Maccabi soccer game

Dec. 24, 2024 12:55 PM EST

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An Amsterdam District Court on Tuesday sentenced five men to up to six months in prison for violence that erupted around a UEFA Europa League football match between the Dutch club Ajax and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv in November. The riots, which...

The pope is kicking off a yearlong Jubilee that will test his stamina and Rome's patience

Dec. 24, 2024 12:11 PM EST

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Tuesday opens the 2025 Holy Year, kicking off a celebration of the Catholic Church that is expected to draw some 32 million pilgrims to Rome and test the pope's stamina and the ability of the Eternal City to welcome them. At the start of...

American imprisoned in Russia sentenced to new 15-year jail term for espionage

Dec. 24, 2024 11:26 AM EST

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian-born U.S. citizen already imprisoned in Russia on a bribery conviction has been handed a second 15-year jail term for espionage, Russian news agencies reported Tuesday. A Moscow court brought espionage charges against Gene Spector in August 2023. Details...

Adnan Syed's lawyers seek to reduce his prison sentence

Dec. 23, 2024 17:23 PM EST

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Attorneys for Adnan Syed, whose complex legal case was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial," are seeking to have his prison sentence reduced as he awaits further court decisions. Syed was released from prison in 2022 and has remained free ever since, though his court...

Alabama sheriff requests FBI probe into alleged sexual assault at youth detention facility

Dec. 23, 2024 15:52 PM EST

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama sheriff requested the FBI investigate possible civil rights violations after two detention officers were charged with sexually assaulting minors in a youth detention facility, law enforcement announced on Monday. One 32-year-old officer is charged...

Australia approves extradition of former US Marine over alleged training of Chinese military pilots

Dec. 23, 2024 00:41 AM EST

NEWCASTLE, Australia (AP) — Former U.S. Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan will be extradited from Australia to the United States over allegations that he illegally trained Chinese aviators. Australia’s Attorney General Mark Dreyfus approved the extradition on Monday, ending the...

A board game born in Mexican prisons is bringing together people from all walks of life

Dec. 22, 2024 23:16 PM EST

MEXICO CITY (AP) — On a Sunday afternoon in Mexico City’s Roma neighborhood, Rosa María Espinosa joins nearly 80 men under a park pavilion to play poleana, a board game requiring mental dexterity that was born in the city's prisons nearly a century ago. Espinosa blows smoke...

Louisiana often holds inmates past their release date, DOJ lawsuit claims

Dec. 22, 2024 12:47 PM EST

Louisiana’s prison system routinely holds people weeks and months after they have completed their sentences, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged in a lawsuit filed Friday. The suit against the state of Louisiana follows a multiyear investigation into what federal officials say is a pattern of...

New York's governor orders firing of prison staffers involved in inmate's fatal beating

Dec. 21, 2024 18:31 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — New York's governor has ordered more than a dozen prison staffers to be fired over the fatal beating of an inmate earlier this month. Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement Saturday that she has directed the state's corrections department commissioner to begin the...

Alabama profits off prisoners who work at McDonald’s but deems them too dangerous for parole

Dec. 20, 2024 17:10 PM EST

DADEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A storm was looming when the inmate serving 20 years for armed robbery was assigned to transport fellow prisoners to their jobs at private manufacturers supplying goods to companies like Home Depot and Wayfair. It didn’t matter that Jake Jones once had escaped or that he...