by TChris

Pennsylvania's prisons seem to be having management problems. From Westmoreland County:

Westmoreland County's prison warden was threatened with a contempt hearing and a potential involuntary stay in his own building Thursday over repeated failures to release an inmate on work release. Warden John Walton said he attempted to comply with the court orders but was looking after the county's financial interests when a self-employed inmate didn't have any workplace insurance.

Here's a clue, Warden: that's a problem for the judge to worry about. Your job is to follow the judge's orders, not to ignore them because you think it's in the county's "best interests" to do so.

From Fayette County, a problem that involved a corrections officer, rather than an inmate:

Fayette County has reached a nearly $16,000 settlement with a correctional officer who was temporarily fired 10 years ago for urinating in a prison office. William Prinkey, 48, who was dismissed in 1994 after relieving himself at his duty post when he was denied a restroom break, will receive $15,800.

When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.

by TChris

Add one more name to the list of wrongly convicted prisoners: Randy Steidl.

Steidl, 52, of Paris, Ill., spent a dozen years on death row for the murder of Paris newlyweds Dyke and Karen Rhoads and about five additional years after he was resentenced in 1999 to life in prison.

An Illinois State Police detective concluded four years ago that Steidl and a second Paris man convicted in the case, Herbert Whitlock, were innocent and that strong evidence linked an unnamed individual to the murders.

A federal judge ordered a new trial for Steidl after concluding that a jury would probably have acquitted him if his lawyer had done a better job. Developments after the trial also provided reason to question Steidl's guilt. A prosecution witness who said she saw Steidl killing the couple has recanted, and new DNA testing supports his innocence.

As is typical, the prosecutor in the case refuses to concede that he prosecuted an innocent man. Nonetheless, the prosecutor filed a motion asking that the charges be dismissed because he deems it impossible to pull together enough evidence to secure a conviction within the 120 day window during which (according to the federal judge's order) the state must either retry Steidl or set him free. He says -- presumably to save face -- that the case will require more investigation and that the charges will eventually be refiled. Translation: "I hope that after awhile everybody forgets about this case."

Whitlock is still in prison, but his lawyer is hopeful that these developments will eventually lead to Whitlock's freedom as well.

More about the Stanford study in 1971 showing inmate abuse in the U.S. much like that at Abu Ghraib. The lesson: What happened at Abu Ghraib was predictable--and therefore (in our view) preventable. There's even a name for the syndrome: The "Lord of the Flies Effect."

It's 2:30 a.m. Bored prison guards pull prisoners from their cells, strip them naked, chain them together and force them to simulate sodomy. The guards know someone is recording their activities, but they don't let concerns about future consequences interfere with the degradation and abuse. Sound familiar? It might sound like abuses that occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, but these pictures were taken over 30 years ago — at Stanford University.

In 1971 a group of 24 college men volunteered to act as either guards or prisoners in an experimental prison. Under the watchful eye of Dr. Philip Zimbardo, esteemed professor of psychology and former president of the American Psychological Foundation, volunteers went through several rounds of testing to ensure psychological and physical health and "normalcy." They were then designated either guards or prisoners by the simple flip of a coin.

[Ed. Date of study corrected]

Not only are 1 in every 75 men in the U.S. in jail, but the rate in some states is dramatically higher than in others. Who leads? Texas...not just in the number of texecutions but also in the number of inmates:

A federal study released Thursday shows that Texas led the nation in the number of inmates incarcerated in state prisons and county jails in June 2003.
Texas had 164,222 inmates on the last day of that month, about 800 more than California. The Texas inmate population was up by 4.2 percent, or 6,578 inmates, from June 2002, according to the study by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Texas' June 2003 incarceration rate also was the highest in the nation, with 692 inmates per 100,000 population. Mississippi ran a close second with an incarceration rate of 688 per 100,000 residents.....Overall, the report said the nation's federal, state and local prisons and jails were holding more than 2 million people on June 30, 2003, the largest number in four years.

Here's DOJ's Press Release on the report.

America. Prison Nation.

by TChris

When it comes to criminal behavior, the motto of some seems to be: "Never forgive and never forget." Presidents and Governors are vested with the power to grant pardons because people who have lived exemplary lives for many years shouldn't bear a disproportionate burden because of a single mistake. Felony convictions and minor drug convictions prevent people from holding some jobs. Some convictions prevent people from being bonded, denying them the opportunity to seek other jobs. In some states, felony convictions take away the right to vote. Felony and domestic abuse convictions also take away the right to possess a firearm for hunting or protection. There's nothing wrong with granting a pardon to someone who demonstrates that a lawless act was an aberration in an otherwise law-abiding life, particularly when the conviction causes a needless hardship.

The fact that former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow handed out 214 pardons is not, in itself, worthy of complaint. Executives are given that authority with the expectation that they will be exercise it wisely and mercifully.

Airports will be on extra high security this holiday weekend. If you're flying, this sounds like a good tip from FAA Administrator Marion Blakey:

One of the first things I go to is my PDA, or telephone, because now we have a brand new service, www.faa.gov/wireless , and you can go on and actually pick up what the story is at your airport before you go," she said on NBC. "Are you running into any ground delays? Is there weather to be aware of? In fact, you can go to your specific airline and see what's the story on the flight. It lets you schedule, you're more in control and it really does give you a way of understanding the situation rather than just getting there and saying, 'What's going on.'"...The same information is available on the regular FAA Internet site for people not using a wireless device such as a personal digital assistant or cell phone.

The Government plans to spend $145 million this year on anti-drug ads. A new study shows they don't work. They may even prompt some kids to start experimenting with drugs.

The study was done by Texas State University at San Marcos psychology professors and sponsored by the Marijuana Policy Project. From the news article:

Researchers Harvey Ginsburg and Maria Czyzewska, of the Department of Psychology at Texas State, said 53 college students were asked to watch several of the commercials and give detailed descriptions of the thoughts the ads generated.

Three of every four students reported the ads sparked thoughts that ran counter to the ads' message, the study showed. "For example, in response to ads linking drug use to the war on terror, the most frequent unanticipated thoughts were that marijuana should be legalized, the war on drugs has been ineffective, and that marijuana users should grow their own," said Czyzewska.

A Government sponsored study in 2002 also found that kids don't respond to the anti-drug ads:

The California Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in a case in which a 15 year old student was convicted and spent 100 days in juvenile hall for writing a violent poem. Sample phrases:

"For I can be the next kid to bring guns to kill students at school." Another reads: "For I am Dark, Destructive & Dangerous."

What's at stake?

The case weighs free speech rights against the government's responsibility to provide safety in schools after campus shootings nationwide....This is a classic case of a person expressing himself and trying to communicate his feelings through a poem," attorney Michael Kresser told the court, which gave no clear indication whether it would overturn the conviction. Chief Justice Ronald George and other justices wondered aloud whether George T.'s statements were protected speech because they were presented as verses in a poem.

What law was George T. convicted of?

The law in question, usually invoked in domestic violence cases, carries a maximum one-year term for criminal threats that convey an "immediate prospect of execution." The lower courts found that this threat met that definition, a decision the boy's attorney argued was unfounded.

We side with the student. For one thing, where's the immediacy?

Update: Avedon Carol of Sideshow astutely comments on the War on Kids.

The Guardian has several interesting articles on Abu Hamza al-Masri, the Muslim cleric in London charged by Indictment in the U.S. One article questions whether Mr. Hamza is a terrorist at all--or just a talker seeking martyrdom.

US and European authorities have fumed at Britain's failure to lock up Mr Hamza. But sources in Britain still believe him to be a rhetoric-filled windbag, not an al-Qaida commander. Some now fear that high-profile arrest and the media spotlight will turn him into a willing martyr.

The article also confirms what we suggested yesterday, that it was James Ujaama who brought the Government its case against Hamza by providing information in exchange for a light sentence of his own. The Guardian points out that almost all of the evidence gathered by the U.S. is "supergrass"--meaning it comes from terror suspects in U.S. custody. From the Guardian:

It was the arrest and trial of an American Muslim convert called James Ujaama that opened a chink in the cleric's armour and gave the FBI and other US agencies the evidence they felt they needed to nail Mr Hamza.

Say hello to BrownWatch--news for people of color.

by TChris

Off duty police officers sometimes work security at concerts or athletic events to earn a little extra cash, but a couple of officers in San Francisco are in trouble for pursuing movie careers in their off hours.

Two San Francisco police officers have come under investigation after their departments discovered they had starred in a pornographic movie entitled "Bus Stop Whores" that is circulating on the Internet. The officers, Kelly Francisco of the San Francisco Sheriff's Department and Darryl Watts of the city's police department, play a prostitute and a john in the film, whose teaser is, "These girls won't ride a bus today!" according to local news reports.

by TChris

The death toll for American soldiers in Iraq since the start of the war has reached 800.

How many more?