Viktor Bout, convicted of arms trafficking and awaiting sentencing in New York, has been ordered to be moved out of solitary confinement. A federal judge today ruled such treatment unconstitutional.

Although I recognize that courts are loathe to interfere with questions of prison administration, an area in which the BOP is best suited to make decisions, I cannot shirk my duty under the Constitution and Turner to ensure that Bout's confinement is not arbitrarily and excessively harsh.

[More...]

Mitt Romney today proposed raising the Medicare eligibility age in 2022. He also proposed restrictions on future social security benefits.

Romney said his proposals for Medicare and Social Security would begin in 2022, meaning no current or near-retirees would be affected. He also said he favors adjustments to curtail the growth of future benefits for the relatively well-to-do, so "lower-income seniors would receive the most generous benefits.

Beginning in 2022, Romney said, "we will gradually increase the Medicare eligibility age by one month each year. In the long run, the eligibility ages for both programs will be indexed to longevity so that they increase only as fast as life expectancy."

That's not as bad as the plan Obama was considering, which would have implemented the age increase in 2013, giving those approaching age 65 insufficient time to make plans to pay for another two years of private medical insurance. [More...]

A group of 8 translators/interpreters in San Diego have sued the Drug Enforcement Administration for administering polygraphs in violation of federal law. The interpreters' employer, Metropolitan, aka Metlang has also been sued.

The DEA contracted with Metlang to provide linguists/translators for its criminal cases. The suing translators worked for Metlang on DEA's wiretaps and criminal cases. They were all fired after either refusing the test or after DEA reported their polygraphs results as “failed,”or "inconclusive" to Metlang.

Under the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, 29 USC §§2001, a private employer is prohibited from requesting, requiring or demanding a polygraph test from an employee.

The polygraphs lasted four or five hours, and one woman was questioned about bestiality: [More...]

I'll be offline today. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

After negotiating with rioting inmates and consulting other inmates, authorities in Bali have announced there will be no forced evacuation of prisoners at Kerobokan Prison.

Some Indonesian inmates do want to leave because the prison is too far from their homes. Authorities have agreed to transfer these inmates to prisons closer to home. 17 of the inmates, all male, who left yesterday were resettled at Tabanan.

Schapelle Corby, the Bali 9 and two other Australian inmates want to stay at Kerobokan. While Scott Rush left yesterday, as I noted here, he was quickly returned, as were a dozen or so other foreign inmates who had left. So they will not be moved....for now. [More...]

Busy Day. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The evacuation of Kerobokan Prison is not going according to plan. Consular officials met with the foreign prisoners, and most, including Schapelle Corby and 8 of the Bali 9, don't want to leave and be relocated. They said adapting to new surroundings would be too difficult. Officials didn't want to remove them against their will.

Bali 9 inmate Scott Rush, serving life, is one who did want to leave and was seen leaving in one of the buses, only later to return. The Jakarta Globe says those leaving are being transferred to Bali’s Karangasem penitentiary. Earlier, authorities said they would be moved to Klungkung. Yet other officials say the prisoners will go to Porong prison, just south of Surabaya.

Evacuations have ceased for the evening, and authorities say they will continue tomorrow. [More..]

Update: The evacuation of the foreign prisoners has been delayed as police negotiate with the ringleaders of the riot. Why? Sounds like they can't get past the Indonesian prisoners to get the others out -- or that some of the foreign prisoners have already been taken hostage.

The riots Tuesday night at Kerobokan prison in Bali continued into Wednesday, as prisoners retook control. There has been no electricity and major parts of the prison are burned out.

More than 400 military troops are now gathered outside the prison. At 2 pm local time (11 pm MT, ) they had planned to go in and remove all 1,015 inmates.

Then they decided to first remove the foreign and female inmates, either by bus or air. There are 125 female inmates and about 50-60 foreign inmates. Authorities believe the foreign prisoners may be targeted by the other inmates and used as hostages. [More...]

I'm not watching the Republican debate, but if you are, feel free to comment. (Added: I'm following a bit on Twitter which is much more entertaining. A huge number of people are associating Newt's describing himself as cheerful with his multiple marriages and sex life. Not too many favorable comments on any of them at #CNNDebate.)

28 prison guards, and the Director, Deputy Director and Security Chief of Apodaca Prison in Mexico have been arrested in connection with the riot, escape and slaughter of 44 inmates there last week. The guards are accused of far more than helping with the escape:

Investigators say they have evidence that guards helped plan the killings....Prison guards plotted with the Zetas gang to organise the mass escape and slaughter members of the rival Gulf Cartel, the authorities said. ...The 44 dead prisoners were stabbed, strangled or beaten to death.

Guantanamo Detainee Majid Kahn will plead guilty as part of a plea deal next week.[More...]

Many thanks to the New Zealand Ministry of Justice. I sent an email this morning to their media department asking for a copy of the Kim DotCom bail decision, and they cheerfully obliged. Now that's how to run a government agency!

Here is the decision. (I'm about to go read it to see what I missed here.)

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been released from custody after two days of questioning in the investigation of alleged organized prostitution, misuse of corporate funds and police corruption. No charges have been filed against him. He was given a summons to appear again in March, possibly as a witness and possibly for the filing of charges.

I'm still looking for the text of the 13 page written bail decision for Kim DotCom who was released yesterday. The media describes it but doesn't bother to upload it so we all can read it for ourselves. If you run across it, please let me know where in comments.

Say hello to the Wrongful Convictions blog by law profs and innocence project members, offering an international perspective.

Welcome Back, BTD.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

As someone who supported American action in Afghanistan, it has become time for me to render a mea culpa - I was wrong. The people in charge of the action are simply not competent. Consider the Koran burning incident in Bagram:

The holy books and texts came from the library in the detention center in Parwan, where Americans house people suspected of being insurgents, including many of those captured during night raids. A military official said detainees had been using the books to communicate with each other and potentially incite extremist activity.

(Emphasis supplied.) It seems that for incitement of extremist activity, Americans are the champions. How in Gawd's name could this have happened? And this is not an isolated incident. The NATO commander General James Allen said: