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Prisons

Governor Pat Quinn To End Controversial Early Prisoners Release Program

newsblogs.chicagotribune.com | Posted 12.30.2009 | Chicago

Read More: Pat Quinn, Chicago, Prisoners, Early Prisoners Release Program, Governor Quinn, Prisons, Illinois, Early Release, Chicago News

Gov. Pat Quinn announced today that he is ending a controversial prisons policy that accelerated good behavior credit for new inmates and led to some ...

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Prison Population Drops In New York, Grows To 1.6 Million Across US

AP | DEVLIN BARRETT | Posted 12.08.2009 | New York

Read More: Prison Population, Jails, Prisons, Inmates, 1.6 Million Prisoners, Justice Department, Prison System, New York News

WASHINGTON — The U.S. prison population edged up slightly last year, though the number of total inmates dropped in 20 states, including New York...

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Empty Prison in Struggling Illinois Town Might Be Next Gitmo

Charles Shaw | Posted 11.18.2009 | Politics

Read More: Guantanamo, Prisons, Military Tribunals, Closing Guantanamo, Guantanamo Detainees, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Thomson Gitmo, Thomson Illinois, Illinois, Politics News
Charles Shaw

Beyond histrionics about a wave of jihad descending upon Chicago, the truth of the matter is far closer to the desire of Republicans to keep the extralegal limbo at Guantanamo going full steam.

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Beyond Guantanamo: Torture Thrives in Connecticut

Jacob M. Appel | Posted 11.17.2009 | Politics

Read More: Geneva Conventions, Medical Ethics, Law, Rape, Arthur Caplan, Physicians, Crime, American Medical Associaton, Prisoners, Civil Rights, William Coleman, Guantanamo, Connecticut, Edward Blanchette, World Medical Association, Human Rights, Health, Doctors, Prisons, Medicine, Bioethics, Torture, Politics News
Jacob M. Appel

In the case of Coleman v. Lantz, Connecticut has argued for the right to force feed a hunger-striking inmate in an excruciatingly painful manner.

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The Criminalization Of Mental Illness (VIDEO)

Posted 11.17.2009 | Living

Read More: Mental Illness, Prison Population, Health Care Reform, Prisons, Living News

In a new report, Al Jazeera English takes a look at just why people with mental health problems make up half the population of U.S. jails and prisons....

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Sexual Misconduct By Prison Staff Members Doubled In Recent Years: Report

Washington Post | Carrie Johnson | Posted 11.10.2009 | Home

Read More: Prison Reform, Prisons, Sexual Abuse, Prison, Prison Misconduct, Home News

Reports of sexual misconduct by prison staff members with federal inmates doubled over the past eight years, and government watchdogs called Thursday ...

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Cash-Strapped States Revise Laws To Set Inmates Free

Los Angeles Times | Nicholas Riccardi | Posted 10.21.2009 | Politics

Read More: Prison Cuts, Prison Budget Cuts, Jails, Prisons, Prison Inmates, Inmates, Politics News

After decades of pursuing lock-'em-up policies, states are scrambling to reduce their prison populations in the face of tight budgets, making fundamen...

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So We Can't Have Single Payer for Health Care, But How About Single Payer for Education?

Arianna Huffington | Posted 10.19.2009 | Politics

Read More: School Resegregation, Public Schools, Prison Industry, Education, Prison Industrial Complex, Education Policy, No Child Left Behind, School Reform, Prisons, Education Reform, Nclb, Reading, School Segregation, Politics News
Arianna Huffington

To produce education reform that is reform in more than name only, we need to look past our own political backyards at what might lie on the other side of the mountain. What I see on that other side is a single-payer education system. It's simple, sensible and, above all, just.  READ MORE

Has Obama's Handling of the Bank Bailout Undermined Health Care Reform?   One of the consequences of the one-sided bailout of Wall Street is the way it has undermined public trust in government.  Much of the health care anger is a proxy for bailout anger.  If we don't learn from the botched bailout, we are in danger of getting the same reform-in-name-only outcome on health care. READ MORE

Watch: Arianna Discusses Ted Kennedy's Potential Successors on Countdown

Watch: Arianna Discusses All Things HuffPost with MarketWatch's Jon Friedman (Part One, Part Two)

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State Media: China Organ Transplants Come From Death Row

AP | GILLIAN WONG | Posted 09.26.2009 | World

Read More: Human Rights, Medicine, Organ Transplants, Health Care, Chinese Organ Transplants, China Health Care, China, Prisons, Death Row, World News

BEIJING — China has launched a national organ donation system to try to reduce its dependence on body parts harvested from executed prisoners, w...

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Prisons ban inmates from having pen pal ads

AP | JESSICA GRESKO | Posted 08.31.2009 | Living

Read More: Pen Pals, Prisons, Prison Inmates, Writeaprisoner, Prisoners, Prison Pen Pals, Living News

MIAMI — In her online profile, Paula Jones says she is 42, "nonjudgmental" and likes fishing, gardening and cuddling. There's a catch, though. J...

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Philippine Prisoners Dance to Michael Jackson's "Dangerous"

Disgrasian | Posted 08.26.2009 | Entertainment

Read More: Michael Jackson, Dancing Filipino Prisoners, Filipino Thriller, The Philippines, Michael Jackson Dangerous, Dancing Philippine Prisoners, Philippines, Dancing, Michael Jackson Death, Viral Video, Viral Videos, Asians, Prison, Filipinos, Michael Jackson Dies, Dance, Prisons, Rehabilitation, Entertainment News
Disgrasian

The prisoners at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center make incarceration look really awesome with another Michael Jackson dance video, this time to "Dangerous."

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America's 10 Cushiest Prisons

ABC News | ASHER HAWKINS | Posted 08.18.2009 | Home

Read More: Prisons, Us Prisons, Cushy Prisons, Nice Prisons, Home News

It's looking like a lifetime sentence at one of the nation's cushiest prisons for world-class fraudster Bernard Madoff. The record-setting scammer is ...

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My Return to Sing Sing Prison: The Agony and The Ecstasy

Anthony Papa | Posted 08.15.2009 | Entertainment

Read More: Rockefeller Drug Laws, Prisons, Entertainment News, Film, Crime, Drug War, Entertainment News
Anthony Papa

I swore to myself I would never return. But over a decade later, here I was, back at the maximum security prison where I served a 15 years for a non-violent drug crime under the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

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Letters From the Pen: A Review

Daniel Krotz | Posted 08.14.2009 | Living

Read More: Berryville, Prisons, Boian Books, Bookseller, Arkansas, Lovely County Citizen, Eureka Springs, Living News
Daniel Krotz

Letters offers an opportunity to witness a man in an unusual, if not unique, situation as he fine-tunes his craft and his understanding of the human condition.

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Time to Forgive, Forget, and Find a Little Jubilee

Randall Amster | Posted 07.26.2009 | Business

Read More: Debt, Jubilee Act, Bailout, Credit Card Debt, Forgiveness, Student Loans, Stimulus, Jubilee, Prisoners, Prisons, Decriminalization, Third World Debt, Business News
Randall Amster

Money is the means to everything from food to sex, so it's no surprise what people are willing to do to obtain it, from criminal activities to simply ignoring the rising tide.

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Not in My Backyard: Fear of the Guantánamo Legion of Doom

Warren Holstein | Posted 06.26.2009 | Comedy

Read More: Yucca Mountain, John McCain, Ramsi Yousef, George W. Bush, Guantanamo Detainees, 9/11, Guantanamo, Nevada, Nimbyism, Richard Reid, Nimby, Gitmo, Al Qaeda, Dick Cheney, Shoe Bomber, Zacharias Moussaoui, Prison, Guantanamo Bay, Gop, Enhanced Interrogations, Prisons, 20/20, World Trade Center, Waterboarding, Afghanistan, Gitmo Detainees, Republican Party, Republicans, Torture, George Bush, Comedy News
Warren Holstein

Yup, that's right, the self-same prison system that has held Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and the Son of Sam is apparently no match for a bunch of unarmed, sensory-deprived foreigners.

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Putting Lipstick On Our Strung-Out Pig

Allison Kilkenny | Posted 06.14.2009 | Politics

Read More: Gil Kerlikowske, Prisons, War on Drugs, Drug Czar, Politics News
Allison Kilkenny

At a time when the government claims there just isn't enough money for every citizen to have healthcare, getting rid of the failed War on Drugs could fund numerous national programs.

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Ryan Grim

Trey Anastasio, Phish Frontman, Tells Addiction Story On Capitol Hill, Lobbies For Drug Courts

HuffingtonPost.com | Ryan Grim | Posted 06.07.2009 | Politics

Read More: Trey Anastasio, Phish, Drug Court, Drug Courts, Prison, Lobbying, Drugs, Prisons, War on Drugs, Trey Anastasio Drug Courts, Trey Anastasio Capitol Hill, Trey Anastasio Drug Court, Anastasio, Trey Anastasio on the Hill, Trey, Drug Court, Politics News

Phish's floppy-haired frontman is sporting a sharp, navy blue suit, which can only mean one of two things. And he isn't in a courtroom, so he must be ...

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Privatized Hell

J. Richard Cohen | Posted 05.23.2009 | Politics

Read More: Privatization, Juvenile Justice, Prisons, Mississippi, Incarcerated Teens, Politics News
J. Richard Cohen

As a society, we are facing a crucial decision: We can continue to criminalize our children and groom them for adult prisons. Or, we can invest in programs that help rather than harm them.

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A Little Torture

Allison Kilkenny | Posted 05.18.2009 | Politics

Read More: Guantanamo, Law, Prisons, Barack Obama, Torture Memos, George W. Bush, Torture, Politics News
Allison Kilkenny

The American two-tier justice system must end, and a good start would be for the Obama administration to recognize that a little torture is never okay, no matter who is doing it.

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Oakland Police Massacre Casts Ugly Glare on Ex-Felon Desperation

Earl Ofari Hutchinson | Posted 04.25.2009 | Politics

Read More: Law Enforcement, Congress, Lovelle Mixon, Barack Obama, Oakland Police Killings, Crime, Police, Second Chance Act, Violence, Ex-Felons, Prisons, California, Oakland, Oakland-California, Politics News
Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Though Lovelle Mixon's killing spree is a horrible aberration, his plight as an unemployed, ex-felon isn't. There are tens of thousands like him on America's streets.

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Another Spectacular Failure: The War on Drugs

Philip Slater | Posted 04.18.2009 | Politics

Read More: Taxes, Prisons, War on Drugs, Politics News
Philip Slater

We Americans seem to be incapable of learning from past mistakes. We learned nothing from the debacle of 1929. We learned nothing from Vietnam. And...

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Jailing Teenagers and the Poisoning of Public Purpose

Donald Cohen | Posted 03.29.2009 | Politics

Read More: Privatization, Prisons, Prison Privatization, Prison Industry, Jail, Politics News
Donald Cohen

The real problem is that the structure of private detention and prison contracting creates incentives and behaviors that poison our system of criminal justice.

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Prison Riots in Texas

cnn.com | Posted 03.04.2009 | Politics

Read More: Reeves County Detenction Center, Prisons, Prison Riot, Politics News

Thousands of inmates rioted at the Reeves County Detention Center in Texas on Saturday, the second disturbance at the prison facility in the last two...

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Local Pride and Supermax

Christopher Brauchli | Posted 03.01.2009 | Politics

Read More: Prison, Immigration Debate, Illegal Immigrants, Closing Guantanamo, Guantanamo Detainees, Supermax, Unabomber, Criminal Justice System, Crime, Criminal Justice, Prisons, Ted Kaczynski, Richard Reid, Politics News
Christopher Brauchli

The list of prisoners who have been or are presently at Supermax is quite distinguished as prison rosters go; it includes Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber," and Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber."

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