Prisons

The authorities increased security at a tuberculosis hospital near the city of Port Elizabeth where patients with drug-resistant forms of the disease went on a rampage on Wednesday to protest prisonlike conditions. Twenty-two patients were arrested after they pelted the staff members with stones and vandalized equipment. But the local police station and prison refused to admit them, because of fears of the highly infectious disease. Instead, they were returned to the hospital. Patients with drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are required to live in guarded and isolated quarters that are surrounded by barbed wire.

By NOOR KHAN and JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press June 14, 2008

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - U.S. and NATO troops aided Afghan forces with reconnaissance in a hunt Saturday for 870 inmates who escaped prison after a sophisticated Taliban assault that even NATO conceded was a success for the militants.  read more »

By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Jan 18, 2008

TORONTO - A training manual for Canadian diplomats lists the United States as a country where prisoners risk torture and abuse, citing interrogation techniques such as stripping prisoners, blindfolding and sleep deprivation.  read more »

On Monday November 5th 2007, a 76 year old retired school teacher reported to DC Superior Court to begin serving a 7 day jail sentence.

Today, Wednesday, Dec. 12, Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada leads a protest of the construction of the border wall and the planned seizure of private lands in Texas by Homeland Security, by way of the law of eminent domain. Lipan Apache women are standing firm against the seizure of their land, along with hundreds of Texas landowners.

On Sunday, Dec. 16, a vigil will be held to free the imprisoned migrant and refugee children of Hutto prison near Austin. Candles will be lit for hope, as those gathered remember the children imprisoned.  read more »

By DAVID PITT, Associated Press Dec 3, 2007

DES MOINES, Iowa - A federal appeals court ruled Monday that the state of Iowa cannot fund an evangelical Christian prison ministry program because doing so advances or endorses religion, violating the Constitutional separation of church and state.  read more »

By JAN SLIVA, Associated Press Nov. 14, 2007

STRASBOURG, France - An EU investigator said Wednesday he has evidence to suggest that a Ukrainian airstrip was used by CIA-operated planes involved in the U.S. extraordinary rendition program.

Giovanni Fava said he was also looking into possible CIA use of a military facility at a Ukrainian base. Fava, an Italian member of the European Parliament, drafted a report last year identifying more than 1,000 secret CIA flights with stopovers on European territory since 2001. He identified several of them as being used to transfer terror suspects.  read more »

TALLAHASSEE - About 700 marchers shouted "We shall overcome" and "No justice, no peace" Tuesday to protest Florida's handling of a teenager's death after guards hit and kicked him at a state boot camp last year.

They want federal authorities to investigate what they allege are civil rights violations by camp staffers and others, including Florida's former top law enforcement official. The U.S. Justice Department is reviewing the state's unsuccessful prosecution of the camp guards and a nurse.  read more »

July 24, 2007 Southern Voice

A transgender woman who claims she was repeatedly raped and beaten by
a male cell mate went to court this week to challenge a state policy
that assigns inmates like her to men's or women's prisons depending
on whether they have undergone sex-change surgery. Alexis Giraldo,
30, claims that Folsom State Prison guards ignored her complaints of
abuse and returned her to the same cell until a subsequent assault
got her placed in protective custody and eventually moved to another
facility.

A transgender woman who claims she was repeatedly raped and beaten by  read more »

By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press June 8, 2007

PARIS - The CIA ran secret jails in Poland and Romania to interrogate key terror suspects, shackling and handcuffing inmates, keeping some naked for weeks and reducing contact with the outer world to masked and silent guards, a European investigator said Friday.  read more »