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How 2 Murderers Escaped From a New York Maximum-Security Prison

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Two inmates made a daring and cinematic escape over the weekend from Clinton Correctional Facility, the upstate prison known as “Little Siberia,” somehow obtaining the power tools necessary to carve their way out of their steel cells and into a large pipe leading to a street outside. The account below is based on statements from the New York State governor’s office and police officials.

First, the inmates cut neat rectangular holes in the steel at the backs of their cells. They fashioned dummies from sweatshirts and stuffed their beds to thwart discovery during regular cell checks by guards.


The inmates, both serving long terms for vicious murders, had adjoining cells. There were rectangular holes that could be seen in both walls from the catwalk behind the cells . . .


[They] crawled through pipes and tunnels to a manhole about 400 feet outside the walls of the prison, cutting through a steel lock and chain to open it. (Read more from “How 2 Murderers Escaped From a New York Maximum-Security Prison” HERE)

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Pakistani Taliban Prison Attack Frees Hundreds of Inmates

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Photo Credit: Saood Rehman/EPAHundreds of prisoners have been freed by Islamists in Pakistan after a spectacular assault by extremists on a jail in the western city of Dera Ismail Khan.

The attack, at around 11.30pm on Monday, involved one large bomb – so loud it rattled windows miles away – to blow a hole in the jail’s walls, followed by a mortar bombardment.

Around 70 gunmen, many dressed in police uniforms, then rushed through the gaps, throwing grenades and firing rocket-propelled grenades, killing six policemen and opening cells to free around 250 prisoners. Authorities said these included 24 wanted terrorists.

The attack, which came on the eve of voting for a new president in the troubled south Asian state, underlines once again the weakness of the Pakistani state and the inability of the country’s law and order agencies to maintain security.

One strike last week targeted an office of the main spy agency, the ISI, while another killed more than 50 Shia Muslims. Six Shia Muslim prisoners – the vast majority of Pakistanis are Sunni – were killed in Monday night’s assault.

Read more from this story HERE.

Over 1000 Inmates Escape Libyan Jail Near Benghazi

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Photo Credit: David Holt LondonMore than 1,000 detainees escaped from a prison near the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi in a massive jailbreak Saturday, as protesters stormed the offices of political parties in Libya’s main cities.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the jailbreak at the Koyfiya prison came as part of the protests or if inmates received outside help. Protesters had massed across the country angry over the killing of an activist critical of the country’s Muslim Brotherhood group.

Those who escaped either face or were convicted of serious charges, a security official at Koyfiya prison said, confirming the jailbreak. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn’t authorized to speak to journalists.

There also was confusion initially about how many prisoners broke out, with numbers of escapees ranging as high as 1,200.

Benghazi’s security situation is among the most precarious in post-revolution Libya. Last year, the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed in an attack there.

Read more from this story HERE.

U.S. Prison Populations Decline, Reflecting New Approach to Crime

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Photo Credit: Tim Pearce, Los GatosThe prison population in the United States dropped in 2012 for the third consecutive year, according to federal statistics released on Thursday, in what criminal justice experts said was the biggest decline in the nation’s recent history, signaling a shift away from an almost four-decade policy of mass imprisonment.

The number of inmates in state and federal prisons decreased by 1.7 percent, to an estimated 1,571,013 in 2012 from 1,598,783 in 2011, according to figures released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, an arm of the Justice Department. Although the percentage decline appeared small, the fact that it followed decreases in 2011 and 2010 offers persuasive evidence of what some experts say is a “sea change” in America’s approach to criminal punishment.

“This is the beginning of the end of mass incarceration,” said Natasha Frost, associate dean of Northeastern University’s school of criminology and criminal justice.

About half the 2012 decline — 15,035 prisoners — occurred in California, which has decreased its prison population in response to a Supreme Court order to relieve prison overcrowding. But eight other states, including New York, Florida, Virginia and North Carolina, showed substantial decreases, of more than 1,000 inmates, and more than half the states reported some drop in the number of prisoners. (Figures for three states were estimated because they had not submitted data in time for the report.) The population of federal prisons increased slightly, but at a slower rate than in previous years, the report found.

Read more from this story HERE.

Lawmakers Blast Guantanamo’s $2.7 Million Per Prisoner Cost

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Photo Credit: JTF GitmoDemocratic lawmakers pushing to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay said on Wednesday its cost has skyrocketed to $2.7 million per inmate this year and argued it is too expensive to keep open while the country is fighting budget deficits.

“This is a massive waste of money,” Senator Dianne Feinstein said during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the base.

Guantanamo has been dubbed the most expensive prison on Earth, and President Barack Obama in May cited its cost – then calculated at about $900,000 per prisoner – as one of many reasons to close it.

Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, testified during the hearing that the current cost of operating the facility has jumped to $454 million in the fiscal year ended September 30, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, or about $2.7 million for each of the 166 inmates.

Smith said overall, $4.7 billion has been spent running Guantanamo since the facility opened in 2002. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: GettyGuantanamo Bay Prison Divides Senate Panel

By Alexei Koseff. Sharp disagreement over the future of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp dominated the first Senate hearing on the issue in four years.

The meeting Wednesday of a Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee, held in the wake of a high-profile hunger strike by inmates and renewed calls from President Obama to close the facility, made clear that deep partisan divisions remain over whether keeping the prison open is a threat to national security or a necessity.

Opened at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, Guantanamo was established by President George W. Bush to hold detainees suspected of connections to global terrorism organizations.

Allegations of abuse and torture of inmates have led to repeated calls for Guantanamo’s closure, and Obama has campaigned twice on the issue, though Congress has passed repeated measures to keep the prison open.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who is chairman of the panel, urged Congress to support Obama’s efforts, which would end the indefinite detention of prisoners without trial and either release them or charge them in American courts. Read more from this story HERE.

Suicide Bombers Break Out 500 Senior Al Qaeda Prisoners from Iraq’s Abu Ghraib Jail

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Photo Credit: File photoSuicide bombers have freed hundreds of terrorists during a full-frontal assault on Iraq’s top-security Abu Ghraib prison.

Gunmen attacked guards with mortar fire as well as rocket propelled grenades while terrorists drove cars packed with explosives at the fortified gates during an attack which left ten policemen dead.

Some of al Qaeda’s most senior members were among the 500 inmates thought to have escaped before authorities regained control of the infamous prison on the outskirts of Baghdad in the early hours of Monday morning.

The deadly raid on the high-security jail happened as Sunni Muslim militants are re-gaining momentum in their insurgency against the Shi’ite-led government that came to power after the U.S. invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

The raid began on Sunday night when suicide bombers attacked the gates with trucks loads with bombs and blasted their way into the compound.

Read more from this story HERE.

California Assembly Passes Bill to Distribute Condoms to Prisoners

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Photo Credit: Sharon MollerusThe proposal from Oakland Democratic Assemblyman Rob Bonta comes despite a law prohibiting any sex between inmates, which creates a conflict that concerns both supporters and opponents of the legislation.

“It’s a felony for prisoners to have sex while they’re in prison, so I don’t think it’s good government for the state to encourage inmates to break the law,” said Republican Assemblyman Dan Logue of Marysville.

Bonta’s proposal would require the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to make condoms available in five prisons by 2015 and expand the program to each of the state’s 33 adult prisons no later than 2020.

The bill, AB999, passed the Assembly and is awaiting consideration in the state Senate. If it becomes law, California would be the second state behind Vermont, which has a fraction of the inmate population, to provide condoms to all prisoners. Canada, most of the European Union, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa already take that step, according to legislative researchers.

Currently, condoms are contraband in California prisons, though the state has tried a distribution program before but on a temporary and limited basis.

Read more from this story HERE.

Michelle Obama: Being First Lady is Like Living in a ‘Really Nice Prison’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday described living in the White House as like being in a “really nice prison.”

Obama’s comment came during her discussion with former First Lady Laura Bush at the African First Ladies Summit in Tanzania during an interview moderated by journalist Cokie Roberts…

Obama said she loved her job and found it liberating in some respects, but confining in others.

“There are some prison elements to it,” she joked. “But it’s a really nice prison.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Gosnell’s Wife Sentenced to Seven Months in Prison for Role in ‘House of Horrors’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Pearl Gosnell, the wife of convicted Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, was sentenced on Wednesday to serve between seven and 23 months in prison for her role in her husband’s abortion clinic that became known as the “House of Horrors.”

The abortionist’s wife was convicted on charges of racketeering and performing illegal abortion. Her sentence was reduced, however, after spending two years under house arrest. Mrs. Gosnell’s children had asked Court of Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner to spare her prison time.

Local reporter Sean G. O’Sullivan wrote that, at her sentencing, Mrs. Gosnell, 52, expressed anger at her husband, who is now serving three life terms after being convicted on three counts of first-degree murder, one count of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a patient by overdose, and hundreds of other lesser charges.

“I am the wife of Kermit Gosnell and I’m not happy about that now,” said Pearl Gosnell. “I’m sorry for my part in this horror.”

Read more from this story HERE.

CAIR Pushes ‘Hijab Friendly’ Policy in American Prisons

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is working to make American prisons more “hijab-friendly,” according to a report from Al Arabiya.

“I’m working on several pending cases in different states… and I’m in touch with an attorney for the Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights,” Nadhira al-Khalili, legal counsel for CAIR, told the Saudi-owned news outlet.

The goal for CAIR is to make the hijab a permissible, official staple of Muslim women’s attire, including for photos, in prisons nationwide.

Al Arabiya reports that Novi, Mich. has already agreed to allow Muslim women to cover their heads during detainment.

Read more from this story HERE.