Wireless Cell Blocking To Be Tested For State Prisons

 Officials plan to test cell phone jamming technology after discovering hundreds of illegal mobile devices on Texas death row and in other prison units around the state.

The Austin American-Statesman reports the test has been proposed for Dec. 18 at the Travis County state jail in Austin.

House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden said he requested the test and officials at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are working to set up the demonstration.

Florida-based CellAntenna Corp. will perform the Texas demonstration.

It conducted a similar test at a South Carolina prison on Friday.

Prison officials from several states gathered to see how the equipment blocks wireless calls.

Regulators can grant permission to federal agencies to use the technology but federal law prevents state and local agencies from jamming cell phone signals.

Still, prison officials hope they will be granted permission to use the blocking technology.

source: http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/35134979.html

Prison break: Guards ‘let inmate escape’

Unions say the escape of a prison inmate in Sydney yesterday proves the privatisation of jail security is not going to work.

Fifty-year-old Alex Mihail is on the run from Long Bay Jail, where he was serving time in low security.

The Public Service Association says the Government contracted out security work around the jail’s perimeter earlier this year.

Spokesman John Cahill says the new guards lack the experience needed to prevent prison break-outs.

“My information is he was able to just walk through the boom gates, past the private security people – who didn’t challenge him – and just let him escape onto the streets of Sydney where he’s still at large,” he said.

source http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/27/2431039.htm

Prison Guards Quitting Year After Training

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Last year the state of Tennessee spent more than $1.25 million to train correction officers for prisons.

 

Video

 

However, about half of those officers have already quit, wasting about $600,000 in taxpayer training money.

 

The maximum security section of a prison is not a place to make a mistake.

 

Robert Mosley was distracted by one inmate while another inmate slashed him, causing wounds that resulted in 59 stitches.

 

“I had a little too much trust at the time,” said Mosely. “A lot of people have no idea about the assaults, the verbal abuse. It takes a special person to come here and stay with the job.”

 

In the state of Tennessee, a prison guard’s starting salary is $12 an hour.

 

Last year, the state graduated more than 1,200 officers at a training rate of $10,000 person. As of Nov. 26, 49 percent had quit within the year.

 

Some have suggested making any correction officer who doesn’t stay a full year pay back the $10,000 training fee.

 

Deputy Commissioner Gayle Ray hopes the sagging economy will make some reconsider the positions. She cites that the pay may be low, but the benefits are outstanding and the job, albeit difficult, is important to the state.

 

The state is attempting to do a better job of training correction officers to help rehabilitate prisoners. The Department of Corrections continues to try to increase starting pay and raises for correction officers, but the current budget is making that very unlikely

SOURCE.  http://www.wsmv.com/news/18154551/detail.html?rss=nash&psp=news

Despite revenue slump, Corrections asks for more

DOVER — There isn’t much room to cut from the Department of Correction budget; rather, Commissioner Carl Danberg said, the department desperately needs an increase in funding to address critical needs such as medical care and construction to alleviate overcrowding

In presenting the department’s budget request to the Office of Management and Budget, Danberg said Monday that officials are considering reorganizing the agency to save money. That effort could include eliminating programs, but he declined to list specific programs that could be cut.

This year’s state budget-drafting process is particularly challenging because of the state’s declining revenues. Last week, revised revenue estimates prompted Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to ask department heads to cut 7 percent from their current operating budgets and 15 percent from their proposals for next year.

The Department of Correction requested a total of $217.8 million for next year, an increase of $12.7 million from the current operating budget.

Because the bulk of the corrections budget is personnel, Danberg said, it is difficult to cut enough costs to meet the requested budget reductions.

“We are drawing up a list of areas where we can save money,” Danberg said. “Significant savings can only come through restructuring.”

The type of restructuring, he said, the department is considering would require permission from the governor’s office and OMB.

Danberg said two requests are the top of his priority list: funding to expand the Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution and getting permanent funding for three medical positions that were added to the staff last year.

The Baylor women’s prison routinely houses about 400 inmates, though the facility is meant to hold only 200, Danberg said. The problem with the women’s facility is compounded because transferring inmates elsewhere isn’t an option to alleviate crowding, as it is with men’s prisons.

Danberg asked for $3.5 million to expand the facility.

Last year, the Legislature approved the creation of three medical positions, Danberg said, but because the positions weren’t added until mid-fiscal year, the department did not receive full funding for the jobs.

Danberg asked OMB to include complete funding to allow the positions to remain and have a full year’s salary. The cost is an increase of $114,900 next year. He said he anticipates receiving the funding for that expense.

Danberg also requested a $5 million “placeholder” in the budget if incoming Gov.-elect Jack Markell decides to search for a new contract for medical services in the prisons.

Correctional Medical Services currently holds the contract to provide medical services to inmates in state prisons. A report released in July by an independent monitor found “lack of stable and effective leadership” and cited other problems with the company.

Danberg said the $5 million would allow the incoming governor to open bids for another company to begin providing the medical services, but that if the funds were allocated, the state still has one year remaining on the current contract with CMS.

Another request made by Danberg was $449,100 for a program that would automatically calculate sentences served by inmates. Danberg said the majority of wrongful releases — inmates being let out of prison before their terms expire — could be avoided with an automated process.

He said most errors occur during the transferring of sentences, inmates moving from being held by one court to another or moving from one sentence to another. He said using an automated system would remove the errors that occur and significantly reduce the likelihood that an inmate could be released early.

source: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20081125/NEWS02/811250365/1006/NEWS

Cook County inmates charged in $50K phone scam

CHICAGO (AP) — Twenty Cook County Jail inmates accused of letting their fingers do some illegal walking with the telephone are now in even more trouble.

An alleged scam in which inmates placed collect calls to random numbers all over the United States and Canada and pretended to be police officers resulted in about $50,000 in illegal phone calls over five months, the county sheriff’s department said Monday.

Eighteen inmates were charged with felony impersonating a police officer, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. Two face a misdemeanor count of the same charge, officials said.

The scam is the largest of its kind the jail has ever uncovered, but the illegal use of jail phones is a problem around the country, said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

According to the sheriff’s department, the alleged scam worked like this: Inmates placed collect calls, identified themselves as police officers and told people who answered that a loved one had been in a traffic accident.

The “police officers” who were actually inmates instructed people to telephone a “supervisor” at the scene of the accident. The contact numbers began either with 72 or 1172, followed by a telephone number that actually belonged to acquaintances of an inmate outside the jail.

Once victims did that, their phone numbers were effectively “hijacked,” meaning the inmates could make calls without paying.

“They’re then calling other people, usually friends, family and fellow gang members,” Dart said.

Victims would not know something was wrong until they tried to use their phones again, at which time they heard clicking sounds and beeping, Dart said.

The inmates – who were in jail on a host of crimes, including first-degree murder, kidnapping and armed robbery – could make calls charged to the victims’ phones until the victims alerted the phone company, “and then the phone company could undo the call forwarding,” said department spokeswoman Penny Mateck.

Inmates allegedly made thousands of calls, with 4,700 calls placed to the Las Vegas area in one 3-day period alone, Mateck said.

Most people did not do as the inmates had instructed them, officials said. But some people did as they were told, including an 11-year-old boy in Las Vegas and an 85-year-old woman in Texas with a heart condition who tearfully begged the “officer” to tell her that her loved one had not been killed.

Dart said the investigation continued and may result in charges filed against inmates’ acquaintances if authorities could show they knowingly took part in the scam.

It may be tougher get away with telephone scams in the future, at least in Cook County, where a new system was installed.

Among other things, it includes a recorded message stating: “This is a collect call from an inmate at the Cook County Department of Corrections in Chicago, Illinois. Be aware of unlawful solicitation or deceptive practices.”

source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IL_JAIL_PHONE_SCAM_ILOL-?SITE=ILBLO&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Jail bed shortage forcing Lane County to release violent offenders

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – A shortage of jail beds in Lane County has put more violent offenders back on the streets in the four months since the sheriff’s budget was slashed.

The Register-Guard newspaper reports that since July, the number of inmates released from prison in Lane County has increased by nearly 60 percent.

According to court and jail officials, more than 400 inmates arrested on violent charges are among the roughly 1,700 inmates who have been released.

If the pace continues, the county will release more than 4,250 inmates in 2008-09 fiscal year because the jail lacks the staff to hold them.

The county’s budget committee is expected to discuss funding in meetings next month.

“We’ve had countless assaults, personal injuries to innocent victims, burglaries and car thefts by people who were released against the law,” Lane County Circuit Judge Mary Ann Bearden said.

Oregon law requires defendants be jailed until trial if charged with assault, robbery, sex abuse, murder or other serious felonies.

But the 2008-09 budget included only enough money to operate 127 beds for inmates awaiting Lane County Circuit Court trial or serving “local time” sentences because of Lane County’s funding crisis.

With federal funds, officials have hired staff to restore an additional 33 jail beds this month, but Bearden said that not enough to fix the problem.

The jail’s current average of 0.3 beds per 1,000 residents is the lowest in the state, according to Sheriff Russ Burger, and the additional 33 beds will still leave Lane County far below the state average of 2.4 jail beds per 1,000 residents.

The situation is complicated by a rising violent crime rate in Lane County. District Attorney-elect Alex Gardner said a recent study shows violent crime in Eugene increased by 15 percent between 2005 and 2007. He said 2008 statistics have yet to be compiled.

Bearden said she now factors jail bed availability into every decision she makes. The practice would have been “unthinkable” two years ago, she said.

“How do you look people in the eye when we let (these) people out every day?” she asked commissioners in a meeting last month. “It’s a credibility issue with the community.”

source: http://www.katu.com/news/local/35036549.html

Guards: Crowded Calif. prisons neglect ill inmates

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Inmates with open, bleeding wounds routinely use communal showers and suicidal prisoners are sometimes kept for hours inside small cages, witnesses testified in a lawsuit over state prison crowding.

The four guards who testified before a three-judge panel Thursday supported earlier evidence suggesting that substandard medical and mental health care is a result of jam-packed prisons.

The state, which argues that prison conditions are improving, was scheduled to begin its defense Friday.

California’s 33 adult prisons are designed to hold about 100,000 inmates, but currently have more than 156,000.

Federal judges considering the class-action lawsuits already have ruled that medical and mental health care is so poor in California prisons that it violates constitutional standards, sometimes contributing to inmates’ deaths.

If the panel determines that overcrowding is the cause, it could order the early release of thousands of inmates, a move opposed by the Schwarzenegger administration. The three-judge panel began hearing the case this week and hopes to complete the entire process before Christmas.

Among those testifying Thursday was guard Gary Benson, who works in a medical triage unit at Folsom State Prison outside Sacramento. He said as many as 50 inmates at a time typically wait two to five hours inside a 12-foot by 20-foot holding area for medical or mental health treatment.

He said he also routinely sees inmates in communal showers with “bleeding, oozing” staph infections. Benson said he contracted an antibiotic-resistant staph infection in July 2006. Inmates with the infections are not segregated and such diseases often spread inside the prisons, he said.

Brenda Gibbons, a guard in a 128-bed mental health unit at Salinas Valley State Prison, said suicidal inmates were kept overnight in cages the size of telephone booths until crisis cells became available.

She also said some severely mentally ill inmates wait more than a year to be transferred to mental health facilities.

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which represents more than 30,000 guards, joined with the inmates’ rights attorneys. Union attorney Gregg Adam said the crowding creates “a dehumanizing effect on correctional staff.”

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy

source

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CALIFORNIA_PRISONS?SITE=AZPHG&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Inmates charged with sneaking sex inside jail

BLOOMFIELD – Three male and three female inmates at a southern Indiana jail face charges that they devised a way to sneak between cell blocks to help pass their time behind bars by having sex.

The inmates figured out how to remove metal ceiling panels in the Greene County Jail and used the passageway more than a dozen times in September and October, according to court documents.

The men – ages 44, 38 and 17 – and the women – ages 27, 26 and 21 – crawled through the ceiling after midnight, having sexual encounters and drinking homemade alcohol that was found hidden in the male cell block, a police affidavit said.

One male inmate who was not charged said the female inmates would “hang out, play cards or have sex with some of the male inmates” in their cell block, the affidavit said.

The inmates were able to find a security camera “blind spot” where they could remove ceiling tiles and create a passage between the cell blocks, Sheriff Terry Pierce said Tuesday.

The inmates used a shower drain as a tool to loosen security screws, and the ceiling tiles were carefully replaced so they did not appear to be disturbed, Pierce said.

“We could not see it,” he said.

The ceiling panels have since been secured, and Pierce said he was seeking money to improve security at the jail, which was built in 1994 in the city about 25 miles southeast of Bloomington.

Pierce called the inmates’ activities “embarrassing” to himself and his staff.

“If your facility has a flaw, if you house prisoners in it, they will show you. They will find it,” he said. “We’re going to have to find a way to have a better security system.”

Prosecutors have filed felony escape charges against the six inmates, who were awaiting trial on a variety of charges. Five of the inmates remain in the Greene County Jail, while one has been transferred to the Monroe County Jail in Bloomington.

Pierce said the investigation is ongoing and other current or former jail inmates may be charged.

source

http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081120/NEWS07/811200336/-1/NEWS09

Correctional officer recruits: Our inmates’ keepers

Today, 53 recruits will be sworn in as officers for the Western Virginia Regional Jail, putting the facility another step closer to opening in the spring.

The recruit bangs his fist on the door.

Photos by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Desha Scott (middle), followed by fellow Western Virginia Regional Jail correctional officer recruits (left), engage in a simulated cell extraction, where a disruptive inmate, played by Capt. Derek Stokes (right), refuses to comply with commands.

 

Clifton Burroughs (back) performs a simulated arrest on Brandon Buck. The two are correctional officer recruits for the new regional jail, which will graduate its first group of recruits today.

Related

Audio slideshow

• Spend a day in training with the regional jail’s newest recruits

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• See more images from recruit training at the regional jail

“Inmate!” he yells. “Present your hands for cuffing.”

“No,” comes a muffled response from inside the cell.

With that, the recruit swings open the gray metal door and rushes in, holding a plastic shield.

Four others are behind him, forming a human battering ram. They knock the unruly inmate off balance and into a corner.

A scramble ensues. The recruits grunt and soon are out of breath.

“Stop resisting!” they yell.

It may have taken a knee on one of the inmate’s pressure points, or the twist of an arm, but the recruits finally have the man cuffed and lying facedown on the floor.

The inmate was really Derek Stokes, a captain at the Western Virginia Regional Jail. He was in a holding cell outside a Roanoke County courtroom and was willingly being battered so the recruits could wrap up the last of their training.

Today, the 53 recruits will be sworn in as correctional officers for the new regional jail, putting the facility another step closer to opening in March.

The jail will house inmates who have been sentenced in Salem and the counties of Roanoke, Franklin and Montgomery. Jails in those localities will remain open and hold prisoners awaiting trial.

With 605 beds, the new jail, near Dixie Caverns in Roanoke County, is expected to help relieve overcrowding at the other facilities.

Construction on the $122 million project is nearing completion, and jail officials are beginning to get everything in place for the opening.

Training the officers through the Roanoke County Criminal Justice Academy is just one aspect of the preparation. Superintendent Charlie Poff has been working with a transition team of about 12 people to develop policies and procedures and take care of logistics, down to ordering the linens.

“It’s a whole lot easier operating the facility than it is going through this,” he said.

There is so much to learn about the facility that Poff will have the officers start working at least two weeks before the opening.

They’ll have to master the security systems, learn procedures, practice evacuation plans and navigate 6 acres of jail.

On Tuesday, the sounds of drills and hammers echoed through the jail.

Concrete floors awaited tiling and carpeting, and wires hung from the exposed ceiling. Boxes of building materials filled rooms and cut wires littered the floor.

The 265,000-square-foot jail was designed with the environment in mind, and jail officials are seeking LEED certification, a rating system that measures a building’s energy efficiency and environmental friendliness.

Among the green features is the vacuum plumbing system, similar to what’s used in airplane bathrooms, which uses a third of the water that regular plumbing consumes. The laundry will be washed using rainwater collected in four 30,000 gallon tanks.

Skylights in the pods, which are large rooms lined with jail cells, will provide lighting during the day to help save on energy costs.

The recruits toured the facility in September and said they are looking forward to working there.

“The place is huge,” said Lt. Robert Altizer, who previously worked at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office. “I think it’s going to be a great place to work.”

Altizer and about 170 other officers were chosen from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants, Poff said.

Seventy-seven officers are already qualified to work at the jail through the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services and don’t need to be trained at the academy. The remaining 50 recruits begin at the academy Dec. 1.

The recruits come from across the region and have worked a variety of jobs.

Jessica Ferrell of Roanoke used to drive a FedEx truck. “This is something I wanted to get into when I was younger,” she said.

Kim Fitch has worked for the National Parks Service and as a correctional officer in Ohio.

She’s been through three criminal justice academies and said Roanoke County’s training is some of the best she’s had.

“We’re going to be ready when the jail opens,” she said. “We’re going to be really ready.”

source

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/184932

Kentucky executes first inmate in nine years

EDDYVILLE, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky has executed a confessed child-killer who resisted all appeals.

In the state’s first execution in nine years, 37-year-old Marco Allen Chapman was given a lethal injection Friday at the Kentucky State Penitentiary. He was pronounced dead at 7:34 p.m. CST.

Chapman pleaded guilty in 2004 to killing two children in their northern Kentucky home in a 2002 attack that wounded their mother and another child.
He asked to be put to death and fought for the right to fire his attorneys to clear the way.

Kentucky’s last execution was in 1999, when Eddie Lee Harper died by lethal injection.

source

http://www.wfrv.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=cbcb2592-a837-4269-95f3-e4c1f66e4d24&rss=852

People Living Near the Correction Center Think About Security

 

YAKIMA, Wash– With two inmate escapes in the past two years, some people who live near the Yakima County Pacific Avenue Correction Center want to know why security isn’t beefed-up.

For security purposes the Yakima County Department of Corrections can’t say what they are or are not doing to beef-up security. People who live near the corrections facility on Pacific Avenue have mixed feelings about adding security.

As you look around State Fair Park you see fencing with barbed wire at the top. When your eye makes it to the correction center you’ll see tall black fence with no barbed wire.  
    
“We’ve been here for years, but the thing of it is the gal darn jail hasn’t. And you know if they’re going to put a jail up and have prisoners they outta have them where you can secure ‘em,” said Richard Swier, homeowner.

Richard and his family fought the building of the jail, others don’t mind it. One man I spoke with thinks adding barbed wire would be inhumane, having been on both sides of the fence himself. 

He said desperation is a powerful force.

“They’re gonna climb through the barbed wire, they’re gonna find a way to cut the barbed. Just like being in prison, people will find out ways to make knives to kill another person,” said Cheslee Drummond, homeowner.

County specs show the perimeter of the jail lot to be around 2,800 feet. 

We priced barbed wire to surround the entire site. Razor wire from Academy Fence Company totaled $4,000.

A lesser grade barbed wire, similar to that around State Fair Park would cost around $550.

Now those numbers are for raw materials, labor’s not included. Cheslee doesn’t think barbed wire is the answer.

“You know I see the point and I see the gesture of it but, the prison guards need to pay more attention and have more consistency,” said Drummond.

“They could secure it a lot better than they have, like putting razor wire across the top or have a guard walk around out there once in awhile,” said Swier

Darrel Church escaped the correction center September of 2007 then turned himself in five days later. Eddie Hall escaped November 19, 2008 and is believed to be somewhere in Spokane.

source

http://www.kndu.com/global/story.asp?s=9396021

Slain Corrections Officer Not Wearing Body Alarm

Donna Fitzgerald was killed at the Tomoka Correctional Institution in Daytona Beach in June.

MIAMI (AP) — A Florida corrections officer killed while supervising inmates in a work program was not wearing a body alarm or carrying a radio at the time, and the inmate charged in her killing may not have been eligible to be in the program, an investigation found.

Donna Fitzgerald, 50, was killed at the Tomoka Correctional Institution in Daytona Beach in June, the first corrections officer killed in the state in five years.

Fitzgerald had been supervising inmates for PRIDE Enterprises, a nonprofit company that runs work programs in Florida prisons, when she was attacked and repeatedly stabbed with a piece of sheet metal. An Inspector General’s Office report dated October 30 but released Wednesday said she was without security measures when killed, but it was unclear why or if the precautions would have helped.

Among other findings of the report:

- Inmates working at Tomoka “often have” unsupervised access to tools that could be used in an escape or to do bodily harm, a violation of an agreement between PRIDE and the Department of Corrections.

- Manuals governing work assignments are inconsistent. One suggests the inmate accused of Fitzgerald’s murder, 39-year-old Enoch Hall, should not have been working for the program because he was serving two life sentences. Another manual does not exclude inmates serving life sentences. Of the 13 inmates Fitzgerald was supervising, eight were serving life sentences.

- Hall, who worked as a welder, had participated in the work program since 1999 and had no history of disciplinary reports while working. He did have four disciplinary reports in prison, however, and was put in confinement for two months in 2000 for attacking or attempting to attack another inmate with a bed rail.

- Two security officers are normally on duty at the PRIDE facility where Fitzgerald was working. On the day Fitzgerald was killed, she was alone because another officer had called out sick. Fitzgerald herself was substituting for another officer.

- A manual says inmates with a history of violence, which would have included Hall, should be assessed before assigning them to a job that would routinely place them in isolated contact with a member of the opposite gender. During the past year, there have been 11 times when one female staff member was supervising male inmates working at Tomoka. Fitzgerald herself had worked alone six times.

A Department of Corrections team will take the Inspector General report and recommend any changes to help ensure officers’ safety, according the Department of Corrections spokeswoman Jo Ellyn Rackleff.

The department is reviewing the more than 40 PRIDE facilities in the state and will study which types of inmates should be working in certain locations and jobs. Since Fitzgerald’s killing, the department has also worked with PRIDE to ensure there is sufficient security and staff.

The last time a Florida correctional officer was killed was 2003 when officer Darla Lathrem, 38, was killed during an escape attempt.

source: http://www.540wfla.com/cc-common/mainheadlines3.html?feed=227698&article=4543252

Correctional service ices Taser pilot project

OTTAWA

– A plan to introduce Taser stun guns into Canada’s prisons has been indefinitely shelved amid intense public scrutiny of the powerful weapons.

“We’re constantly evaluating the equipment we use,” said Guy Campeau, a spokesman for the Correctional Service of Canada.

“The use of that technology is still being considered but is under review.”

Guards who serve as emergency responders were trained in Taser use at two maximum-security prisons — Millhaven near Kingston, Ont., and Kent Institution about 140 kilometres east of Vancouver.

Inmate advocates such as the John Howard Society warned at the time against potential abuse in the high-stress prison system.

But Campeau said eight Tasers purchased by Corrections Canada as part of last year’s foray are now off-limits until the department assesses reviews of stun-gun use by the B.C. government and the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP.

In a major report to the government last June, complaints commission chairman Paul Kennedy urged the Mounties to limit Tasers to clashes where suspects are combative or risk serious harm to themselves, the police or the public.

The RCMP agreed that the force must “properly instruct” its members “and account for our use of the weapon.”

Campeau said the correctional service had initially planned to begin the pilot project in the fall of last year. But on Nov. 20, British Columbia and the Mounties launched reviews of their Taser policies.

That was one week after devastating amateur video footage of Robert Dziekanski’s death was released to the media and beamed around the world.

The newly arrived Polish immigrant tossed furniture in agitation following hours spent in limbo at the Vancouver airport. He died on Oct. 14, 2007, after being Tasered and pinned to the floor by four Mounties who waited less than 30 seconds before jolting him.

The footage of his last moments, howling in agony, unleashed international outrage over what appeared to be swift use of a painful weapon with little effort to talk him down.

It’s no coincidence the Corrections pilot project fell off the list of priorities in the onslaught of media coverage that followed, says inmate advocate and researcher Craig Jones.

“The Taser has come under exceptionally critical scrutiny — particularly since the death of Robert Dziekanski,” said the executive director of the John Howard Society. “And they would be reluctant to introduce something that was drawing that kind of negative attention.”

There’s also the delicate matter of the dynamics between prison staff and inmates, he said.

“It’s in the interest of both to maintain an equilibrium on the calm end of the spectrum. When you introduce a new device like the Taser, you automatically amp up the anxiety on one side and, in so doing, you amp up the anxiety on the other side.”

Jason Godin, regional president for the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, said staff learned through a memo that the stun guns were on hold.

“They didn’t really give any rationale. They just basically put the project on ice.”

Godin has worked as a maximum-security guard at Ontario’s Kingston Penitentiary and nearby Millhaven.

“I guess it’s still up in the air,” he said. ” We believe the organization obviously got a little bit of cold feet on this one because of the controversy in the public.”

Officers want to explore the possibility of adding Tasers to their arsenal of batons, tear gas and pepper spray to rein in the most unruly and often dangerous prisoners, Godin said.

“We have an extremely difficult job to do. Our job calls for as many options as we can have available to us to control situations safely, so we’re always looking for different means to try to do those things.”

source

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081109/taser_project_081109/20081109?hub=Canada

Two jails to be privatised

PRIVATE operators will take over the running of two NSW jails under an obscure provision in the mini-budget that the Rees Government hoped would go unnoticed.

The operation of Cessnock and Parklea prisons will be put out to tender, in an effort to save $16.1 million over the next three years. The privatisation is also designed to eliminate what the Government says are overtime rorts by prison officers, who allegedly take turns to call in sick, allowing their colleagues to work overtime at higher rates of pay.

The Government buried the announcement of the privatis-ation, which is likely to cause more industrial havoc with prison staff, under the heading “Further implementation of the Way Forward workplace reforms that will contribute to the department’s efficiency savings”.

A spokesman for the Attorney-General and Justice Minister, John Hatzistergos, confirmed the sell-off.

John Cahill, secretary of the Public Service Association, which covers prison staff, accused the Government of sneaking in the privatisations: “There are three lines in the mini-budget about jails but not one of them mentions this privatisation.”

source

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/two-jails-to-be-privatised/2008/11/11/1226318651868.html

Inmate hacked prison network, broke into employee database

A former prison inmate has been arrested and charged with hacking the facility’s computer network, stealing personal details of more than 1,100 prison employees and making them available to fellow inmates.

Francis G. Janosko, 42, gained access to the names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers and telephone numbers of employees working for the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in US District Court in Boston. Using a thin client that was connected to a prison server, the prisoner was able to access an employee database by exploiting a bug in legal research software made available to inmates.

Once he obtained the personal information of the employees, he made it accessible to other inmates. Janosko also managed to obtain the username and password to a prison management program, and to access the internet to download videos and digital photographs of prison employees, inmates and aerial shots of the prison. The accused hacking took place between October 2006 and February 2007

source: http://www.hackinthebox.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=28939

Prisoners’ drug use at all time low – Corrections

Prisoners’ drug use is at an all time low due to increased security and searching of visitors, the Department of Corrections says.

Service support manager Karen Unwin said the number of prisoners who tested positive for drugs in random testing was at an all time low of 13 per cent, down from 34 per cent in 1998.

“Over the last few years we have invested heavily to make it more difficult for offenders to access drugs and other contraband in prison,” she told Corrections News magazine.

The number of drug dogs working in prisons had doubled and cameras, closed circuit television, video motion detectors, microwave sensors and electronic barrier arms had been installed.

Ms Unwin said the department would like all prisoners to return negative tests but that had not been achieved anywhere in the world.

“Many prisoners have very serious drug addiction problems. Prisoners are constantly thinking of ever more inventive ways to get drugs into prison and we are always battling to keep one step ahead of them.”

Treating prisoners with drug addictions was also important, Ms Unwin said.

Drug treatment units have been established at six prisons.

source

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10541500&ref=rss

Prison Torture of Mentally Ill American – Nine Months Solitary Confinement in Filth and Naked

Mentally Ill Inmate Gets Nine Months in Solitary

VIDEO AT

http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=9269456#

He spent nine months in solitary confinement — without getting exercise, taking a bath or seeing a doctor.

Word of what happened in the prison leaked out a few months ago.

But, until now, we could only imagine how horrible it must have been. Our chief investigative reporter Phil Williams obtained video from inside the walls.

And you can decide for yourself: was it punishment – or was it torture?

It occurred at the Metro Nashville Detention Facility. Operated by the for-profit Corrections Corporation of America, it’s home to some 1,100 inmates.

The video shows one of those inmates, a mentally ill man emerging after nine straight months of solitary confinement — no longer able to speak a language anyone could understand.

“The man’s hair, his beard was matted up,” said Patrick Perry, the correctional officer who blew the whistle. “I had never seen an inmate live in those kinds of conditions.”

Originally convicted on drug charges, Frank Horton failed to check in with his parole officer.  That’s how he ended up at the CCA facility in December 2005.

Horton’s mother couldn’t believe her ears when she heard about her son’s condition. “They could be talking about someone else, not my son,” Cytherea Braswell said.

His grandmother was equally shocked. “We never heard nothing else other than ‘Well, he’s in there and he’s doing OK,’” said Mary Braswell.

But one video clip — a month after his arrival — shows the first signs of trouble. After a fight with a then-cellmate, CCA reports show that the cellmate told officers that Horton was “hearing voices” and believed people were “trying to kill him.”

“An actual CCA intake form noted that Mr. Horton had had a history of psychological and mental illness and probable schizophrenia was noted on those forms,” said the family’s attorney, John Ray Clemmons of the law firm Blackburn & McCune.

So guards locked him up in solitary, and Horton became more and more difficult to control. Finally, as another video clip shows, he began to refuse to leave his cell at all.

Clemmons said, “Instead of treating Mr. Horton for the illness which was causing him to act in this manner, they punished him.  They sprayed him with chemical agents. They put him in solitary and segregated confinement for extended periods of time with no medical treatment.”

Video clips — obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates — show Horton repeatedly being sprayed with inflammatory chemical agents.

Then, in May 2007, they stopped trying to force him out.

“Frank Horton went from being a beast to being, you know, barely able to speak to me,” the former correctional officer, Patrick Perry, testified in a videotaped court deposition.

Perry was CCA’s overnight supervisor at the facility. He says the inmate spiraled downward, as the days in his darkened, filthy cell turned into months.

Still, prison officials refused to forcibly remove him. Perry claimed it was because they feared too many incidents involving force could jeopardize their yearly bonuses.

“They would go to Frank’s door, look in on Frank, [ask] ‘Frank, you all right?’ As long as he was living and breathing in that cell, they kept moving.”

Horton’s grandmother, Mary Braswell, added, ”I would call every so often and talk to the counselor. And she always said, ‘Well he’s doing OK.’”

She said that Horton’s family kept being told he had not authorized them to visit him.

Then, one night, Perry stopped by Horton’s cell. “I tried to converse with him, and he was speaking gibberish to me.  And, at that time, that’s when I made up my mind to go the Health Department.”

Finally, Horton was brought out of solitary — after health officials intervened and after the family, who’d gotten wind of the situation, hired an attorney to go see him.

Clemmons recalled, ”Mr. Horton was walking in circles around the cell, completely nude with nothing but what I would call an old barn quilt, just a thick blanket draped over him.”

CCA officials refused to answer questions about exactly what happened.

But get this: after Perry went outside the company to get help for Horton, CCA suspended him — eventually giving him a choice to accept a transfer or resign.

Perry resigned, and CCA paid him a severance to keep quiet.

“Frank’s situation was the tip of the iceberg,” Perry said, under oath. He explained that there were also other mentally ill inmates who, like Horton, were neglected.

Still, prison bosses pressured guards to keep secrets from the government monitor assigned to the facility. “Yeah, I made a mistake of talking to [Davidson County Sheriff's Department monitor] Jimmy Hale one time about something. I got my ass chewed for it royally,” Perry added.

Mary Braswell echoed, ”To me — they didn’t want anybody in there to see.”

And Frank Horton’s family said they believe there’s a good reason CCA didn’t want anyone to see what become of their loved one.

“They was treating him worse than an animal because if it was an animal somebody would have went to his rescue,” Braswell said.

CCA has replaced the warden at that facility. But a spokesperson said that, because the company faces a lawsuit, they can’t comment on whether they think what happened to this inmate was right or wrong.

Horton’s lawyer got a court order to have him moved to a state prison hospital.  He’s now on medication and, the family said, showing signs of recovery.

source and VIDEO

http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=9269456

‘Law unto themselves’ Islamic gangs create no-go areas for British jail officers

London, Nov 6 : Muslim gangs inside Whitemoor Jail have created no-go areas for British jail officers and are policing the areas themselves

The Daily Star quoted guards as claiming that the Islamic mobs are “a law unto themselves,” adding that the prison staff have passed a vote of no confidence in their governor.

MP Malcolm Moss, 65, said Whitemoor Prison, Cambridgeshire, was descending into turmoil. He added that staff blamed Governor Steve Rodford for pandering to political correctness and making the Muslims untouchable.

The Conservative MP warned that the unrest had created a “tense” atmosphere not seen since the 1990s when the IRA maintained an inner sanctum inside the maximum-security prison.

“Serious problems will arise if there is dissatisfaction among staff at top security prisons, as is currently the case at Whitemoor. There are no-go sections policed by Muslim inmates, not staff. In the 1990s officers couldn’t do their jobs properly and prisoners did what they like. We may be operating a similar situation,” he said.

A third of the 458 inmates at Whitemoor are Muslims. Moss claimed that they were segregated from other prisoners.

In May an internal review of the jail by the Prison Service’s Directorate of High Security warned staffs believe that a “serious incident is imminent” as several wings had become dominated by Muslim prisoners.

Moss is waiting for Government answers to questions he has posed about the vote of no confidence and segregation of Muslim inmates at Whitemoor.

Earlier, Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons, has urged the prison service to do more to provide staff throughout the jail system but particularly in the top security prisons with help to deal with increasing Muslim numbers.

The number of Muslim prisoners in jails doubled in the ten years to 2006 to reach 8,243 – 11 per cent of the total prison population.

 

source: http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-41602.html

Report Released In Corrections Officer’s Murder

DAYTONA BEACH — A four-month investigation into the murder of a corrections officer at a Volusia County facility is now public.

Video

• Prison Guard Murder

 The review by the Department of Corrections shows many security lapses leading up to the death of Donna Fitzgerald.

Prisoner Enoch Hall is accused of stabbing her inside the P.R.I.D.E. Enterprises facility inside the Tomoka Correctional Institution.
  
Investigators found a lack of regulations for officers supervising inmates in the work training area.

They also discovered Fitzgerald did not have a personal body alarm, radio or any other device she could have used for protection.

Department of Corrections Secretary Walter McNeil said Wednesday morning all security measures and policies regarding the P.R.I.D.E. program are being reviewed, and all employees are undergoing retraining

source: http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2008/11/5/report_released_in_corrections_officers_murder.html

Turnquest lauds performance of prison officers

Bahamas Information Services

 NASSAU – The Government and public is well aware of the sacrifices prison officers make daily in an environment that can be uncertain, unpredictable and fraught with danger and risk, Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest said at the Prison’s Annual Church Service and Superintendent’s Awards held at Calvary Deliverance Church Sunday.

The service was held as part of Prison Recognition Week.

Turnquest said crime and particularly violent crime in the country is still at unacceptable levels, and combating crime remains among the nation’s highest priorities.

“We know that our prison officers are challenged by the sheer numbers entering the prison,” he said. “There have been just under 2000 admissions to the prison so far this year. The average daily population is almost 1,400 persons and there are 210 persons in prison sentenced or remanded for murder.”

Turnquest said the theme for Prison Recognition Week 2008: “Crime Prevention Through Positive Interven-tion” tells the story of what the prison is, and has been doing, to help halt and reverse crime trends in The Bahamas.

He said in the prison’s reform framework, important initiatives are being taken

to rehabilitate offenders, through education, training, productive engagement and spiritual and moral guidance and development.

“The objective is to provide a space in which inmates may grow and develop in a way that would improve their chances of successfully reintegrating into their communities upon release from prison.”

The Minister of National Security explained that the Government is satisfied that the Prison’s cooperation with other law enforcement agencies including the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and with the community as a whole, is helping to implement the reform agenda.

“Prison led community based initiatives such as Partners Against Crime and Students Against Violence Everywhere, for example, enhance the prospects that young people will be dissuaded from entering a life of crime.”

He told the prison offers that the Government is well on its way to resolving human resources challenges that have been a source of series concern for many of them.

Additionally, Turnquest said working conditions at the Female Correctional Centre have been improved, staff security has been enhanced, a new 40-unit Single Officers’ Living Facility will be ready in late 2009 and a Draft Department of Corrections Bill is under review.

He explained that there are two trailers of waterless toilets on the prison compound, which will be installed over the next three months that will improve the living conditions for inmates in maximum security while enhancing the working conditions for prison officers.

He added, “The Govern-ment wants to provide the opportunity for prison officers to pursue their goals and aspirations for upward mo-bility in the prison service. We want them to obtain the necessary qualifications and skills required at all levels in a 21st Century prison dedicated to prisoner reform.

“Prison service, we know, is not just a job. It is a commitment. I urge all our prison officers during Prison Re-cognition Week to renew your commitment to prison service. I urge you to continue to make honesty, dedication, integrity and loyalty to prison service guiding principles in the conduct of your duty.”

Superintendent of Prisons Dr. Elliston Rahming an-nounced the 12 Prison Officers who received Peak Performance Awards for 2008 – 2009.

They are: Chief Officer Enoch Gaitor, Chief Officer Edwin Seymour, Sergeant James Stubbs, Sergeant Stephanie Pratt, Sergeant Nekkel Bethel, Sergeant Wayne, Sergeant Charles Wood, Corporal Leviticus Rolle, Corporal Lincoln Newbold, Officer Benjamin Rolle, Officer Pamela Sears and Nurse Delton Bain.

source: http://freeport.nassauguardian.net/national_local/315077777838406.php