HIRED IN ‘03 | Man who fled sex conviction for abusing female inmate in Swedish prison found working at Sheridan Correctional Center under real name
In 1999, Jerry Pomush was convicted of sexually abusing a female inmate while he worked as a prison guard in Stockholm, Sweden.
But instead of heading to a Swedish prison to serve his 1½-year sentence, Pomush skipped town and headed to an Illinois prison — where he landed a job, authorities say. Read more »
As America’s prisons continue their transformation into mental health institutions, little thought is given to mentally ill prisoners who languish within the harsh confines of prison environments with little if any treatment. That all changes, at least temporarily, when a mentally ill prisoner who has been held in solitary confinement for years is set free without any supervision, and then commits multiple murders.
While the mainstream media recently covered such a story about a homicidal ex-offender – who was released from the Massachusetts Department of Correction (MDOC) and killed a newlywed couple in Washington state several months later – as well as the usual sound bites and hand wringing, past history proves that once the furor dies down it will be back to business as usual. Read more »
Senate leaders have requested information about the costs of closing some older state prisons, but say there are no immediate plans to shutter the sites.
Last week, the state Department of Corrections sent Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, a report detailing costs of closing three medium-security prisons. The prisons studied were selected by the department. Read more »
Budget cuts, audits — administrators should welcome them. They provide the opportunity to take a fresh look at how effective their organizations are in keeping up with changing times and needs. It’s what successful leaders do. And the closing of the state’s prison Diagnostic Center because of budget cuts gives the Utah Department of Corrections an opportunity to do just that and to renew its mission and structure to meet the state’s current needs.
The Department of Corrections is not alone in keeping old programs going without questioning if they are meeting their intended purpose in today’s environment. All organizations, private and public, suffer from mission creep and lose sight of what they are designed to produce without a close eye on their bottom line — what’s their product? Read more »
Three prison officers in Zimbabwe have been arrested on allegations that they helped film the shocking conditions in two of the country’s prisons for a documentary that was screened to international outrage last week, reports said.
The television documentary, Hell Hole, produced by the SABC, on Wednesday showed scores of skeletal prisoners dressed in rags and reportedly dying of malnutrition and HIV/Aids in filthy institutions without food, medication or basic cleaning materials.
The SABC team said sympathetic warders had been supplied with secret cameras to film conditions in two institutions, Khami prison, in the western city of Bulawayo, and one in the southern border town of Beitbridge.
A police spokesperson quoted in the independent weekly Standard newspaper said warders Thabiso Nyathi, Siyai Muchechedzi and Thembinkosi Nkomo were arrested on Friday on charges under the Official Secrets Act, which prescribes lengthy jail terms for government employees who leak “state secrets”. – Sapa-dpa
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Tucson Police say a sergeant for Pima County Corrections was shot at the county jail early Tuesday morning.
Police shut down the area of Silverlake and Mission for several hours to investigate.
Investigators say the officer working the night shift was shot in the leg around 4am.
Apparently, the officer did not hear the shot being fired. He did not notice his wound until he felt the stabbing pain on his leg.
A woman at the jail helped him inside to seek medical attention.
He is expected to recover from his injuries.
The suspect(s) is still on the loose. There is no suspect description available at this time.
The sergeant is a 20 year veteran with the county.
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OLYMPIA, Wash. – Should the state close prisons to try and narrow the $9 billion budget gap?
The Senate’s budget proposal targets the McNeil Island Corrections Center for extinction. The site costs roughly $49 million to operate per year, and has a higher per bed cost than any other state corrections facility.
“I like working here,” says Ron Van Boening, McNeil’s superintendent. “It’s an anxious time for myself and my staff here; don’t know what the future holds.”
Van Boening says the facility, which was run by the federal government until 1976, is in good shape. There are several newer, modern era cell blocks, but there are also a handful of buildings from the early 1900s. Read more »
NASHVILLE, TN–(Marketwire – April 1, 2009) – Corrections Corporation of America (“CCA”) (NYSE: CXW) announced today that it has been awarded a contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to house up to 2,567 federal inmates at CCA’s recently completed 2,232-bed Adams County Correctional Center in Mississippi. Read more »
ANOTHER MENTALLY ILL MAN has lost his life to prisoner abuse. This time the inmate was incarcerated in Fulton County, Georgia. Three prison guards beat the “loud, agitated” inmate beyond recovery last March, but only one was fired and recently arrested according to a report by The Atlanta Journal Constitution published March 21, 2009 (see excerpts below). This writer started reporting such accounts after the secret arrest and wrongful death of Larry Neal, her mentally ill brother who died in 2003 under secret arrest in the Memphis/ Shelby County Jail and his death was followed by an elaborate cover-up invovling numerous government entities and The (Johnnie) Cochran Firm. See a full account at this link:
Mentally Ill Patient’s Secret Incarceration and Wrongful Death Cover-up
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Mentally-Ill-Patient-s-Sec-by-Mary-Neal-080802-527.html . Read more »
Summary:
I recall reading a very profound quote: You can gauge the morality of any society by looking at its prisons. If that is the case, the city of St. Louis has serious problems.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri investigated the jails in the area after being contacted by Cedric Cross, a former inmate at the Justice Center who alleged that an officer beat him so badly that he had to have surgery because of swelling of the stomach and internal bleeding. Read more »
