Results tagged “prison”

"San Quentin, from the ferry" by Jen Maiser.

A quarantine has been "expanded" at San Quentin due to a probable outbreak of the swine flu epidemic. KTVU reports that "Luis Patino, a spokesman for the federal receiver who oversees medical care at the state's prisons, said Monday that 35 San Quentin prisoners have shown symptoms consistent with the H1N1 virus." What's more, "officials now have isolated 2,100 of the prison's 5,200 inmates. Last week, when the potential cases were limited to one cell block, 800 prisoners were quarantined." All of this, of course, is just precautionary as prison officials are still waiting for test results for confirmation. In related news, Ron Weasley also caught the virus.

Ponzi-schemer and former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange Bernard Madoff was handed a 150 year prison sentence by U.S. District Judge Denny Chin this morning. In the courtroom, Madoff explained to Judge Chin, prosecutors and his victims that he thought he could "work his way out" of fraud and that he lives in a "tormented state." Also, he said that he "lied to his brother and sons and that his wife Ruth Madoff cries herself to sleep each night." Bernard, if you recall, plead guilty in March 2009 to 11 federal crimes, including securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, perjury, and false filings with the SEC. Read more about this morning's ruling at Gothamist.

Concerned that today's sentencing will land, if all goes horribly wrong, Current TV journos Laura Ling and Euna Lee 12 years of hard labor inside a North Korean jail, we asked formerly-jailed journalist Josh Wolf for his thoughts on the brouhaha.

While many chin-scratching political commentators claim that Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two Current TV journalists who were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea, are bargaining chips in a high stakes poker game who will be set free once negotiations begin (what, no chess metaphors? oh wait, that's just for the Middle East), you should know that North Korean prisons are no Martha Stewart-insider-trading spa retreats. Lee and Ling will not wax poetic to the media about the taste of lemon or monochromatic home accents during their incarcerations. North Korean hard labor prisons make Midnight Express look like after-school detention. The gulags of North Korea can involve torture, rape, beatings, and much worse. According to San Diego Union Tribune, "Grandsons are condemned to life-long terms as slave laborers alongside their grandfathers, both equally helpless in the brutal surroundings. Prisoners are arbitrarily murdered by security guards. Women suffer from forced abortions at the hands of unlicensed doctors. Newborn babies are beaten to death. And sons and daughters are publicly executed in front of their mothers." If their sentences are carried out, Ling and Lee could face these conditions in North Korea's gulag system. Our hearts go out to the two journos and their families. Seriously.

"Former San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew sentenced to five and a half years in prison for fraud & extortion," says CBS 5.

Ex-Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson (AKA Kathleen Soliah) was released from prison today. Olson, the soccer mom who was arrested in 1999, was pinched for a 1975 police car bombing plot outside an IHOP in Los Angeles and the shooting death of a customer in the midst of a bank robbery in Northern California. According to reports, Olson will be "allowed to server her parole in Minnesota, where her family lives, instead of being forced to stay in California."

Still sniveling over losing the election, Republican leaders like House Minority Leader John Boehner are seriously suggesting opening up historical landmark Alcatraz as the new Guantanamo Bay. See, Obama (rightfully) closed down Gitmo, the Bush administration's favorite rape camp for prisoners of war, just after setting up shop in the Oval Office. A few Republican leaders were less than thrilled to see this alleged freedom-fighting detainment camp close down, then, rather wittily, suggested sticking the prisoners in the heart of the San Francisco Bay.

Clearly not willing to take on the "bitch" role in his new home, wife killer and former Linux computer programmer Hans Reiser was attacked in prison the other day. According to reports, Reiser is "recovering after he was beaten up by several prisoners this week." If you recall, the Oakland programmer and owner of Namesys, and the main developer of the ReiserFS and Reiser4 computer filesystems, murdered his mail-order wife after a nasty divorce.

Recently transferred to federal prison in Oklahoma, former KGO radio host and child porn connoisseur Bernie Ward has been transported to a federal prison in eastern Texas to serve out the remainder of his seven-year sabbatical. Although it wasn't Ward's first choice -- his ideal jail was a minimum security prison in Lompoc -- FCI Beaumont holds low security male inmates and is a mere 35 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. Ward's release date, according to Dan Noyes, is December 21, 2014. See you then, Bernie! (KGO)

At the risk of sounding too gay--God forbid--the Gate has an article today about integrating cell mates. Or something critical about race relations. Or about ponies and sunshine. We're can't tell you for sure. The accompanying photos have diverted our attention away from the pesky text. (Seriously, institutionalized racism has never seemed this hot.)

Denied.