Recently in Prisons Category

With Mother's Day approaching, we want to remind readers that moms behind bars have legal rights, too. But what are those rights, and are they being enforced?

A report by the National Women's Law Center and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights explored a range of important issues affecting pregnant and parenting women who are in prison. Though the study was conducted a few years ago, the issues addressed are still important.

Here are a few legal areas that affect incarcerated mothers to this day:

Are the days of flogging back? A Montana state lawmaker wants criminals to be given a choice: Serve jail time, or accept corporal punishment instead.

State Rep. Jerry O'Neil, a Republican, wants that option for all misdemeanor and felony convictions in Montana. The exact type of corporal punishment isn't spelled out in the bill. But what it does say is that corporal punishment will be "the infliction of physical pain on a defendant to carry out the sentence negotiated between the judge and the defendant."

Would you choose such an option?

The terms are often used interchangeably, but there's a difference between jail and prison.

It's not just a case of semantics. Whether a criminal is being held in jail or prison says something about the crime committed and the stage in the process. The way inmates are treated also differs between the two.

Despite the differences, people confuse the terms all the time because they don't realize what each one means. Do you know how to tell them apart?

Mark David Chapman, John Lennon's killer, has been denied parole by the New York Parole Board once again.

This was the 57-year-old Chapman's seventh attempt at parole, and it came just ahead of the 32nd anniversary of John Lennon's death. Lennon, the former Beatles lead singer, was gunned down outside his Manhattan apartment on Dec. 8, 1980, reports CNN.

The Parole Board's decision comes just one day after Chapman's interview with the board.

John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman, could potentially be freed after a parole hearing this week. Will Chapman's seventh attempt at parole finally be the charm?

Chapman, 57, is set to be interviewed by at least two members of New York's parole board, CNN reports. A decision by the board, which has denied Chapman's parole requests every two years since 2000, could come a few days later.

What goes into the parole board's decision?

Life behind bars means giving up privileges, including the use of a telephone to make calls whenever you want. Though some jails and prisons (and even some state laws) give inmates specific phone-use privileges, many of those calls can legally be recorded and used against the inmate in court.

Case in point: George Zimmerman, accused of second-degree murder in the killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida. Prosecutors used recorded jailhouse phone calls between Zimmerman and his wife to prove they misled the court about their finances. That led a judge to revoke Zimmerman's bail and order him back to jail.

So which types of jailhouse phone calls can legally be recorded, and which cannot?

One out of every 86 adult Louisianans is currently behind bars. That's nearly double the national rate. It's also triple that of Iran, seven times that of China, and ten times that of Germany. These statistics have earned Louisiana the designation of being the prison capital of the world.

And according to The Times-Picayune, Louisiana's staggering incarceration rate can be traced back to the need for "cold, hard cash."

Most inmates are housed in local, for-profit facilities, according to the paper. These facilities account for a $182 million industry that needs prisoners to stay a flout. Rural sheriffs also have an interest in filling prison beds because "a good portion of Louisiana law enforcement is financed with dollars legally skimmed off the top of prison operations."

New photos of Charles Manson were released on Thursday to much Internet fanfare. The cult leader and convicted killer is looking decidedly haggard, but remains easily identifiable by the swastika tattooed on his forehead.

The photos, which were taken at a California correctional facility, have surfaced just one week before his twelfth parole hearing. Yes, on April 11, Charles Manson is up for parole.

Could it be granted?

Prison officials in Dona Ana County forgot about Stephen Slevin. They tossed him in a New Mexico jail cell and paid him little attention for two years.

During those two years, his mental health would deteriorate. He would receive little to no psychiatric treatment. He would have to pull his own tooth.

This all happened after Slevin was picked up for driving while intoxicated.

He was never convicted.

In a bid to comply with a court order requiring the state to reduce the prison population by 30,000 inmates, California prisons are embarking on a program that will release female inmates with children.

More than 4,000 inmates will be able to take part in the program, which requires that they be incarcerated for non-serious, non-sexual crimes and have fewer than 2 years left of their sentences.

Once out of prison, the inmates will be monitored with ankle bracelets and report to parole officers.