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.
Did you know that even Oklahoman murderers are on Facebook? The use of social media in prisons has even affected California's inmates. Facebook, however, has responded, and is now in the process of working with law enforcement to close these pages down.
One high-profile inmate that had a Facebook account was convicted murderer Justin L. Walker, who is in prison for murdering an Oklahoma sheriff.
His Facebook account had photos of him smoking a homemade bong while in prison, smoking a joint, holding a bottle of alcohol, and even had a photo of him holding a bag of weed. All of these photos were taken from prison, reports FOX23.
Georgia inmate Andrew DeYoung's execution was different than most executions: it was videotaped. The execution itself was carried out last Thursday using lethal injection.
In 1993, DeYoung killed both his parents and his 14-year-old sister. A younger brother was at the house at the time of the murders, and he managed to run to a neighbor's house after hearing the noise.
The motive for the killings was believed to be an inheritance of about $480,000 that DeYoung wanted so that he could start his own business. DeYoung was 19 at the time, and was a student at Kennesaw State University, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was later convicted of the murders and sentenced to die.
Jared Loughner's mental incompetency has delayed his trial for the Tucson shootings that claimed the lives of 6 people, and injured another 13.
Now the 9th Circuit has ruled that Jared Loughner's can reject medication, forcibly administered in the federal facility he is being held at. Any forced medication must be delayed further until a hearing in August.
The 9th Circuit had previously ruled that the forced medication must be temporarily halted.
How is it that the legal system is allowing Weldon Marc Gilbert, an accused child rapist and child molester, to view child porn in jail?
Gilbert, currently held in a jail in Washington, stands accused of multiple counts of child rape and child sex crimes, reports the AP.
Gilbert was a jet pilot prior to his arrest in 2007. He allegedly tempted more than a dozen boys to his house with promises of flying lessons, money and booze, reports the AP. He then molested them - and videotaped his crimes.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has temporarily blocked Jared Loughner's forced medication. Loughner's incompetency had landed him in a federal facility, where forcible medication had begun on June 22.
Loughner stands accused of 49 felony counts from the Tucson shootings that killed six people. U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords was also seriously injured in the shootings, along with a dozen others.
The 9th Circuit's order is a temporary stay of involuntary medication until the hearing over the forcible medication issue is over, and the court has made its decision.
Should Jared Loughner be forcibly drugged? Loughner's mental competency has been the focus of his trial for the Tucson, Arizona shootings.
Loughner was declared mentally incompetent and unfit to stand trial. He has been in a federal facility ever since. Two doctors have independently come to the conclusion that Loughner is schizophrenic.
Because of his mental incompetency, Loughner's trial has been delayed until he can be found competent to stand trial. And that is why they are forcibly drugging him, according to defense attorney Judy Clark, reports the Courthouse News Service.
Would you rob a bank for health care? James Verone did.
Verone walked into the RBC Bank in North Carolina last week. When he arrived, he gave the teller a note that said he was robbing the bank - and to please give him $1.
Unemployed and uninsured, Verone is 59 years old. He has a growth on his chest, two ruptured disks and a problem with his left foot, reports the Los Angeles Times. He thought that if he robbed the bank, he would get thrown into jail, where he would have access to a doctor.
A sharply-divided U.S. Supreme Court has found California prison overcrowding requires the state to reduce the California prison population by 30,000 prisoners.
Writing for the five-vote majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy, a native Californian, found California's 33 prisons so overcrowded that conditions violated the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, reports the San Jose Mercury-News.
The Court's order means that California will have to start releasing prisoners. Since the federal trial court's original order in 2009, California's prison system has already released about 9,000 prisoners.
