News: 5/28/2007

• Court to consider capping prisons (California)
• Senate OKs bill to reduce prison need (Texas)
• Corrections hopes bill will reduce recidivism (Kansas)
• Wanted: More Texas prison guards
• WSJ eyes profit in prison building boom
• Chemical castration program might be expanded (Oregon)
• Private jails lack the staff ethos integral to halting offending (UK)
• Kenya: Prisoners on Deathrow Demand Conjugal Rights
• Concern at prison overcrowding (UK)
• Rehab programmes hosted at jails but no practising social workers (Guyana)
• Inmates Running Prisons Says Watchdog (New Zealand)
• Prison managers given pay rises, says corrections (New Zealand)
• New bill could change how inmates make calls (Ohio)
• Bobblehead doll sends 350 workers fleeing from Washington corrections offices

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News: 5/23/2007

• DOC withdraws request to release illegal immigrants (Oklahoma)
• Prisons chief hails execution team secrecy (Missouri)
• Texas short on guards as lawmakers mull new prisons
• Taxpayer to fork out R5.3bn for new jails (South Africa)
• Mafias Control Ecuador Jails
• Jails crisis as prisoner numbers reach new peak (UK)
• Corrections admits corruption widespread (New Zealand)
• Prisons officers to boycott sports day (Trinidad)
• Prisons department to go hi-tech (Tanzania)
• Prison neighbors rally against sex offender plan (New Jersey)
• New tour delves deeper into life at Alcatraz (California)
• Prison Inmates to Work in Industries (Georgia)

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News: 5/10/2007 (AM)

• Crist ready for executions to resume (Florida)
• DOC alters procedure for lethal injections (Florida)
• Tennessee prisons defend pizza decision
• Former staffers doubt abuse claims (Oregon)
• Official: Mentally ill in Jails Getting Help Faster (Florida)
• Man in early jail release involved in crash (Florida)
• What about Roberto? (California)
• Inmate costs over budget (Illinois)
• US BOP Entitled To End Boot Camp Program
• New prisons not sustainable (New Zealand)
• Judges are told to cut jail terms for thieves (UK)
• Lord Falconer: MoJ will provide 'better outcomes' for justice (UK)
• Conservatives: MoJ proposals an 'insult to victims' (UK)
• Corrections to appeal against order to reinstate prison officer (New Zealand)
• 'Our justice system faces several crises' (South Africa)
• State rescinds deal for private prison (Colorado)
• Behind bars (Nevada)
• Bellevue delays vote on residency for sex offenders (Wisconsin)

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News: 5/7/2007 (PM)

• Special Report: Dying Behind Bars (Michigan)
• Number of Sex Offenders Rising in Pasco (Washington)
• Manhunt Continues for Suspects in CMC's Prison Guard Attack (California)
• guard rescued inmates come to the aid of a corrections officer who was attacked by prisoner (Virginia)
• Prisons plan 'vetoed by Blair' (UK)
• Judges 'may be forced into lighter sentences' (UK)
• Officer says he had no idea what caused the uprising (Barbados)
• Prison art auction raises more than $30000 for at-risk families (New Zealand)
• Youths in adult jails increase (UK)
• 'Ghost' child prisoners languish in RP jails - group (Philippines)
• Bill Could Shorten Some Drug Dealers' Prison Time (Maryland)
• Delegate miffed by the leak of prison visit (West Virginia)
• Residents Upset Over Plan to Bring In Sex Offenders (Pennsylvania)
• Paint can full of pot sent to inmate (South Carolina)
• Warden Killed More Than 130 Years Ago Finally Gets a Headstone (Utah)

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Opinion

• Prison deal won't do the job (California) - editorial, North County Times
• Will Schwarzenegger's new death chamber actually help inmates? (California) - Sara Cantania, Salon
• Housing, job limits can’t keep predatory sex offenders away (Alabama) - editorial, Tuscaloosa News

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News: 4/27/2007 (AM)

• Miami Inmate's Treatment Questioned (Florida)
• Police say 16 molesters are staying at Garden Grove motels (California)
• Legislature quickly OKs prison plan: Governor expected to sign measure (California)
• Waiting game for SJ prisons (California)
• Geo loses California contract
• Survey shows that five inmates die every day. (Kenya)
• Prisons boss sets up committee to fast- track reforms (Nigeria)
• Freed offenders fail drug tests (Australia)
• Greece prison protest ends
• Jailbirds coughing up less for smokes (Australia)
• 2 inmates escape from Cocke Co. Jail (Tennessee)
• Sheriff to pay $500000 to settle jail suit (Florida)
• Author foresees end of capital punishment (Missouri)
• Prison to Limit Inmates Toilet Paper (Kansas)

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Opinion: 4/25/2007

• Sex offenders’ restrictions should depend on offenses (Oklahoma) - editorial, Enid News & Eagle

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News: 4/24/2006 (PM)

• Inmates Riot At Indiana Prison
• New Rules for Confining the Mentally Ill (New York)
• Jail is given high marks (Ohio)
• More inmates than space (Pennsylvania)
• No Changes to Sex Offender Restriction This Year (Indiana)
• Third officer drawn into jail inquiry (New Zealand)
• Tension in prisons eases (Greece)
• Ex-inmate helps 16 gangsters stop crime (UK)
• Alabama Prisons Population at All-Time High
• Moving ahead on the Lyon County jail project (Minnesota)

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News: 4/23/2007 (PM)

• For LA AIDS group prison health is public health (California)
• Diversions Continue Steady Advance (Texas)
• 2 courts deny Ohio killer's request to delay execution
• Bruning will not intervene in execution (Nebraska)
• Mental hospitals vie with prisons for medical staffs (California)
• Where should sex offenders live? (Florida)
• Ex-State Prisons Chief To Be Sentenced For Taking Kickbacks (Florida)
• Former Prisoners Challenge the Legacy of Torture in Chicago Jails (Illinois)
• Prisoner 'segregation' misunderstood - O'Connor (New Zealand)
• Inmates still getting cell phones (New Zealand)
• 2835 Pakistanis in Saudi jails, NA told
• Crime Victims Honored at Ceremony at Capitol (Arizona)
• Officials searching for missing ACI inmate (Rhode Island)
• Good guidelines in the works from the USSC (US Federal)
• South Idaho commissioners consider jail options

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Opinion: 4/23/2007

• Solution to inmate overcrowding is more prisons, not fewer prisoners (California) - Assemblyman Tom Berryhill, Modesto Bee
• Sex offender e-mail rule would waste police time (California) - editorial, San Jose Mercury News
• A Technocorrections Fable (Virginia) - Michael Connelly, Corrections Sentencing

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News: 4/18/2007 (AM)

• Prison overcrowding poses safety problems (Maine)
• New Standards for City’s Jails Are Debated (New York)
• Bill ending life without parole for young killers advances (California)
• Missouri Department of Corrections disputes sex harassment claims
• Only nets can prevent escapes (Belgium)
• Punjab prisons 171 percent overcrowded (India)
• New law to protect kids against adults (South Africa)
• Russian Women Serving Sentence in Prisons of United Arab Emirates learning Quran (Russia)
• Pike Co. voters say no to prison (Tennesee)
• Navajo council approves emergency appropriation for Chinle jail (New Mexico)
• Justice: Prison reform needs urgent (Nevada)
• Jeffco weighs another jail expansion (Colorado)
• Deal to help mentally ill prisoners (New York)
• Court rules in favor of inmates (Missouri)
• Sex offender policy targeted (California)

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News: 4/13/2007 (AM)

• Prison plan takes a beating (California) - registration required
• Bronx Protests Against Proposed Jail (New York)
• Brooklyn House of Detention Could be Much Bigger (New York)
• Oregon bill would limit early release program
• Committee passes bill speeding inmate paroles (Nevada)
• Police hunt arsonist let out of prison by accident (UK)
• Corrections Officer Dismissed (New Zealand)
• Youth prison getting better, says report (UK)
• PIL seeks facilities for male prisoners (India)
• Corrections board to take up draft prison recommendations (Iowa)
• Disenfranchisement News - 4/12/2007
• Oshkosh begins researching sex offender ordinance (Wisconsin)
• "Prison City" reflects on Death Penalty (Texas) - new book
• Surviving family violence (Texas)

Hat tip to Corrections Connection on a couple of these stories.

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News: 4/12/2007 (2)

• Overcrowded prisons 'costing UK taxpayer £5 million a month' (UK)
• Supreme Court to prison exec: Find 'missing' convict (Philippines)
• Corrections Department accused of 'con air' operation (New Zealand)
• Troubleshooter Is New Davao Prisons chief (Philippines)
• Senate approves more money for prisons (Oklahoma)
• Corrections budget sees big growth (Montana)
• Judge hears arguments in prison lawsuit (Wyoming)
• Appeal attempts to give inmates more legal help (Alabama)
• Suburbs weigh in on sex offender ordinance (Wisconsin)
• Efficiency costs corrections program (Kansas)
• More funds sought for youths (Illinois)
• Allegheny County Jail trying to curb contraband fishing (Pennsylvania)

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Florida housing sex offenders under bridge

John Zarrella and Patrick Oppmann of CNN report that Miami's increasingly stringent residency requirements is forcing released sex offenders to live under a bridge:

"Five men -- all registered sex offenders convicted of abusing children -- live along the causeway because there is a housing shortage for Miami's least welcome residents.

'I got nowhere I can go!' says sex offender Rene Matamoros, who lives with his dog on the shore where Biscayne Bay meets the causeway.

The Florida Department of Corrections says there are fewer and fewer places in Miami-Dade County where sex offenders can live because the county has some of the strongest restrictions against this kind of criminal in the country.

Florida's solution: house the convicted felons under a bridge that forms one part of the causeway.

The Julia Tuttle Causeway, which links Miami to Miami Beach, offers no running water, no electricity and little protection from nasty weather. It's not an ideal solution, Department of Corrections Officials told CNN, but at least the state knows where the sex offenders are.

Nearly every day a state probation officer makes a predawn visit to the causeway. Those visits are part of the terms of the offenders' probation which mandates that they occupy a residence from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

But what if a sex offender can't find a place to live?

That is increasingly the case, say state officials, after several Florida cities enacted laws that prohibit convicted sexual offenders from living within 2,500 feet of schools, parks and other places where children might gather. (Watch one sex offender describe how he was forced to give up an apartment )

Bruce Grant of the Florida Department of Corrections said the laws have not only kept sex offenders away from children but forced several to live on the street."

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Responses vary when sex offenders go to church

Faith communities are, more and more, facing the issue of convicted sex offenders desiring to worship with them. This Associated Press story outlines how several congregations have handled this:

"Rev. Steve Nickodemus, pastor of Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Sandpoint, Idaho, said he sensed a feeling of remorse and religious fervor from a man who sought to attend services three years ago after serving a prison term for molesting his stepdaughter many years ago.

At the same time, Nickodemus was concerned for families in the congregation and for children at the church's Little Lamb Preschool and Kindergarten.

'If we are really going to live as Christians, then we're going to have to deal with this,' he said. First, Nickodemus talked to the man about his crime, current living conditions, therapy, support network and requirements of the 13 years on probation he was facing.

Church leaders eventually agreed to let the man attend church only with a chaperon from the moment he arrived by car and required that he stay away from children and accept constant monitoring.

Since then, Nickodemus said, the sex offender has continued to attend a men's group and worship services. After initial reactions ranging from concern to outrage, most of those who attend the 11 a.m. service know and have accepted the fact that they're sharing the pews with a sex offender, the pastor said.

'I had to overcome some of my own fears,' he said. 'There are some sex offenders out there who are not conforming to what the law requires, but they won't be the ones who'll come to you and ask if they can come to church.'"

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