SACRAMENTO — California prison officials have halted an experiment aimed at forcing warring prison gangs to get along with each other after the inmates wound up brawling and even rioting when allowed to mingle together in prison recreation yards, officials told The Associated Press. Members of Fresno's notorious Bulldogs gang...
California Lawmakers May Trim Repeat Offenders’ Sentences
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers are on the verge of approving legislation to trim prison sentences for repeat nonviolent felonies. Current law adds an additional year to offenders' sentences for each previous prison or jail term. The bill approved by the state Assembly on Thursday would remove the mandatory one-year enhancement....
Epstein Accuser Sues as Questions Swirl About His Death
NEW YORK — Jail guards on duty the night Jeffrey Epstein apparently killed himself are suspected of falsifying log entries to show they were checking on inmates every half-hour as required, according to a person familiar with the investigation into the financier's death. Surveillance video shows guards never made some of the...
Federal New York Lockup Draws New Scrutiny in Epstein Death
NEW YORK — The apparent suicide of Jeffrey Epstein has brought new scrutiny to a federal jail in New York that, despite chronic understaffing, houses some of the highest-security inmates in the country. Epstein's death is also the latest black eye for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the jail's parent agency that...
Ryan Leaf Uses His Story to Help Other Former NFL Players
Ryan Leaf spent most of his time in prison alone and angry until a military veteran persuaded the former No. 2 overall NFL draft pick to stop self-loathing long enough to help fellow inmates learn to read. Now the once-star college quarterback who is widely considered the biggest bust in...
Alleged Sex Trafficker Jeffrey Epstein Found Injured in Jail Cell
NEW YORK — Wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein was found on the floor of his jail cell with bruises on his neck early this week while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday. It was not clear whether the injuries were self-inflicted or from...
Justice Dept. Will Execute Inmates for First Time Since 2003
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Thursday that it will carry out executions of federal death row inmates for the first time since 2003. Five inmates who have been sentenced to death are scheduled to be executed starting in December. In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, then-President Barack Obama directed the department to...
Investigation: Many US Jails Fail to Stop Inmate Suicides
The last time Tanna Jo Fillmore talked with her mother, she was in a Utah jail, angry and desperate. She'd called every day that week, begging for help. I need my medicine, she demanded. At 25, Fillmore had long struggled with mental illness, but medication had stabilized her. Now she...
White Supremacists Charged With Directing California Prison Killings
SACRAMENTO — Leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang were charged Thursday with directing killings and drug smuggling from within California's most secure prisons, U.S. prosecutors said. The charges detail five slayings and accuse an attorney of helping smuggle drugs and cellphones to aid the white supremacist gang. Sixteen Aryan...
Community Programs for California Inmates Bring More Escapes
SACRAMENTO — California's attempt to ease inmates back into the community is coming at a price: more prisoners, some with violent convictions, walking away before their time is up. Fifty of the state's more than 126,000 prisoners absconded last year, almost half of them from a program that allows male...