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Prison

Jun 2006Estimated percentage of women in U.S. prisons or jails who are single mothers: 77
Source:

U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics

Mar 2006Number of U.S. counties where more than a fifth of “residents” are prison inmates: 21
Source:

Prison Policy Initiative (Northampton, Mass.)

Mar 2006Number of U.S. counties where more than a fifth of “residents” are prison inmates that are in Texas: 10
Source:

Prison Policy Initiative (Northampton, Mass.)

Mar 2006Portion of New York Senate districts that would not meet the minimum population level without their inmates: 1/9
Source:

Prison Policy Initiative (Northampton, Mass.)

Oct 2005Minimum number of centuries in prison served by U.S. convicts for crimes of which DNA evidence later exonerated them: 19
Source:

Innocence Project (N.Y.C.)

Aug 2004Percentage change since then in the number of people serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison : +83
Source:

The Sentencing Project (Washington)

Oct 2002Number of corrections professionals who attended a mock riot at a former West Virginia prison in May: 1,235
Source:

Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization (Moundsville, W.Va.)

Mar 2002Percentage change since January 2001 in the share price of the largest private prison-management company: +440
Source:

Corrections Corporation of America (Nashville)

Nov 2001 Prison sentence, in years, received in June by an Oregon activist for setting fire to a car dealership: 23
Source:

Lane County Circuit Court (Eugene, Ore.)

Mar 2001Estimated chance that a U.S. prisoner is mentally retarded: 1 in 14
Source:

American Association on Mental Retardation (Washington)

Feb 2001Estimated number of minors held in U.S. prisons in 1998 without segregation from adult inmates: 3,700
Source:

Amnesty International (London)

Jan 2001Estimated number of Americans imprisoned in prolonged solitary confinement: 20,000
Source:

Human Rights Watch (N.Y.C.)

Dec 2000Factor by which Texas's incarceration rate has increased since 1990 for every 1 percent drop in its crime rate: 4
Source:

U.S. Department of Justice

Dec 2000Percentage of Americans who say they would prefer being executed to serving a life sentence without parole: 48
Source:

Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll (N.Y.C.)

Dec 2000Number of Falun Gong members arrested in China who have died in, en route to, or shortly after their release from prison: 53
Source:

Amnesty International (London)

Nov 2000Days by which a Texan's prison sentence for candy-bar theft this year exceeded his sentence for marijuana possession: 550
Source:

Smith County District Attorney's Office (Tyler, Tex.)

Jul 2000Chance that a Florida maximum-security state prison guard has been arrested: 1 in 6
Source:

St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.)

Apr 2000Number of flowers that prison inmates plant each spring at the Illinois State Fairgrounds: 110,000
Source:

Lincoln Correctional Center (Lincoln, Ill.)

Mar 2000Damages awarded this year to prisoners who “suffered reprisals” after the 1971 Attica prison uprising, per prisoner: $6,250
Source:

Attica Brothers Legal Defense (Brooklyn, N.Y.)

Feb 2000Estimated profit earned by New York State last year on collect calls made by prisoners: $21,000,000
Source:

New York State Department of Correctional Services (Albany);

Jan 2000Percentage change since 1990 in the number of prison beds in privately owned or managed U.S. prisons: +856
Source:

Dr. Charles W. Thomas, Center for Studies in Criminology and Law (Gainesville, Fl.)

Jun 1999Percentage change since 1991 in the number of U.S. inmates who were illegal-drug users at the time of their arrest: +68
Source:

U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics

Jun 1999Percentage change since 1991 in the number of such inmates who receive treatment: -32
Source:

U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics

Apr 1999Settlement paid 3 female federal inmates last year after guards sold them as sex slaves to male prisoners: $500,000
Source:

Rosen, Bien &Asaro (San Francisco)

Apr 1999Number of the 9 prison employees named in the women's lawsuit, charged with selling the women as sex slaves to male prisoners, who were charged with a crime: 0
Source:

Federal Bureau of Prisons (Dublin, Calif.)

Apr 1999Chance that an American born today will spend time in jail: 1 in 20
Source:

Bureau of Justice Statistics (Washington)

June 2, 2007 Jack Kevorkian was released from prison.
Source:

AP via Washington Post

May 30, 2007 Paris Hilton went to jail and, according to family members, “breaks down crying a lot because she can't deal with the reality and the pressure.”
Source:

AP via local6.com

May 29, 2007 Sex stimulants were banned in Australian prisons.
Source:

Daily Telegraph (Australia)

November 9, 2006The walls of a prison in Missouri were painted pink and accented with stenciled teddy bears. “We made it like a day care,” explained Sheriff Mike Rackley.
Source:

CourtTVNews

August 22, 2006Eighteen prisoners used “fiery chili peppers” to escape from the Pematang Siantar Penitentiary in North Sumatra, Indonesia,.
Source:

Reuters

May 26, 2006A Nebraska judge sentenced a man convicted of sexually assaulting a child to probation because the man is too short for prison.
Source:

NBC4.com

May 25, 2006In San Diego a man named Lawrence Christopher Smith was sentenced to 84 years to life in prison for shooting and killing a man named Dom Perignon Champagne.
Source:

Sign on San Diego

May 22, 2006A study found that one out of every 136 Americans was incarcerated.
Source:

The Scotsman

April 19, 2006 British doctors criticized China for harvesting organs for transplant from thousands of executed prisoners.
Source:

BBC News

March 2, 2006The U.S. State Department asked for $100 million for the reconstruction of Iraqi prisons.
Source:

Democracy Now!

March 2, 2006It was reported that U.S. prisons often shackle women prisoners during childbirth.
Source:

The New York Daily News

February 16, 2006New photos of the torture at Abu Ghraib prison were released.
Source:

ABC News Online

February 16, 2006The United Nations issued a report calling on the United States to either try the approximately 500 inmates at the Guantánamo Bay prison for their crimes or release them.
Source:

BBC News

February 16, 2006A man in Texas was sentenced to 30 years in prison for raping his former girlfriend, then branding her.
Source:

Chron.com

February 10, 2006Former Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland was released from prison.
Source:

The New York Times

February 5, 2006Twenty-three people, 12 of them convicted Al Qaeda terrorists, escaped via a tunnel from a prison in Yemen. One of the escapees, Jamal Ahmed Badawi, had been sentenced to death for organizing the October 2000 attack on the destroyer U.S.S. Cole.
Source:

CNN.com

January 19, 2006A man in Australia escaped from prison by losing enough weight to slip through a hole.
Source:

BBC News

January 18, 2006A two-year, $939,233 study commissioned by the U.S. Justice Department found that inmates who claim to have been raped in prison are usually lying. In prison, the study explained, sexual pressure is not seen as coercion; rather, "sexual pressure ushers, guides, or shepherds the process of sexual awakening."
Source:

Chron.com

November 24, 2005A 1,600-inmate faith-based prison opened in Crawfordville, Florida.
Source:

Gainesville.com

November 18, 2005The Pentagon revealed that since September 11, 2001, it has detained more than 80,000 prisoners at facilities around the world.
Source:

Guardian Unlimited

September 22, 2005In Wichita Falls, Texas, a man named Roderick Johnson was suing prison officials for allowing him to be made into a sexual slave. Johnson testified that he had once been the "property" of a prison gang called the Gangster Disciples, who rented him out at rates ranging from $3 to $7 per rape. A defendant in the case said that Johnson’s testimony was not credible because he never showed the "bruises," "possible broken bones," or "a little worse" that would prove that the sex was nonconsensual.
Source:

The New York Times

July 13, 2005Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison.
Source:

MSNBC

June 7, 2005 Australian officials were investigating allegations that prison guards tricked a prisoner into inserting a sausage into his rectum.
Source:

Herald Sun

May 30, 2005 Amnesty International released a report calling the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay “the gulag of our time.” General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the prison camp was “a model facility” and pointed out that 1,300 Korans had been handed out at the prison in the last four years.
Source:

BBC News

May 27, 2005In North Carolina a man was released from prison after serving thirty-five years of his life sentence for stealing a $140 TV set.
Source:

WRAL.com

April 25, 2005It was revealed that Condoleezza Rice ordered a German citizen released from an American-supervised prison in Afghanistan after it was determined that the man had been wrongly detained and tortured.
Source:

SMH.com.au

April 3, 2005Militants in Iraq attacked the Abu Ghraib prison, wounding forty-four American soldiers and twelve prisoners.
Source:

BBC News

March 30, 2005A federal judge refused to let the Bush Administration, which opposes torture, send prisoners from Guantánamo Bay to other prisons abroad without granting the prisoners access to the courts.
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Washington Post

March 12, 2005A twelve-year-old British boy who raped his special-needs teacher was sentenced to life in prison.
Source:

The Guardian

March 7, 2005An Arizona ice-cream-truck driver who raped and impregnated a nine-year-old girl was sentenced to life in prison.
Source:

KPHO

March 5, 2005 Martha Stewart was released from prison. While incarcerated Stewart's wealth increased $700 million, and her cappuccino machine broke.
Source:

Times Online

February 18, 2005 Texas executed another prisoner.
Source:

CNN

February 11, 2005The Supreme Court of California decided to allow mentally retarded death-row prisoners to appeal their cases.
Source:

LA Times

February 1, 2005Two British terrorism detainees chose to remain in prison rather than accept house arrest.
Source:

The Guardian

December 26, 2004A 9.0 magnitude earthquake created a tsunami that ravaged south and southeast Asia, as well as parts of Africa. The wave reached from Somalia and Kenya to Malaysia. Thousands of fatalities were reported in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, South India, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Three-story waves washed sunbathers into the sea, carried away snorkelers, and swallowed up Hindu ritual bathers celebrating Full Moon Day. A prison in Sumatra was torn open by the tsunami, and hundreds of inmates fled. A baby was washed from her father's arms. At least 25,000 died, and millions were displaced. Entire towns were turned into rubble. Corpses hung from trees and fences, and the rotting bodies of humans and animals threatened to pollute water supplies. It was difficult to bury the dead for lack of dry ground. The earthquake was the largest since 1964, and slightly altered the rotation of the earth.
Source 1:

New York Timesimes

Source 2:

Wikipedia

Source 3:

New York Timesimes

Source 4:

MSNBC

Source 5:

Reuters

December 22, 2004 Martha Stewart called for prison reform.
Source:

Forbes

November 10, 2004Former high-school football star Demarco McCullum, Texas prisoner #999180, became the 21st prisoner executed in that state this year.
Source 1:

The Advocate

Source 2:

CNN

September 15, 2004 Martha Stewart asked for permission to begin her five-month prison sentence early instead of waiting for her appeal. Stewart said she would be sad to miss the holiday season but that it was time to reclaim her "good life. I must return to my good works."
Source:

Washington Post

August 20, 2004There was a prison uprising in Olmito, Texas.
Source:

Associated Press

August 19, 2004Twenty-seven inmates of the county jail in Clearwater, Florida, who were released so that they could flee Hurricane Charley were still at large; 256 inmates were let out of jail but most returned in four days as instructed.
Source:

WTSP Tampa

July 17, 2004 Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison.
Source:

Associated Press

June 2, 2004Thirty prisoners and one guard died in a prison uprising in Brazil.
Source:

New York Times

June 2, 2004 Arkansas released 680 prison inmates early because of overcrowding.
Source:

New York Times

May 25, 2004President Bush unveiled his new "five-point plan" for Iraq during a speech at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and offered to destroy the Abu Ghraib prison if Iraqis want him to; the president also promised to give Iraq a modern prison system.
Source:

New York Times

May 12, 2004A new report found that almost 10 percent of prisoners in federal and state prisons are serving life sentences.
Source:

New York Times

April 30, 2004The Urban Institute released a study showing that in some U.S. counties 30 percent of the population is in prison, and an
Source:

New York Times

AUGUST 2008

THE WRECKING CREW
How a Gang of Right-Wing Con Men Destroyed Washington and Made a Killing
By Thomas Frank

THE MANDARINS
American Foreign Policy, Brought to You by China
By Ken Silverstein

JACK
A story by Marilynne Robinson

Also: WILLIAM H. GASS on Henry James