More than 900 inmates have battled the deadly flames that have ripped through the Los Angeles area. They are “working to cut fire lines and remove fuel to slow fire spread,” according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The state has long relied on incarcerated people to help fight wildfires in California, which … Read more
Shiu Ka-chun, a former social worker and pro-democracy lawmaker in Hong Kong who devoted his last years to helping protesters imprisoned after a crackdown on dissent, died Friday in Hong Kong. He was 55. His wife, Kelly Hui, said his death, in a hospital, was due to stomach cancer. As a social worker, civil rights … Read more
The Pentagon’s detention operation at Guantánamo once held hundreds of men who were captured by U.S. forces and their allies in the war against terrorism. Now there are just 15 prisoners as the prison enters its 24th year. President George W. Bush opened and filled it. President Barack Obama tried to close it but couldn’t. … Read more
A man and his son were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on sexual abuse charges after Polaroid photos from the 1980s and ’90s of children being sexually exploited were found in the walls at a home near Sacramento where the two had lived for over 40 years, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office said on … Read more
Two federal prisoners whose death sentences were recently commuted by President Biden have asked a judge to block the reduction in their sentences, arguing that it could jeopardize their appeals. The prisoners, Len Davis and Shannon W. Agofsky, said in separate court filings that they had refused to sign paperwork offered with the commutations, which … Read more
Three former sheriff’s deputies in Virginia Beach, Va., were indicted Friday on murder charges in connection with the death of an inmate who had been held at the city jail last year, according to the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office. The men are accused of causing the death of Rolin Hill, a 34-year-old Virginia Beach … Read more
An Iraqi who pleaded guilty to commanding insurgents who committed war crimes in Afghanistan filed suit in federal court on Friday, seeking to stop his transfer from the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to a prison in Iraq. The petition, filed by his lawyers, made public negotiations that had been underway for some … Read more
The Justice Department has struck a deal with officials in Fulton County, Georgia, to appoint a monitor to try to ensure its troubled jail addresses long-running problems with safety, staffing and sanitation. The tentative agreement, which was announced Friday, must still be approved by a federal judge. It is the result of findings issued in … Read more