Chelsea Manning Free After Seven Years in Military Prison
After seven years behind bars, Chelsea Manning was released early Wednesday morning from the Fort Leavenworth disciplinary barracks in Kansas.
Can Learning To Make Video Games Help Rehabilitate Jailed Kids?
“What they teach you in juvenile halls or in youth offender facilities is not about education,” researcher Dana Ruggiero told me during a recent phone interview. “It’s not about making better choices. It’s literally just a rhetoric, and then they put you back into the same system you came out of.” She started Project…
How a Tattoo Gun Is Made in Prison
People in prison are so damn resourceful that they can turn a pen, a Walkman, a couple of paper clips, a few rubber bands, and a set of batteries into a fully functional tattoo gun. The motor, battery pack, and switch come from a Walkman that’s torn apart, the ink obviously comes from the pen, the needle is made from…
Thousands of Prisoners Released Early in Washington State Because of a Software Bug
It’s believed that over 3,200 Washington state prisoners were released from their sentences early because of a bug which miscalculated time credits for their good behavior.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons Wants an Anti-Drone System
Prisons have a well-documented problem with inmates using small quadrotor drones to sneak contraband in. Since posting guards with #8 birdshot doesn’t seem to have been working, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is now looking for a less redneck solution.
Crooks With Drone Busted Trying to Smuggle Porn and Drugs Into Prison
Unmanned aerial vehicles often get a bum rap for being technological troublemakers, and this story ain’t gonna help: Maryland State Police say they’ve arrested two men who suposedly planned to smuggle contraband into a state prison using a drone.
New Evidence That Sending People to Prison Makes Crime Worse
There’s a saying that there’s nothing like going to prison to turn you into a criminal. But now, a new study offers evidence that this homily is statistically sound. Every year a person is kept in prison increases their odds of committing another crime when they are released.
Video reveals the incredible tunnel that El Chapo used to escape prison
The story of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, head of the Sinaloa Cartel, escaping jail is just insane. A mile long, ventilated and lit tunnel was built right under his shower in his prison cell to allow him to escape. Not only that, there was a little motorbike cart inside the tunnel as well to presumably give him a joy…
This Locked-Down Prison Tablet Makes iOS Seem Open
The nation’s overcrowded prison system is in a sad state, and it’s not made any better by only having access to this incredibly basic 4.3-inch JP5mini tablet.
How Facebook Is Censoring Content in the United States
Facebook vows to be transparent, and yet the Electronic Frontier Foundation discovered that the company is hiding all the ways that it blocks access in the United States, on behalf of law enforcement.
How a Prison Email Service Steals IP Rights to Everything Inmates Send
JPay, a company that provides digital communications systems to corrections facilities in at least 19 states, is charging inmates and their families an unusual fee to stay in touch: the intellectual property rights to everything sent through its network.
Inmate Walks Free After Emailing Release Instructions to Prison Staff
An inmate who was in prison for multiple charges of fraud is apparently up to his old tricks. Posing as a senior court clerk, Neil Moore, 28, used an illicit mobile phone to email fake bail instructions to prison staff, who released him. Well, that's embarrassing.
Prisoner Got 37 Years in Solitary for Facebook Posts
In South Carolina's prisons, an inmate who secretly writes Facebook posts about missing his family can be punished the same way as one who rapes a cellmate. Hundreds of inmates are being handed down indefensibly harsh punishments for using social media, including one man, Tyheem Henry, who was sentenced to over 37…
Hundreds of Inmates Are Sent To Solitary Confinement For Using Facebook
In the South Carolina prison system, accessing Facebook is an offense on par with murder, rape, rioting, escape and hostage-taking.
Prisoners in China Can Get Out of Jail in Exchange for Patents
China absolutely dominates the rest of the world when it comes to the number of patents it produces. This is partly due to a government that encourages inventors with everything from cash gifts, tenured jobs at universities, and early release from prison. Wait, what?
Ohio's Using a Drone to Spy on Prisoners (and Their Smuggling Friends)
Ever heard of the Panopticon? It's a type of prison design that enables a single watchman to see everyone. Now, Ohio is experimenting with an interesting twist on that idea by putting the watchman in the sky with an infrared camera.
A Drone Crashed While Smuggling Weed Into a South Carolina Prison
These days, there's no need to stuff drugs up your butt to get them into a prison—you can just drop them in from your trusty drone. Unless you crash it, that is.
Why Solitary Confinement Is The Worst Kind Of Psychological Torture
There may be as many as 80,000 American prisoners currently locked-up in a SHU, or segregated housing unit. Solitary confinement in a SHU can cause irreversible psychological effects in as little as 15 days. Here's what social isolation does to your brain, and why it should be considered torture.
In Prison For Criminally Bad Writers, Cons Try To Rewrite Their Script
When a gang of feloniously poor writers get a hold of the script to their lives, they hatch a plan to rewrite it and bust out. But can they navigate all of the various plot twists thrown their way?
