Signalfire

09/03/2010
SALINAS, Calif.—Monterey County officials say 166 inmates housed in a special area for Norteno gang members are on a hunger strike because of a new policy that limits their toiletries.

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Mike Richards says the Monterey County Jail strike began Wednesday after a policy limited convicts to one bar of soap, one bottle of shampoo and one tube of toothpaste per week.

Richards says the decision was made in part because inmates can barter with soap, use soap in socks as a weapon, soap floors to cause jail overseers to slip and hide contraband in bars of soap. Richards said one inmate had more than 40 bars in his jail cell.

Officials say they will provide medical treatment to the inmates if it becomes necessary.

More than 4,000 inmates at three Venezuelan jails began a hunger strike in protest against alleged brutality by guards, judicial delays and chronic overcrowding. The protest involves 32 of the 80 inmates at Tocuyito prison, some 3,000 in the Aragua penitentiary and another 1,137 at Vista Hermosa prison, the Caracas daily El Universal said. It began in Tocuyito, where inmates reported physical and psychological mistreatment by guards following the escape of an important criminal from the jail this week.

Antonio Molina, defense counsel for one of the hunger strikers, told El Universal that the guards “have repeatedly beaten” the striking prisoners and have “kicked and smashed their belongings and suspended their visits.”

The inmates at Vista Hermosa joined the hunger strike in solidarity with the prisoners in Tocuyito, Julio Martinez, who has been held for two years in that penitentiary, said. “We joined the strike…for the outrages committed against our fellow-prisoners over at Tocuyito, who are kept in solitary confinement, are permitted no visits and are being beaten,” Martinez told the Caracas newspaper.

Inmates at Vista Hermosa have not suffered mistreatment by guards for at least “four years” and have “enough to eat,” but there is a huge backlog of cases pending trial that has caused overcrowding, Florentino Ariza, another inmate, said. That jail is designed for 450 prisoners, and currently houses 1,137, nearly three-quarters of them still awaiting trial, Ariza told the daily El Universal.

Aragua’s more than 3,000 prisoners joined the protest to complain about overcrowding, trial delays and the mistreatment they and their families receive from the guards, they said in a communique. In the document, the inmates said that this penitentiary was build to hold 600 people but now has 3,400, of whom only 350 have been tried and convicted.

Three prisoners have been jailed for rioting at Scotland’s newest jail.

Paul Jackson, 25, from Coatbridge, pled guilty to wilful fire-raising and breach of the peace at Addiewell Prison in February 2010. He was jailed for three years and one month.

Mathew Harris, 23, from Aberdeen, and Kevin Kelly, 20, from Blantyre, both admitted breach of the peace and were jailed for two years and four months.

The sheriff said harsh sentences would deter other prisoners from rioting.

The riot took place at the prison, which is near Livingston, just eight weeks after it opened, Livingston Sheriff Court was told.

The trouble started after Jackson was refused a replacement CD player.

The sole female prison officer on patrol locked down Douglas ‘A’ wing as soon as the 35 inmates there showed signs of unrest.

An earlier hearing was told how the three men built a barricade from a pool table, broken furniture and TVs before going on the rampage.

They brandished pool cues, broom handles and socks containing pool balls, and smashed computers, CCTV cameras and flat-screen televisions.

They also flooded the wing by ripping a sink and water pipes from the walls, and Jackson severely damaged his cell by setting light to pillowcases and toilet paper under a bonfire of broken furniture.

The disruption lasted for four hours, until a riot squad broke through the makeshift barricade.

Sheriff Douglas Kinloch said: “This behaviour in my view can only be dealt with by the imposition of a custodial sentence.

“The court must do what it can to deter others from this type of behaviour while in prison.”

The sheriff said he took into account that no prison officer had been injured.

Sep. 01, 2010

Halifax police say 17 men face charges following a disturbance at Nova Scotia’s largest jail in June.

The men ranging in age from 19 to 51 face mischief charges.

Police say 13 of the men have been located and dealt with, while four who have since been released from custody are yet to be found.

The Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth was locked down after two incidents occurred 30 minutes apart June 15.

In one incident an inmate was stabbed — he was later treated and released from hospital.

In the second, a group of 17 inmates in the jail’s west unit damaged some water sprinklers, windows and recreational equipment after refusing to leave a common area and return to their cells.

September 01

TEENAGE boys pelted police with missiles after officers were called to a disturbance at a children’s home in Ashton Vale.

Residents were kept awake for several hours when the emergency services, also including the fire brigade and ambulance, were called to deal with the trouble late on Monday night.

Witnesses said there was a stand-off between police in riot gear and the youngsters inside the home, which is a long-term settled care unit for up to five 13-18 year-olds.

The city council has asked the Evening Post not to identify the road where the home stands for child protection reasons.

Avon and Somerset police spokesman Wayne Baker said: “Police were called to reports of a disturbance late on Monday night. When they arrived at about 11.30pm, the officers were showered with various objects and used shields and riot gear to protect themselves.

“Three teenagers – two aged 16 and one 17 – were subsequently arrested on suspicion of public order and criminal damage offences and are still to be questioned by officers.”

A mother-of-two who lives nearby said: “We’ve never witnessed anything like this at the children’s home before. They shut off the road and the police were kitted out in riot gear, protective clothing and shields.

“You could see the windows had been smashed. I think it was totally over-the-top by the police. They were just children after all.

“There were ambulances, the fire brigade and police, it was unbelievable. It’s not a very nice thing for your children to see out of the window at that time of night.

“It took about two hours before the police went in. I would have expected them to put a stop to it immediately.

“Personally, I don’t mind the home being there because I can appreciate that you have to have children’s homes somewhere.”

It is not clear what caused the disturbance, nor what kind of reception police received when they got into the council-run home that has been established for 30 years.

A police car remained at the scene yesterday morning.

A city council spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that there was an incident at a Bristol children’s care home and we are currently assisting the police with their investigation.

“Although serious, we consider it to be an isolated episode and staff are working to ensure that their good relationship with the local community continues.”

Avon Fire and Rescue service spokeswoman Stephanie Mounsey said a fire engine did attend but was not required.

SAN FRANCISCO — Prison guards shot into a crowd to stop 200 rioting inmates at California’s Folsom State Prison, wounding five, authorities said Saturday.

Another two inmates were injured by other prisoners during Friday’s riot, which began at about 7 p.m. in the main exercise yard and ended after 30 minutes. Prison spokesman Lt. Anthony Gentile said officers fired after other efforts to break up the riot failed.

“We tried to control the situation with chemical agents dispersed over the crowd,” Gentile said Saturday. “We fired several rounds of rubber bullets and that didn’t stop them from fighting.”

None of the inmates suffered life-threatening injuries, and none of the 45 to 50 officers who responded were hurt.

All seven of the injured inmates were listed in stable condition late Saturday, according to Gentile.

The prison, made famous in the Johnny Cash song “Folsom Prison Blues,” could remain on lockdown for the next several weeks during an investigation. That means inmates won’t be allowed to have visitors, use the exercise yard or attend work training, Gentile said.

The prison has been hit with sporadic violence in its 130-year existence.

Most recently, eight inmates were injured in October after a fight involving about 120 prisoners erupted in a dining hall at the prison.

In April 2002, 24 inmates and one guard were injured during a riot.

Opened in 1880, Folsom is California’s second oldest prison, primarily housing medium security inmates. The prison also operates a minimum-security unit and a transitional treatment facility.

The facility’s website said it has 3,540 inmates and a custody staff of 643. It is located about 20 miles east of Sacramento.

August 30

DOZENS of Indonesian detainees who rioted at Darwin’s immigration detention centre were protesting against their legal treatment that includes mandatory jail sentences of up to 20 years.

Almost all are poor fishermen who were duped by people smugglers to steer asylum seeker boats into Australian waters. Their anger and frustration erupted into violence early yesterday after two men climbed a tree inside a compound at the centre where 97 Indonesians are being held.

As they refused to climb down, other detainees joined the protest, which escalated about 8am when rioters set fire to rubbish and mattresses they had piled in the grounds of the centre.

For several hours, 12 detainees refused to leave the roofs of demountable buildings, from where they yelled abuse. Some brandished two-metre long poles to stop guards climbing up.

Lawyers and several Northern Territory judges have described as an injustice the way the crew of asylum seeker boats are treated as people smugglers. Most of the real smugglers who paid the Indonesian crewmen a few hundred dollars to steer the boats remain in Indonesia, where there are no people-smuggling laws. In most cases, the crewmen were told they would be quickly sent back to Indonesia and were shocked to learn they instead faced long periods in jail in Australia.

The opposition immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, said: ”We’ve got a record population in detention, and these sorts of incidents are incredibly troubling, but not unexpected, when you’ve got so many people being detained.”

The doubt over who would form the next government made it ”inappropriate” to comment on what the Coalition would do to tackle over-crowding.

At one point yesterday, a metal chair was thrown from a roof. Some of the men took off their shirts and wrapped them around their heads. Screaming and banging could be heard from behind two high wire fences that surround the centre in the grounds of the Coonawarra Naval Base, on Darwin’s outskirts. Police eventually talked the detainees down.

Investigators will view security footage before considering charges. At the height of the disturbance, Afghan asylum seekers were evacuated from an adjoining compound.

An official confirmed the Indonesians were protesting about their legal treatment. People convicted over a boat carrying five or more people face a maximum 20 years’ jail, a fine of $220,000 or both, penalties as harsh as for murder. The minimum sentence for first-time offenders is five years’ jail with a three-year non-parole period.

Of 171 Indonesians facing people-smuggling charges on the Australian mainland, 169 are in detention in Darwin.

August 28, 2010
DENVER – About 150 protesters marched through the streets of Denver on Saturday, demanding that more action be taken in the recent rash of alleged police and jail guard misconduct.

The marchers carried signs that read “Police get up early to beat the crowds” and “All police are murderers.”

The first stop was at a sidewalk in Denver’s Lodo district, where 23-year-old Michael Deherrera was captured by a city security camera being beaten by police.

They also gathered at a spot where Mark Ashford was beaten by police after shooting video of a police traffic stop.

The protesters do not believe the resignation of Denver’s Safety Manger Ron Perea was enough.

“This is a first step, but only a first step,” said Glen Spagnuolo, an organizer of the demonstration.

The marchers ended in front of the new Denver jail facility in downtown.

There they demanded justice for Marvin Booker, an inmate who died at the new facility.

Booker was tased and restrained by officers following a scuffle in the holding cell July 9 where a female sheriff’s deputy was also treated for injuries suffered during the altercation.

Spokespersons for the Denver Police and the Denver Police Protective Association said they were not aware of the protest.

They added they can not comment on any ongoing investigations.

A King County judge has denied a motion filed by Christopher Monfort’s defense team to order King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg to delay announcing his decision on whether he will seek the death penalty in the case.

Satterberg is expected to announce his decision next week.

Superior Court Judge Ronald Kessler said Wednesday that he didn’t believe he had the authority to intervene in Satterberg’s charging decision. Under state law, a county prosecutor’s office has 30 days from the time of a suspect’s arraignment on aggravated-murder charges to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

Monfort was arraigned in November on five criminal counts, including aggravated first-degree murder in the Oct. 31 slaying of Seattle police Officer Timothy Brenton. Since then, Satterberg’s office has repeatedly extended the deadline of the death-penalty announcement because of requests by Monfort’s defense lawyers, said Senior Deputy Prosecutor John Castleton.

Defense attorney Julie Lawry argued that the defense team is overwhelmed with evidence and has a long list of witnesses to interview before filing mitigation materials to Satterberg’s office. Monfort’s defense team was supposed to file its mitigation materials with prosecutors by Aug. 2, but has not, Castleton said.

As part of the death-penalty decision, Satterberg is required by law to consider any mitigating circumstances as he carries out a thorough examination of the case and Monfort’s background.

Castleton told Kessler that his office has extended the death-penalty decision long enough. He said the state statute does not allow a judge to order a county prosecutor to withhold the announcement.

Castleton added that the defense team for Daniel Hicks, a Seattle man accused of killing his girlfriend and infant daughter in December, has already submitted its mitigation materials. Hicks is accused of fatally shooting Jennifer Morgan, 28, and their 13-week-old daughter, Emma, on Dec. 21 in a house on Seattle’s Beacon Hill, according to charges.

Satterberg is expected to announce whether the death penalty will be sought in the Hicks case on Sept. 17.

Monfort is charged with one count of aggravated murder, as well as three counts of attempted first-degree murder and first-degree arson. In addition to Brenton’s slaying, he is also accused of wounding Brenton’s partner.

Monfort is also accused of firebombing four Seattle police vehicles in October.

On Nov. 6, three Seattle homicide detectives confronted Monfort outside his Tukwila apartment. Charging documents say he twice aimed a handgun at officers before police shot him, which left Monfort, 41, paralyzed.

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Since his arrest, Monfort has abruptly voiced his political views and his concerns about police brutality during court hearings. On Wednesday, he lambasted Seattle police gang-unit Detective Shandy Cobane, who was caught on video telling a Latino man lying on a sidewalk: “I’m going to beat the [expletive] Mexican piss out of you, homey. You feel me?”

In the video, after the man moved a hand to his face, it appears Cobane is trying to stop the movement with his boot but ends up striking the man’s head.

Monfort announced to the courtroom that anyone could be the target of such police brutality, including Judge Kessler.

PITTSBURGH (AP) ― Jury selection is set to begin for a man accused of breaking store windows during the Group of 20 economic summit protests in Pittsburgh last year.

Twenty-one-year-old David Japenga, of Pittsburgh, was one of about 190 people arrested for various protest-related activities last September.

Japenga is charged with criminal mischief and other crimes for allegedly breaking the windows.

Japenga moved from Oakland, Calif., to volunteer at a food bank aligned with anarchist activists three months before protesting the gathering of international leaders.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Japenga appeared in court Monday and an Allegheny County judge ordered jury selection to begin after Japenga rejected a plea agreement.

A woman accused of kicking two Olympia officers during her arrest at an anti-police brutality march was convicted Tuesday of one assault charge and acquitted of the other.

The 22-year-old Evergreen State College student, Margaret Belknap, will be sentenced Thursday in Thurston County Superior Court.

The Olympian reports she testified she did not intentionally strike any officers during her April 8 arrest. She said any contact was inadvertent.

Belknap was one of about two dozen people arrested as marchers dressed in black with faces covered in hoods and scarves started throwing rocks and bottles, spray-painting buildings and dragging trash containers into the streets.

12:00 25/08/2010

Police want any information that will help catch the arsonist they believe destroyed the Kaikoura courthouse yesterday morning.

Detective Richard Rolton, of Blenheim, said police had found the area someone had broken into the building and where they believed the fire started.

Determining when the fire was lit would be difficult because the building was old and wooden, Mr Rolton said.

He would not give any more details about where and how the fire was lit or how the arsonist got into the building.

“We are sufficiently confident we have eliminated any accidental cause,” he said.

Anyone walking the streets of Kaikoura early on Tuesday should contact police so they could be eliminated as suspects, he said.

The remains of the 119-year-old courthouse will be demolished today as it was a risk to the public.

Acting Sergeant Dean Schroder, of Kaikoura, said closed circuit television footage would be used to identify people on the streets about the time the fire started.

He called the fire a senseless act.

“In my eyes, whoever is responsible hasn’t achieved anything,” he said.

“In the eyes of the community it is the death of a building and its untimely demise will be when the diggers come to demolish it,” Mr Schroder said.

Kaikoura Historical Society chairman Danny Smith said he was devastated the town had lost part of its history.

Some of the original courthouse furniture destroyed in the fire was irreplaceable, he said.

“We are wishing for something original to replace it so the memories can go on.”

Kaikoura District Court manager Pip O’Connell said he had not yet found an venue for the next sitting of the District Court on September 10. He did not know if the courthouse would be rebuilt.

08/25/2010

A two-alarm fire destroyed a parole and probation office on 73rd Street and Capitol Drive at about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday.

“Like, wow, this is crazy,” said Marcus Sims, who was meeting his probation officer.

It was a startling sight for Sims when he showed up for a visit with his probation officer and instead was stopped by police tape keeping him away from the now-blackened building.

“(It) looked like somebody bombed the place or something. Don’t look like no fire,” Sims said.

Bright orange flames seared through the roof as firefighters began their attack about 4:30 a.m.

“There was actually smoke pushing through the mortar lines of the brick work. It’s not a great sign for us,” Milwaukee Fire Department Battalion Chief Aaron Lipski said.

Afraid the roof would cave in, the firefight moved from the inside out. A second alarm sounded, and the fire was finally extinguished. Those first firefighters at the scene became a key part of the investigation.

“There are firefighters on this department trained to look for the color of the smoke, the intensity of the smoke, the color of the flames, because it’s not always what you’d expect,” Lipski said.

Investigators won’t say yet if the fire is arson. Once the flames turned to ash, police and state Fire Marshal’s Office joined in, looking for clues as to how the fire started.

A rock appears to have shattered the front door and firefighters could tell where the flames first sparked.

“It appears to have started on the west end of the building here near the middle run of windows there,” Lipski said.

The Department of Corrections is trying to salvage what records it can and is temporarily moving its 28 employees and operations to another location

“I guess I gotta go down to Port Washington,” Sims said.

The operations are now set up at the regional office near Port Washington Road and Capitol Drive. The Department of Corrections said the office services about 1,100 offenders. Agents should be getting in touch with all of those people about the change in location.

LANCASTER, Ohio (AP) – An Ohio sheriff says inmates threw things and set fire to mattresses and toilet paper in a county jail riot.

Sheriff Dave Phalen in central Ohio’s Fairfield County says no one was hurt in the disturbance Monday evening on a cell block housing 23 of the most serious offenders. He says prisoners were angry after their movements were restricted on Sunday because they’d been disruptive.

SWAT officers restored order at the jail in Lancaster with help from local firefighters and police.

Inmates were cuffed, taken out to the yard and strip-searched before being returned to their cells.

Phalen says once surveillance video is reviewed, some inmates are likely to face charges including arson, rioting and property destruction.

At least two inmates have been killed and more than 80 injured during a prison riot in Kazakhstan, close to the Russian border.

Troops stormed the facility using batons and stun-grenades, but no firearms, the interior ministry said.

One of those killed was a man who jumped from a balcony after setting himself on fire, officials said.

The riot began as a protest against poor conditions and torture at the prison, activists said.

Officials at the prison in Akmola region say the men had illegally demanded an easing of the regime.
Self-harm campaign

About 300 people took part in the riot which lasted three days.

More than 80 inmates had cut themselves in an effort to throw a spotlight on conditions at the jail.

Getting little response, the inmates built barricades and started fighting and throwing stones at prison officers, reports said.

Negotiations failed and special forces were sent in on Wednesday night to take control.

The government soldiers did not carry firearms, and the majority of the injuries were caused by prisoners stabbing and beating one another during the chaos, prison officials said.
Overcrowding claims

The BBC’s Rayhan Demytrie, in Almaty, says in the past few months dozens of prisoners across Kazakhstan have injured themselves in protest against inhumane conditions and alleged abuse by guards.

Last month, 38 people cut themselves in a prison in the north of the country.

One of the main problems with Kazakh prison colonies is overcrowding, our correspondent says.

According to a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, the prison population in Kazakhstan is three times the average in Europe and well above the number in other post-Soviet countries.

At the beginning of 2010 there were nearly 64,000 prisoners in Kazakh jails. Officials say that number has now been reduced to just over 60,000.

Many of the prisons date from the Soviet era, when they were used as forced labour camps, or gulags.

AP
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Dozens of homeless drug users have died inside a jail in western Puerto Rico in the last decade, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a report Thursday calling for an investigation into possible rights violations.

The ACLU said some of the 53 deaths between 2002 and 2008 at the Guerrero Correctional Institution potentially could have been prevented with better medical care.

“The alarming number of deaths at the Guerrero Jail and the failure to adequately investigate them may constitute deliberate indifference on the part of the jail’s administration toward the medical needs of these prisoners,” the report said.

All but one of those who died were in pretrial detention at the minimum-security prison, and 73 percent perished within their first week of confinement, according to the report. There were no signs of violence.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Caribbean territory’s corrections department, Sheila Padin Hernandez, said it was preparing a response to the report.

Officials said previously that many of the deaths resulted from the use of Xylazine, a horse sedative that addicts were injecting along with heroin.

William Ramirez, executive director of the ACLU in Puerto Rico, said victims in those cases likely could have been saved with quick medical attention. He said the precise cause of death remains a mystery in many cases because the government has not investigated properly.

“I suspect there is a lack of proper medical care while withdrawal is going on, but there might be other reasons. We really can’t say,” Ramirez said in an interview.

The ACLU launched its investigation in 2006 after hearing reports from the homeless community in northwestern Puerto Rico about police sweeping up addicts and taking them to detox at the jail in the west-coast city of Aguadilla.

Many were arrested for minor charges such as panhandling or vagrancy, according to the report. Some were detained for being under the influence of drugs.

“The average person would not be picked up and put in a prison like Guerrero for being out on the street,” Ramirez said. “That only happens to people who are homeless.”

July 22

QUEBEC CITY – Two inmates are dead and six others were sent to hospital following a prison riot and fire at a detention centre north of Quebec City.

An inmate set fire to a mattress inside a wing of d’Orsainville jail around 9:30 Wednesday evening, said provincial police spokesman Richard Gagne.

Smoke filled the wing, and when prison officials reached the area, they found eight men overcome by smoke.

Two were dead and the six others were sent to hospital, suffering from smoke inhalation.

Damage to the jail was limited and no jail staff were injured, said Johanne Beausoleil, a spokeswoman for the provincial Public Security department.

Provincial police and jail authorities have opened an investigation.

This is not the first time that d’Orsainville jail has been rocked by violence.

Police were called to the facility in March and again in May after inmates set fires.

By Associated Press

POSTED: 10:00 a.m. EDT, Jul 14, 2010

COLUMBUS: Officials say a second inmate at Ohio’s supermax prison has ended a hunger strike begun earlier this month over demands for medical treatment.

Prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn says inmate Gary Roberts resumed eating at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown Tuesday morning, 10 days after he started refusing food.

Walburn said Wednesday that Roberts decided to eat following ongoing conversations with a physician.

She describes Roberts’ medical condition as “fine” and says he has been returned to a regular cell from the prison infirmary.

Roberts and another inmate began separate hunger strikes within days of each other after being denied medical care that prison officials said was not warranted. The other man ended his five-day protest last Friday.

COLUMBUS: Officials say a second inmate at Ohio’s supermax prison has ended a hunger strike begun earlier this month over demands for medical treatment.

Prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn says inmate Gary Roberts resumed eating at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown Tuesday morning, 10 days after he started refusing food.

Walburn said Wednesday that Roberts decided to eat following ongoing conversations with a physician.

She describes Roberts’ medical condition as “fine” and says he has been returned to a regular cell from the prison infirmary.

Roberts and another inmate began separate hunger strikes within days of each other after being denied medical care that prison officials said was not warranted. The other man ended his five-day protest last Friday.

An incident at the Val-du-Lac building of the Estrie Youth Centre – located at 8475 Blanchette Road in Rock Forest – led to the arrest of three 17-year-old boys Sunday night.

At a little after 8 pm, the three suspects – who were staying at the centre which houses troubled youth – threatened violence towards the staff after being asked to come inside.
“They were not happy about having to go back inside for their 8 pm curfew,” explained Martin Carrier of the Sherbrooke police (SPS) in an interview with The Record.
Armed with wooden bats they had found on the premises, the three suspects became very aggressive, hitting things and yelling at the other kids housed at the centre to come out and join them in starting a riot. “They became hysterical,” said Carrier.
About a dozen officers, including the SPS intervention team, were called in to try and regulate the situation. A negotiator was on the scene trying to convince the boys – who remained on the premises throughout the ordeal – to drop the bats and give themselves up.
“The negotiator spent over two hours talking to them,” said Carrier. “We had to use the intervention team because the bats they had are considered a deadly weapon.”
Eventually, at around 10 pm, one of the boys assaulted an officer. Having cause, the assaulted officer proceeded to taser the suspect, immobilizing him, and then made the arrest.
“After seeing their friend arrested, the other two quickly dropped their weapons and gave themselves up,” explained the SPS spokesperson.
The boy who was tasered was transported to the hospital as a precautionary measure, a move that is standard procedure for anyone tasered by police.
The three 17-year-old’s face a number of charges in Quebec Juvenile Court, including making death threats, armed assault, and participating in a riot.

LAUREL, Md. (WUSA) Washington DC authorities are investigating a Father’s Day disturbance at the New Beginnings Youth Development Center, the Laurel facility that houses the District’s most violent juvenile offenders.

Sources tell 9 NEWS NOW that shortly after 7:20 pm Sunday, some or all of the 70  juveniles currently living in the facility refused to enter their electronically controlled bedroom units and engaged staffers in some type of altercation.

The confrontation soon escalated into a “riot situation” according to Tasha Williams, a spokesperson with  the detention facility’s police union is concerned that there may be more incidents like this in the future.

A shift supervisor who responded to the disturbance was assaulted, his jaw fractured and an electronic master key stolen by one or more of the juveniles according to sources. “We expect there will be criminal charges against some of them” added Williams.

When response units from the Metropolitan Police Department and other local agencies responded to the incident, some of the detainees were found wandering through the facility at will while others were on the roof, “officers needed to remove some of the children from the roof” Williams said. none of the juveniles escaped the Center.

The $44 million dollar facility opened in May of 2009, and was meant to provide a more humane way of incarcerating and rehabilitating the District’s youthful offenders.

However union officials say the facility meant to house 60 youngsters between the ages of 15-20 currently holds 70 and staffers are unable to safely supervise their charges, especially because of the more open nature of the structure’s design.  “It’s been open season on staffers, they are being continually assaulted by the and this needs to come to a stop” concluded williams. “The juveniles need to be taught a lesson, they continually assault our officers , that’s been the status quo”

DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier along with other high ranking police officials were on the scene but were unavailable for interviews.

Gunmen used a heavy truck to block a highway in the Western state of Michoacan and opened fire on a federal police convoy.

“The information we have is that there are 10 dead and several wounded,” Michoacan state Public Security Minister Minerva Bautista told a local radio station.

The federal government confirmed the police deaths and said an unknown number of the assailants were killed.

Michoacan, the home state of President Felipe Calderon, has emerged as a key battleground as the cult-like La Familia cartel fights other gangs and security forces for control of the mountainous state.

At least 23,000 people, mainly traffickers and police, have been killed in drug violence in Mexico since Calderon launched his army-led and U.S.-backed crackdown on traffickers after taking office in December 2006.

Separately, in the Pacific state of Sinaloa, 28 prisoners were killed and three prison guards were injured in a gun battle between rival gangs inside a jail, the daily Universal reported.

Sinaloa is the home turf of Mexico’s most wanted drug lord, Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman.

The majority of the prisoners killed were in jail for murder or drug trafficking, Josefina Garcia the head of state police told a radio station.

“A group of prisoners broke through a series of doors using a sledgehammer to destroy the locks and video cameras,” Garcia said.

Police spokesman Martin Gastelum told Reuters the prisoners died from gunshot wounds in the worst riot the jail has seen.

The escalating violence in Mexico frightens away tourists and worries the United States, which is giving millions of dollars in anti-drug aid, equipment and training to the Mexican army and police.

Some investors have frozen funding for factories in cities on the U.S. border, especially in Ciudad Juarez, the most deadly place in the drug war and just across from El Paso, Texas.

Last Friday was the most violent day yet of Calderon’s presidency with 70 drug-related killings, including the murders of 19 addicts at a rehabilitation clinic in the northern city of Chihuahua, local media reported.

A riot at Calipatria State Prison Saturday afternoon leaves 35 inmates injured.

Mostly, it was bumps and bruises … but two were taken to pioneer memorial hospital with more serious injuries.

Lt. Shawn Mclinn with Calipatria Sate Prison described the riot as “everything, fighting, stabbing, kicking … that’s fighting.”

He said “the two inmates had injures consistent with stab wounds, possibly even sliced.”

It took two warning shots from corrections officers to break up the fight.

While the investigation moves forward, the prison is under a modified program.

Mclinn says inmates “shower and outside of that they stay in their cell.”

The program applies to all African American inmates … That’s 60 percent of the prison population. It does not include inmates of any other race.

Lt. Mclinn says its because everyone involved in the riot was African American. He added “we have to take into consideration all general population inmates could be involved.”

Prison officials are looking into whether the uprising was gang related, but have not determined this conclusion so far.

That same day, a horrifying discovery came to light. An inmates body was found.

Samuel Johnson’s was found in the same area the riot occured. Johnson was serving a 37 year sentence for second degree murder.

Prison officials believe he died of natural causes, but aren’t ruling anything out, including the riot.

Johnson’s autopsy is expected to be later this week.

A dozen out-of-control prisoners left a Nova Scotia jail with smashed windows, broken sprinklers and damaged recreation equipment.

Two sections of the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility remained locked down Wednesday, after a stabbing and riot at the jail the night before.

Corrections officials said an inmate was stabbed at about 9 p.m. Tuesday, prompting guards to lock down the entire jail. But some prisoners in another area refused to leave a day room and return to their cells.

Guards donned riot gear when 17 inmates — some wearing masks — started breaking sprinklers, windows and equipment, and covered security cameras.

Police were called in to provide backup but stayed outside the jail. Officers left before midnight without arresting anyone.

“Staff were able to get that under control by midnight,” said Sherri Aikenhead, spokeswoman for the Department of Justice.

David Horner, head of corrections for the department, said the inmate who was stabbed was released from hospital within hours.

Aikenhead said no correctional workers were hurt.

She said there were no fires, unlike a riot in April 2009 when 59 inmates caused extensive damage to the jail.

“We are relieved about that,” she said.

Cleanup and repairs were underway at the jail on Wednesday, as corrections staff looked for the makeshift knife that was used in the stabbing.

Opened in 2001, the jail is designed to hold 225 male and 48 female inmates in single cells. However, prisoners are often placed two to a cell because of overcrowding.

Headingley Correctional Centre was back under full control early Saturday, after 25 inmates ended a disturbance without causing injuries or substantial damage to the prison.

Greg Skelly, superintendent at the provincial men’s jail just west of Winnipeg, confirmed that the uprising ended shortly after midnight when the inmates returned to their cells from a common area of one section of the facility. He said no force was needed or used to put an end to the incident.

Unlike riots or major disruptions that have occasionally occurred at Headingley, such as an incident among inmates last month that caused about $26,000 in damage, this latest confrontation was what Skelly described as minor.

“I’m not calling it a riot. I’m calling it 25 guys who refused to lock up in their cells,” he told the Winnipeg Sun.

“This was unusual. I hesitate to call it a disturbance. There were no threats to staff, no injuries to staff or inmates and no damage.”

There was, said Skelly, “really nothing broken, except for bed sheets and that sort of thing.”

The inmates had barricaded themselves into an area of the cell block at about 2:30 p.m. Friday, when they refused to abide by a lockdown. Though crisis negotiators moved in to try to quell the disturbance and a prison emergency response team stood by, officials said the remainder of the jail — while locked down — was not directly affected by the incident.

Skelly refused to speculate publicly on the cause of the dispute, saying that he and other prison officials have yet to fully investigate it.

“It would be premature to specify what happened,” he said, also without giving details on what caused the confrontation to last about 10 hours.

Negotiators were in place about an hour after the disruption began, he said.

“It took us a fair amount of time to get some compliance and co-operation. We finally achieved that,” Skelly said.

“This was a long time. It took much longer than these things tend to. We had the whole place locked down, which means that our staff members had to keep a lid on the rest of the correctional centre. And they did an outstanding job.”

Overcrowding

The unit where the disturbance occurred remained under a lockdown several hours after the incident.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said by e-mail that it’s “too early to say what further charges” any inmates might face because of the incident.

The disruption came a couple of days after about 200 corrections officers, sheriff’s officers and probation officers rallied at the Manitoba legislature to demand that the provincial government construct a prison to hold at least 750 inmates. The corrections officers charged that prisons across Manitoba are severely overcrowded, causing danger and stress for themselves and inmates.

The Headingley facility currently has about 745 inmates.

CARACAS – At least six inmates died and another seven were wounded in a shooting incident at the Venezuela General Penitentiary, 143 kilometers (89 miles) south of Caracas, local media said Saturday.

According to the media, the incident took place Friday, but neither the Interior Ministry nor the Attorney General’s Office made any comment on it until Saturday.

Inmates at the penitentiary phoned several media outlets to report the shootout that was occurring and in which six people died, though some sources say there were seven.

Families of the inmates confirmed the incident and blamed the National Guard for what happened.

According to their statements, the shots followed the tear gas and buckshot used to dislodge members of the prisoners’ families who refused to leave the penitentiary in protest against the delay in bringing trials to court that were already long overdue.

According to those accounts, the shooting began at 1:00 p.m. local time Friday and lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes.

The penitentiary is located in the city of San Juan de los Morros, capital of the central state of Guarico.

PESHAWAR: A clash between police and under-trial prisoners on Thursday morning left six persons, including three policemen, injured in the Peshawar Central Prison.

Some prisoners held a police official, Qurban Ali, hostage in a barrack and severely beat him up after he allegedly took a copy of the Holy Quran from them during a search operation last night.

A police source, asking not to be named, told Dawn that when the prisoners declined to free the official, police used batons and teargas, and fired in the air to disperse them.

The protesting prisoners threw stones and pieces of bricks at police, forcing them to leave the barracks. They also chanted slogans against police.

The clash also led to suspension of traffic on the Sher Shah Suri Road for one hour as heavy contingents of police moved to the area, cordoning off the whole area and the Jail Road to thwart any possible attack from militants.

The source said the main cause of the clash was permission of using cellular phones to prisoners.

He said the number of hardcore militants was fast increasing in the jail and most of them were using mobile phones freely.

He said the injured people were taken to the jail hospital for first aid.

Due to the clashes, visitors were not allowed to meet their relatives in the prison.

IGP (prisons) Tanveerul Haq Sipra told reporters on the jail premises that no prisoner had received injuries, adding the clash occurred due to mismanagement during a search operation.

He said authorities concerned had conducted searched the prisoners last night, which the prisoners took as insult and when the policeman entered the barrack in the morning they attacked him.

He said militants were also being kept in the prison and they also reacted in the meanwhile. However, he also termed the jail authorities’ response and use of teargas and batons overreaction and mismanagement.

He said the militants were trying to intimidate the jail staff, adding the prison was overcrowded. He, however, said the situation was under control. The search in the jail, he said, would continue, adding those creating law and order situation would be dealt with sternly.

Mr Sipra said an FIR had been registered against 26 prisoners and an inquiry would be conducted into the matter.

San Diego County sheriff’s deputies on Thursday used stun guns to break up a brawl between 35 African American and Latino inmates at the George Bailey Detention Facility, the Sheriff’s Department said.

Three inmates were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. No deputies were hurt.

Deputies are investigating the brawl. Instigators may be transferred to another jail, officials said.

The Otay Mesa facility houses 1,450 inmates, most of them awaiting trial. The brawl broke out in an area where inmates with violent histories or charges are housed.

During the fighting, white inmates retreated to their cells, officials said.

LIMA – Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman, who is serving a life sentence for terrorism, is on a hunger strike to pressure the Peruvian government to allow him to wed girlfriend Elena Yparraguirre, who is also imprisoned, and protest prison conditions, the guerrilla leaders’ attorney said.

Guzman was examined by a doctor on Tuesday and was visited by a prosecutor who officially took his complaint, attorney Alfredo Crespo told Efe.

The guerrilla leader gave a letter to the prison warden explaining the reasons for the hunger strike, while Yparraguirre did the same at the Chorrillos women’s prison, where she is also on a hunger strike, Crespo said.

“They have not received or ingested any foods, just liquids. They were forced to take this extreme action because of the refusal by the state’s authorities to provide facilities for them to get married,” the attorney said.

Crespo said he also met with the National Penitentiary Institute director, who provided a copy of the “imprisonment document,” but Guzman refused to accept the document because it was not the original.

The document in question is a certificate stating that Guzman is imprisoned, opening the way for the inmate to obtain an identity card.

Obtaining the document would allow Guzman to meet with a doctor, a notary and a Civil Registry official, all the steps needed to get married, Crespo said.

The original certificate alone will not be enough, the attorney said.

Guzman and Yparraguirre, who is serving a life sentence, are also demanding that they be allowed to meet with relatives, journalists and researchers, an end to “harassment” of their attorneys and permission to receive books “without censorship,” Crespo said.

The attorney said he did not know whether his clients were willing to take the hunger strike “to its final consequences.”

Crespo said last week that he interpreted the government’s refusal to grant the 75-year-old Guzman permission to marry as a move to prevent him from having heirs who could eventually turn his grave into a monument or cult site.

Guzman and Yparraguirre, who were separated in 2006, requested permission to marry last October but have faced numerous obstacles, the attorney said.

The two former guerrillas have renounced the armed struggle and said several times that “the people’s war ended in Peru.”

Guzman, moreover, has called the remaining members of the Shining Path “mercenaries.”

The so-called “remnants” of the Shining Path did not comply with Guzman’s order more than a decade ago to end the armed struggle.

Guzman, for his part, does not recognize the remaining fighters as Shining Path members.

Imprisoned Shining Path members have been calling for a general amnesty for themselves and soldiers convicted of human rights violations, as well as for jailed former President Alberto Fujimori.

The former guerrillas have weighed the possibility of forming an alliance with some extreme left parties and running in Peru’s next general elections.

The Maoist-inspired group launched its uprising on May 17, 1980, with an attack on Chuschi, a small town in Ayacucho province.

A truth commission appointed by former President Alejandro Toledo blamed the Shining Path for most of the nearly 70,000 deaths the panel ascribed to politically motivated violence during the two decades following the group’s 1980 uprising.

The guerrilla group also caused an estimated $25 billion in economic losses, according to commission estimates.

Guzman, known to his fanatic followers as “President Gonzalo,” was captured with his top lieutenants on Sept. 12, 1992, an event that marked the “defeat” of the insurgency.

Guzman, who was a professor of philosophy at San Cristobal University before initiating his armed struggle in the Andean city of Ayacucho, once predicted that 1 million Peruvians would probably have to die in the ushering-in of the new state envisioned by Shining Path.

The group became notorious for some of its innovations, such as blowing apart with dynamite the bodies of community service workers its members killed, or hanging stray canines from lampposts as warnings to “capitalist dogs.” EFE

BUENOS AIRES – At least 1,000 inmates at five different jails in Buenos Aires province are on a hunger strike demanding better prison conditions and protesting restrictions on the granting of parole, Argentine media said Tuesday.

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Qaraqe said the Israeli Prison Service has applied punitive measures to 36 Palestinian female prisoners in the Ad-Damun prison in response to a general hunger strike.

Qaraqe said the IPS has reduced the detainees’ recess to one her per day, prohibited them from sending letters to their family, and further enforced restricted access to the cantina, where prisoners can buy stationary and other goods, because they have participated in a hunger strike which began on 7 April.

Moreover, the minister said the prison administration has transferred a number of prisoners from the Nafha prison to Ber Sheva prison in response to the hunger strike.

Detainees said they would escalate their protest if the IPS did not respond to their demands, which began in April against humiliating treatment of relatives visiting detainees and banning Gaza prisons from family visitation rights for over four years, coinciding with the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Palestinian operatives in Gaza.

Prisoners across Israeli jails have boycotted family visits throughout April, and many have participated in the hunger strike. Further hunger strikes are expected to commence on 17 and 27 April.