— I feel terrific. Samsara's the same, either place. I was thinking in prison that when I got home, all my afflictions would disappear and life would be wonderful. But there are the same problems. I hate to sound disappointing, but it's the same: Same mind, different place, that's all. —
— Therefore being in prison is a great, extremely positive, great advantage and joy. You can see that you have an incredible opportunity: to have happiness now, a happy death, happy future lives, happy liberation from samsara and happy great liberation, full enlightenment. —
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
World Watch
Plan for mixed-sex prisons to offer criminals home comfort
By Louise Hosie, Scotsman.com, July 18, 2008
PLANS for mixed-sex jails are being considered by the Scottish Prison Service in a bid to allow offenders to serve their sentences closer to home.
Prison bosses believe "community-facing" jails would help maintain better links with families, other services such as GPs and give a better chance of curbing reoffending on release.
Male and female inmates would be housed together and nearer their homes as part of the proposals.
Under the proposals, new purpose-built centres would hold remand and convicted prisoners of both sexes instead of having specialist prisons for women, sex offenders or young people.
Click here to read the full article.
- 2008
- NOVEMBER
- US: WSU students hear from death row innocent
- US: Aussie mathematician attempts to save death row inmate
- US: Criminals, advocates target Texas parole restrictions as unfair to low-level offenders
- US: Utah's high court issues death-penalty warning
- US: Schwarzenegger Risks Contempt On Prison Reform
- US: Exonerated inmates ask Texas to halt executions
- US: To Save Money, State to Scale Back Drug Abuse Programs for Ex-Convicts
- US: Can a troubled Colorado prison change the way inmates think?
- US: Green Prisons Farm, Recycle to Save Energy, Money
- US: Prisoners give abandoned dogs a 2nd chance
- OCTOBER
- US: Coalition helps former prisoners re-enter society
- US: Ballots behind bars: Inmates look to express themselves
- US: LA man cleared of murder after decade in prison
- Australia: NSW prison officers walk off the job
- Japan executes 2 convicted murderers
- US: State ready to defy judge on prison hospitals
- US: Doubts Arise About 1972 Angola Prison Murder
- US: More felons learning -- to their surprise -- that they can vote
- Nigerian death row prisoners forced to clean gallows, says Amnesty
- Nigerian Death Row Prisoners Denied Appeal, Despite Waiting 24 Years For One
- US: Wrongly Accused Man Set Free After Spending 24 Years In Prison!
- Where to buy prison art in the U.S. and abroad
- US: Getting Ronnie right
- US: Community gets together to help prisoners
- US: Daddy's on DVD: Indiana prisoners connect with their children through reading program
- US: White released after 18 years
- Art and peace in Mexican prison
- UK: Prison restaurant offers gourmet meals cooked by convicts
- US: The homecoming of prisoner 908B0643
- US: Inmate Leaves Prison After DNA Evidence Led To Dropping of Charges
- US: Bard's genius slips through prison bars
- Judge sets hearing on funding for California prison medical care
- Torture rampant in Jordan's prisons, report says
- Judge blames California officials for lack of prison health funds
- UK: Music boosts prisoners' learning
- US: McCloskey labors to exonerate innocent prisoners
- Australia: Inside stories for prisoners' children
- SEPTEMBER
- Mexican prison riot toll rises
- UK: Tens of thousands of prisoners to be freed early to ease prison overcrowding
- MEXICO: Police quell riot at Tijuana prison
- Longest-serving US death row prisoner dies despite pleas from British lawyers
- MEXICO: More violence breaks out at La Mesa prison
- MEXICO: 3 dead in riot at Tijuana prison
- US: Attorneys for Death Row Prisoner Troy Davis to Make Final Plea Before Georgia Parole Board
- Prisoners riot in Mexican border city of Tijuana
- New Zealand: Death shows prison system 'disgraceful'
- US: States Restore Voting Rights for Ex-Convicts
- US: From prison to Ivy League law school
- Australia: 'Human rights' prison has no bars
- US: ACLU launches campaign to get former prisoners to register to vote
- US: Sister of Death Row Prisoner: "There's No Gun, No DNA, No Case, But These People Say It's Okay to Kill Him"
- US: Prison guards threaten Schwarzenegger with recall
- Inmates tell of sexual abuse and beatings in Iraq's overcrowded juvenile prison system
- US: On Top of Jail Time, Prisoners Now Face Fees and Surcharges
- US: Alton Logan cleared after 26 years in prison
- US: As Texas Execution Nears, Hearing Is Set on a Claim That Judge and Prosecutor Had Affair
- US: Freed inmate hopes to help others who are innocent
- Ten dead in Venezuela prison revolt
- AUGUST
- US: Calif. prisons prepare for gay weddings
- US: Family ties - For mothers in prison, children can be key to rehabilitation, with parenting classes and visits paving way to self-improvement
- UK: Prison reformers condemn new 'Titan' jails as a 'gigantic mistake'
- UK: Prisons designed for 6,600 inmates now hold 8,013 – 'and it won't stop here'
- US: An Estimated 809,800 Inmates in the Nation's Prisons Were Parents to 1,706,600 Minor Children at Midyear 2007
- UK: Titan jails 'could be dangerous'
- US: Boy, 13, sentenced to 15 years in youth prison
- US: Sheriff goes to jail for an education
- US: Looking out for prisoners’ health
- US: Report advises how to prevent rapes in prison
- US: California Supreme Court ruling makes it easier for prisoners to win parole
- Pigeon in custody for smuggling drugs to Bosnian prisoners
- 9 inmates die trying to escape Cameroon prison
- Australia: Prisoners' health, Indigenous incarceration under scrutiny
- South Africa: Mthatha’s ‘hell hole’ to release prisoners
- Cameroon fire kills nine prisoners
- Australia: NSW prison overtime system faces reform
- US: Prosecutors get reports on prison brutality claims
- Australia: Prison officers put strike plans on hold
- US: Putting Prisoners To Work
- Australia: State plan to privatise prisons
- US: Ex-prisoner tries his hand at filmmaking
- US: Letters from federal prisoners going electronic
- US: Texas easing restrictions on regular phone access for prison inmates
- US: Texas Planning to Execute Another Prisoner for a Murder He Didn't Commit
- Pakistan: Govt releases 34 Indian juvenile prisoners
- US: Judge orders Schwarzenegger to testify on prisons
- US: Light from Inside: Prisoners' artwork on display
- US: First Texas prison pay phone system approved
- US: Prison workers protest governor
- US: $8 Billion Demand in California Prison Case
- Pakistan to release 35 Indian prisoners on Independence Day
- US: Texas executes triple murderer
- US: Inmate Firefighters Are on Front Lines in California
- US: Ill and in Pain, Detainee Dies in U.S. Hands
- US: Inmates Angry After Nevada Bans Typewriters in Jail
- US: OPINION: Mental health oversight still needed in state prison system
- US: Program aids children of prison inmates
- US: Judge frees convicted Ohio rapist after DNA test
- Nigeria: Senate Decries Prison Congestion
- US: David Pope, exonerated in Dallas County, still struggles to find his place
- US: Dallas County ex-parolees found steps to success after exonerations
- UK: Pregnant Prisoner 'Shackled 24/7'
- US: Judge will decide fate of prison conditions lawsuit first filed in early 1980s
- UK: Prison populations "out of control"
- JAPAN: Govt maps out program to help aged ex-prisoners
- UK: The 20 most overcrowded jails
- US: California Prisons Start Desegregating Inmates
- US: Texas Executes Mexican Despite Objections
- US: Judge tosses sex crime convictions of DNA exonoree
- India: Haryana police chained woman prisoner in Ambala civil hospital
- UK: Prison 'too harsh’ on inmates, says report
- US: No talking out of turn or horseplay in Wash prison
- UK: Prisoners to get personal telephones in £10.5m block
- Afghan mothers keep their kids with them in prison
- US: Inmate on death row now gets life in prison
- India: Ailing prisoners dumped to die at RIMS
- US: Judge: Reforms too slow in Calif.'s youth prisons
- US: Nebraska attorneys say DNA exonerates prisoners
- Rats, Disease Plague Prisoners in France's Overcrowded Jails
- US: Texas ranks first in juvenile prison sexual abuse
- South Africa: Ex-convict’s Mthatha Prison ‘nightmare’
- JULY
- US: Texas executes convicted murderer
- US: Program helps Arizona prisoners get ready for real life
- US: California Unlawfully Tranfers its Prisoners to Other States
- Bahrain's King Pardons 225 Prisoners
- US: Inmates To Get Free Condoms In Solano County
- Female inmates to benefit from Tunisian prison reform legislation
- US: Prisoner released from death row, but not exonerated
- US: Louisiana Police Officer Tasers Prisoner, Grand Jury Considering Murder Charge
- US: Ohio prisons see success with rehabilitation focus
- Iran: The mullahs' regime hanged 29 prisoners in Evin prison to suppress public protests
- US: Inmates and integration
- US: Prisoners find freedom in work
- US: Spared 7 weeks ago, condemned Texas prisoner heading back to death house
- US: What Do Prisoners Make for Victoria's Secret?
- UK: Prisoners sleeping in cell toilets
- Congo prisoners 'starve to death'
- UK: Increase in prison knife attacks
- US: Behind the Scenes: Inside San Quentin's Prison University Project
- US: WA prisoners return from out of state
- US: Dallas County DNA exonerations come under microscope
- US: Prisoners use their own time, money to cultivate garden
- US: Mount Pleasant prisoners raise cash for charity
- VIDEO: Tour of Afghan cave paintings
- US: Federal report finds poor conditions at Cook County Jail
- Scotland: Plan for mixed-sex prisons to offer criminals home comfort
- US: MOVIE REVIEW: Felon
- Argentina: VIDEO: Evangelical prison experiment
- US: Ada mental health court offers an alternative to prison
- As California looks to expand death row, a flap over where to build it
- Canada: Give free needles to prisoners, health experts urge
- US: Youthful offenders restoring luster to diners of old
- Ireland: Prison officers say overcrowding is leading to tensions in prisons
- Prison Games: California can't afford to play them anymore
- Venezuala: Orchestral prisoners find freedom behind bars of music
- US: Get-tough policies cause more crime, deny inmates a future
- US: Budget cuts = less desirable menu for prisoners
- L.A. County's female inmates waited months for medical treatment, report says
- US: RADIO: Life After Prison
- US: Prison Medical Beds to Cost $7 Billion
- US: Tainted food likely behind illness of 543 Galveston inmates
- US: Prison Work Program May Have Put Hundreds of Prisoners and Workers at Risk
- US: Purdy prison inmates become Braille translators
- Syrian prison riot shrouded in silence
- US: New Prison Promises 500 Jobs
- UK: Older prisoners 'doubly punished'
- US: Female inmates doing time on Calif. fire lines
- New Zealand: Prisoners on the Housing NZ chain gang
- US: Prisons enlist dogs to keep out phones
- Riot at Syrian prison threatens to escalate
- US: Settlement with Michigan's Prison system
- Lawsuit alleges improper care of hepatitis C outbreak in California prisons
- UK: Prison food 'should be enjoyable'
- UK: Jail drugs crackdown targets prison officers
- Syria: Confusion clouds fate of prisoners in jail riot
- A ray of hope for Indian prisoners in Sri Lanka
- US: In prison world, officer a mentor, an enforcer
- UK: Prison Policy Was 'Ill Considered'
- Australia: Tackling the cause, not result, of crime
- US: San Quentin's Gym Becomes One Massive Cell
- Project aids female prisoners in Africa
- UK: Warning over jail unrest as prisoners face menu cutbacks
- Uganda: 3 inmates suffocate to death in Kiruhura prison
- Brazil prisoner's pigeon drug mules
- Police Kill 9 Inmates During Prison Riot in Syria
- China: Buddha’s Caves
- Aging inmates add to prison strain in California
- Pakistan: 7,000 death row prisoners are reprieved
- UK: Prison tea bar needs volunteers
- Texas man freed by DNA after 15 years in prison
- China rewards prisoners for quake-relief work
- US: Taste-Testing Nutraloaf: the prison food that just might be unconstitutionally bad
- US: Justice Dept. Admits Error in Not Briefing Court
- US: In Court Ruling on Executions, a Factual Flaw
- Segregation of prisoners ends in California
- US: Iowa prisons house fewer inmates
- US: Four state prison fights being investigated by DOC officials
- Canada: Prison gang mayhem at Max
- Scotland 'must cut prison population by a third to stop reoffending'
- US: N.Y. Man Exonerated After 17 Yrs. in Prison
- UK: Call to give councils control over youth jails
- Cameroon prison guards kill 16 escaping inmates
- UK: Judges scorn American-style sentencing to control prison overcrowding
- Egypt prison guards beat inmates to end hunger strike: lawyer
- US: Driver Dozes; 2 Inmates Die
- US: Help for suicidal prisoners
- Australia: Female prisoners hit record high
- Pakistan: Peshawar lock-ups: Lack of basic facilities adds to prisoners’ miseries
- US: Virginia executes 100th prisoner
- US: Lawsuits over California prison crowding head to trial
- US: Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape
- India: Tihar prisoners have a 4-yr-old reason to smile
- Jamaican prisoners in Panama appeal for government aid
- Canada: Teen might still be alive if not for series of failures: prison investigator
- UK: BT and Siemens slammed over prisoner call rates
- Indian prisoner dies in Pak jail; Burney demands probe
- Pakistan decision on prisoners sends wave of relief in Punjab
- Pakistan prime minister urges president to commute death sentences in Bhutto tribute
- US: Ronald Taylor says pardon brings new meaning to life
- US: Ex-Texas inmate exonerated in rape case pardoned
- US: EDITORIAL A Better System for Young Offenders
- US: Judge Orders Ohio to Alter Its Method of Execution
- US: EDITORIAL Mr. Lesniak Changes His Mind
- Beijing Suspends Licenses of 2 Lawyers Who Offered to Defend Tibetans in Court
- JUNE
- Myanmar: Monks Succeed in Cyclone Relief as Junta Falters
- US: EDITORIAL Children in Adult Jails
- China Earthquake Pushes Tibet to Sidelines
- US: New Tack on Straying Parolees Offers a Hand Instead of Cuffs
- US Planning Big New Prison in Afghanistan
- US: EDITORIAL Racial Inequity and Drug Arrests
- US: VIDEO The Death of Boubacar Bah
- US: EDITORIAL The Death Penalty Returns
- US: Executions Resume, as Do Questions of Fairness
- US: Heard Is Chasing Lost Time After Hard Time
- US: After Hiatus, States Set Wave of Executions
- First Tibetan Death in Unrest Reported by China
- China Sends 30 to Prison in Tibet Riots
- China Says It Is Ready to Meet Dalai Lama Envoys
- US: Cruel and Unusual History
- US: Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations’
- US: Supreme Court Allows Lethal Injection for Execution
- Dalai Lama Says His Aides Are Talking to China
- US: Senate Clears Prisoner Bill
- Ethnic Unrest Continues in China
- Chinese Nationalism Fuels Tibet Crackdown
- US: Felons' Voting Requests Pile Up
- US: BOOK EXCERPT A Different Kind of Slavery
- US: Executives Teach Inmates How to Be Employees
- US: EDITORIAL Prison Nation
- US: Aversion to Death Penalty, but No Lack of Cases
- US: In Alabama, a Fight to Regain Voting Rights Some Felons Never Lost
- US: Imprisons One in 100 Adults, Report Finds
- UK: Calling ex-convicts - sing if you've done bird
- Thousands of New Prisoners Overwhelm Iraqi System
- US: The Heart Has Its Reasons
- US: Electrocution Is Banned in Last State to Rely on It
- US: Death in Georgia
- UK: Eat it up and be a good boy
- US: Prison Makes Way for Future, but Preserves Past
- China to Switch to Lethal Injections
- US: to Speed Deportation of Criminals in Jail
- US: Justices Chilly to Bid to Alter Death Penalty
- US: States Hesitate to Lead Change on Executions
- Morrocco: Jihadists in Jails Win Leverage Over Their Keepers
- US: Infection Hits a California Prison Hard
- US: At 60% of Total, Texas is Bucking Execution Trend
- Brazil: Rape of Girl, 15, Exposes Abuses in Brazil Prison System
- US: Vindicated by DNA, but a Lost Man on the Outside
- US: Trying to Break Cycle of Prison at Street Level
- US: California a leader in number of youths in prison for life
- US: Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate
- Myanmar: ‘They come at three in the morning’: A dawn meeting with fugitive monks in a safe house in Burma
- China: The terrible secrets of Beijing's 'black jails'
- US: Panel may cut thousands of prison terms
- US: Texas executions reap heavy toll on prison staff
- South Africa: Report Slates Prison Conditions
- US: Bard Behind Bars
- UK:Prison homework club for children
- Argentine prison fire kills 30
- As Japan Ages, Prisons Adapt to Going Gray
- US: Justices Stay Execution, a Signal to Lower Courts
- US: Supreme Court Blocks Lethal Injection Execution
- Norway: Inmates Saved Prison
- US: Lifers as Teenagers, Now Seeking Second Chance
- US: Troubles Mount Within Texas Youth Detention Agency
- US: Faith-based prison programs multiply
- Afghanistan executes 15 prisoners at Kabul prison
- US: Texas Ruling Signals Indefinite Halt to Executions
- US: Exoneration Using DNA Brings Change in Legal System
- US: Texas Planning New Execution Despite Ruling
- Australia: Kids go to playgroup as mums do jail time
- US: Deadly medical lapses in prison
- US: A Prisoner with a Paintbrush, A Legacy at Risk
- UK: An innovative programme at a pioneering prison helps long-stayers to write - and perform - their own poems
- August 23, 1927 New York Times: Sacco and Vanzetti Put to Death Early This Morning
- Iraq: Iraqi Sunni pledges prison improvements
- Australia: 'Super prison' planned for Perth
- West Bank and Gaza: Gaza prison offers unique incentives
- US: Prison program 'model for all of the states to follow'
- Myanmar: Art smuggled out of prison paints the silence of Myanmar
- US: 28 charged in April Riot at Indiana prison
- Zimbabwe: Former prison chaplain remembered
- US: Seven guards fired for using excessive force at prison
- US: Prison warning issued
- US: Prison pushes inmate education