Tag: Prison

Three Turkish prisoners die of coronavirus

ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) — Three Turkish prisoners have died from the coronavirus, Turkey’s justice minister said Monday as he announced the first cases of convicts diagnosed with the disease. A total of 17 convicts in five open prisons have contracted the virus, Abdulhamit Gul told reporters in Ankara. “Three of them, unfortunately, died during their treatment in hospital,” he said. Some convicts are sent to open prisons towards the end of their sentences to serve […]

First prisoner dies of virus in Italy – watchdog group

ROME, Italy (AFP) — A first prisoner in Italy has died of coronavirus, a prison watchdog group said on Thursday, calling for more early releases of inmates from the country’s overcrowded system. Two prison guards have died of the virus, and 19 inmates out of a total inmate population of 58,000 have tested positive, according to Italy’s justice ministry. “The first prisoner death from COVID-19 confirms all our worries about the tragic consequences of contagion […]

Indonesia frees 18,000 inmates from bursting jails over virus fears

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia has released some 18,000 inmates in a desperate bid to stop coronavirus from rampaging through its notoriously overcrowded prison system, authorities said Thursday. The mass release comes days after the Southeast Asian nation said it would free more than 30,000 inmates to take pressure off prisons and jails beset by unsanitary conditions and long at risk of infectious diseases. The UN has called on countries to release vulnerable inmates, with […]

California to release 3,500 non-violent prison inmates

  LOS ANGELES, United State (AFP) — The prison system in the largest US state of California plans to release about 3,500 non-violent inmates early to help mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 illness, officials said Tuesday. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said the first group of inmates released will be those with less then 30 days to serve, followed by those with fewer than 60 days of their sentences left. Other […]

Joint Senate panel probing BuCor problems recommends prison for convicts of heinous crimes on island or in military facility

(Eagle News)–The joint Senate panel probing the problems in the Bureau of Corrections has recommended the establishment of a separate jail facility for convicts of heinous crimes. The Senate  committees on justice and human rights, public order and dangerous drugs and finance made the recommendation through Senate Bill No. 1055, which was based on the bills separately filed by Senate President Tito Sotto and Senators Richard Gordon and Juan Miguel Zubiri. Sotto’s Senate Bill No. […]

Inmates behind Brazil deadly prison riot transferred

by Allison JACKSON ALTAMIRA, Brazil (AFP) — Forty-six inmates involved in one of Brazil’s deadliest prison riots were being transferred to other jails on Tuesday, an official said. At least 57 people were killed Monday when fighting broke out between rival drug gang factions in the Altamira Regional Recovery Center in the northern state of Para. Sixteen were decapitated in the hours-long battle, but most died in a fire that engulfed part of the overcrowded […]

At least 57 dead in Brazil prison riot

by Allison JACKSON RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — At least 57 inmates were killed during a prison riot in northern Brazil on Monday as rival gang factions fought each other, an official said. Sixteen of the dead were decapitated in the second major eruption of violence to rock the country’s severely overpopulated and deadly prison system in as many months. Fighting broke out in the Altamira Regional Recovery Center at around 7:00 am (1000 […]

El Chapo expected to get life sentence from US judge

by Laura BONILLA CAL NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — After a dramatic decades-long run as one of the world’s most notorious druglords, there is little suspense about what will happen in a New York courtroom on Wednesday: Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is expected to be sentenced to life in prison. The hearing is more or less a formality: Guzman, the 62-year-old former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, was convicted in February of crimes spanning […]

Tajikistan probes poisoning deaths of 14 prisoners

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AFP) — Tajikistan has opened a criminal investigation after 14 prisoners were fatally poisoned while they were being transported between jails, the justice ministry said Monday, suggesting that another inmate may have given them contaminated bread. The incident happened on Sunday as more than a hundred prisoners, including eight women, were being transferred in a convoy from prisons in the north of the Central Asian country to jails in the south. The justice […]

Ten killed in Paraguay prison riot: interior ministry

ASUNCION, Paraguay(AFP) —  A riot at a prison in Paraguay left 10 inmates dead and 10 wounded, the interior ministry said Sunday. Interior minister Juan Villamayor said that there was a “confrontation” between “two feared criminal organizations” at the prison in San Pedro de Ycuamandiyu, some 400 kilometers (248 miles) northeast of the capital. “All of the dead belong to the narco groups,” Villamayor said. One of the organizations involved is originally from the Brazilian […]

Clashes between prisoners in Brazil jail leave 15 dead: official

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Clashes between inmates killed 15 people at a jail in Amazonas state in northern Brazil on Sunday, the regional prison authority said. The clashes broke out around 11:00 am (1500 GMT) during visiting hours at the facility, located some 28 kilometers (17 miles) from the state capital Manaus, the prison authority said. © Agence France-Presse

Thousands rally in Brazil to protest Lula’s first year in prison

CURITIBA, Brazil (AFP) — Several thousand supporters of former Brazilian president Lula Inacio da Silva rallied on Sunday outside the prison where he has now been held for a year, as they demanded his release and chanted slogans against current leader Jair Bolsonaro. In a letter read by Workers’ Party president Gleisi Hoffmann, Lula, who is 73, insisted that his conviction on corruption charges was “unjust,” designed expressly to prevent him from returning to the […]