The New York Post reports Bernie Madoff's niece Shana, a compliance officer at his infamous firm, "signed a lot of documents" during her tenure. The possible convicté has been asking around the streets of Manhattan's downtown as to what, exactly, is prison like. Good question! She's summoned Larry Levine, founder of Wall Street Prison Consultants and former inmate #587,1635, to take his fedtime Read more

A panel of federal judges has backed a one-third reduction in California's state prison population. As many as 57,000 people may be released because overcrowding violates their right to adequate healthcare, which has resulted in the unnecessary death of one inmate per week. — Los Angeles Times Today Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will unveil the Obama administration's new plan to bail Read more

Gas prices and strict state budgets have prompted at least 11 states — Connecticut, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota and Tennessee — to start regularly using teleconferences between judges and inmates. The move is seen as a way to both improve public safety and save cash. The AP reports that some inmates say they'd Read more

Drug diversion courts around the country offer offenders a chance for redemption, rather than recidivism. After acknowledging guilt for crimes like low-level dealing or stealing to support addictions, addicts can volunteer for nine to 18 months of urine testing, group therapy, mandatory sobriety meetings, intensely supervised by a judge. Those that don't make it through, can end up in jail. But Read more

Yesterday peaceful demonstrators protested the US extradition of Gary McKinnon (aka Solo), a Brit accused of hacking military and NASA computers. McKinnon, who lost his appeal to stay in the UK, could spend the rest of his life in an American prison if convicted. The US alleges that unemployed computer systems administrator McKinnon completed the biggest military computer hack ever. McKinnon Read more

Despite overcrowding in US prisons, an Illinois jail has booked one man who hasn't committed a single crime — the sheriff. The creative experiment sounds dangerous to me, but Sheriff Mark Curran, who will be behind bars until Aug. 27, thinks spending time in another man's jumpsuit is the best way to understand the inmate experience. Sheriff Curran sleeps in his own cell for safety reasons, Read more

California's legalization of same-sex marriage has left prison authorities trying to figure out whether they must allow inmates to marry each other. Currently prisoners can marry someone from the outside, same or opposite-sex. Back in the days of man-woman marriage, California's proxy rule — which states that both parties must be present at a wedding — helped avoid the all-inmate wedding Read more