Thirty years ago, 1 of the deadliest prison riots in Illinois claimed the lives of 3 prison employees and left three more injured. Authorities are recounting their memories of the 1978 riot at the Pontiac Correctional Center that involved more than 1,000 inmates. Robert Studley was a prison lieutenant. He describes the environment as "full of smoke, fire and mass confusion."

The FBI is investigating allegations of prisoner beatings in the DeSoto County Jail, and at least one former jailer has been fired as the inquiry continues. Sheriff Bill Rasco said Tuesday he has not talked with the FBI agents assigned to the case and he referred questions to Cmdr. Lent Rice, commander of the Internal Affairs Bureau. "They have been talking with Lent Rice. He has been investigating," Rasco said.

Prisoners soon could be prowling around foreclosed Tri-state properties, and the values of surrounding homes could increase. Under a plan now in its early stages, authorities could released prisoners convicted of misdemeanors to pick up trash, pull weeds and trim shrubbery in exchange for a reduced sentence. “We really need them around here because the kids, where the kids play, they throw glass,” said James Stafford of Over-The-Rhine.

For the second consecutive fiscal year, South Dakota's prison population has decreased. On June 30, the number of state prison inmates totaled 3,352. That is 40 fewer inmates than were in the prison system one year earlier and 117 fewer than there were on June 30, 2006.

A law allowing the head of Arkansas' state prisons to call off an execution if he believes a condemned inmate is mentally incompetent should be eliminated, the system's director said Monday. Director Larry Norris told members of the state Board of Corrections that he and others will lobby state lawmakers to make the change during next year's legislative session. Under law now, the prisons director can call off an execution and allow state health officials to examine the patient.

Barely a year old, a privately owned correctional facility on Henderson’s Industrial Drive has added a major expansion and another could be on the way. Management & Training Corporation, owner and operator, submitted a bid last week for a new Texas Department of Criminal Justice contract to house about 500 more state inmates and plans to construct three more structures at a cost of $8 to $10 million to accommodate them if awarded the contract. Warden Michael Bell expects it could be up to four months before the department decides which bidder will get the contract.

Prison corrections officers did not violate an Arkansas prison inmate's constitutional rights when they shackled her after she went into labor in 2003, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis reversed an Arkansas federal judge's decision that denied immunity to state Prison Director Larry Norris and prison security officer Patricia Turnesky in a lawsuit by Shawanna Nelson. Norris and Turnesky should be immune from the suit because the shackling of Nelson's hands and legs while she was in labor on Sept. 20, 2003, did not violate Nelson's Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment, the appellate court ruled.

A man charged with murder escaped from jail early Saturday by climbing through an air conditioner vent, authorities said. The vent was less than a foot wide, and authorities said Darryl Layne Norris had been losing weight since arriving at the Waller County Jail in April. "We just found out he's been slimming down a lot recently," Waller County Sheriff Randy Smith said.

Five guards at a Miami-Dade County prison are charged with smuggling drugs into the facility. Federal indictments also charge them with taking cash from inmates in return for helping to deliver the drugs inside the prison. They were arrested Friday. The guards worked at Dade Correctional Institution in Florida City, about 28 miles north of Miami.

Carter County Sheriff Chris Mathes told the Budget Committee Thursday that the medical debt inherited by his administration has been satisfied through a settlement agreement. Mathes also stated that the current jail budget has a surplus of $126,000 from unused insurance, retirement and other line items, and requested that some of that be used to pay for employee compensation. "It's a great opportunity to pay down some of that debt," he said.

Almost 16 months after the Texas Youth Commission was the object of a forced management takeover because of a sex-abuse scandal, its temporary leader said the agency is almost ready to operate on its own again - perhaps as early as the end of the month In an update to Gov. Rick Perry and legislative leaders, Conservator Richard Nedelkoff recommended an end to the so-called conservatorship by July 31, as soon as several major initiatives are implemented. Nedelkoff could not be reached for comment Friday, but agency spokesman Jim Hurley said the recommendation was "based on completing those things that need to be done" to ensure that the agency is repaired.

A 17-month federal investigation has found numerous abuses at the nation's largest single-site county jail, including a failure to protect prisoners from being harmed by other inmates and staff, officials said today. Cook County Jail inmates were not only unprotected from excessive force by staff and violence from fellow prisoners but the jail failed to provide adequate medical and mental health care, fire prevention and sanitation, the investigation found. "The Cook County Jail has an obligation to provide conditions of confinement that do not offend the Constitution and take reasonable measures to protect inmates from harm," U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said. "The investigation clearly found that the jail failed that test."

An attorney for Prince George's County correctional officers said last night that guards did not kill the inmate who was found unresponsive in his cell last month, and she faulted county officials who she said "rushed to judgment" in labeling the death a homicide. Clothilda Harvey of the Correctional Officers Association predicted that investigators will either find the cause of death for Ronnie L. White inconclusive or determine that he committed suicide. "There aren't many possibilities," she said.

A plan to help deal with Nevada’s budget crisis by cutting out the extra pay that about 450 prison guards get for working swing-shifts has been postponed by Corrections Director Howard Skolnik. Skolnik said Wednesday that he was able to sideline the plan, which would have saved about $700,000 a year, by freezing staffing positions that currently are vacant. While the plan to eliminate the 5 percent differential pay for the swing-shift guards is gone for now, Skolnik cautioned that continued revenue problems for the state could result in the plan being revived later.

With Maricopa County jail fees rising faster than Phoenix and Mesa can afford to pay them, officials in both cities are considering alternatives that could include building jails of their own. The moves come as the cost of booking an inmate into county jail has more than doubled in recent years, from $98.53 in 2002 to $199.35 today. As of July 1, each day an inmate spends in jail costs cities $73.46, a 75 percent increase from the 2002 price.

An inmate at the maximum security prison in Shirley, scheduled to finish his manslaughter sentence this month, has relocated to the Worcester County House of Correction after being convicted Monday of repeatedly throwing his urine and feces at nearly a dozen different prison guards. Frank J. Lorenzi, 33, who lived in New Bedford before being sentenced to the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, admitted to sufficient facts for a guilty finding to 10 counts of assault and battery on a public employee, and three counts of vandalizing property. Fitchburg District Court Judge Andrew L. Mandell sentenced Mr. Lorenzi to 2-1/2 years in jail for the assault charges, all of which will run concurrently.

Several correction officers and inmates were injured during an 18-man brawl at Clinton Correctional Facility Tuesday night. Within a few hours, staff covering the north yard of the facility had to break up three fights between inmates, the last of which left five officers and more than a dozen inmates injured. The first two fights were one-on-one brawls that broke out around 6:40 p.m. and were quickly stopped when staff intervened.

An increase in illegal immigrants held at the Summit County Jail is stretching county budgets, and Sheriff John Minor is running out of ideas of how to accommodate a federal mandate with limited funding. Sheriff’s offices throughout the state have been feeling the pressure to hold arrested illegal immigrants for longer periods since 2006, when the state adopted a law requiring police to notify U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement if they believe an arrested individual is in the country illegally. The federal agency has three business days to take a suspected illegal immigrant into custody after an arrest has been made, and during that period, local law-enforcement agencies are not reimbursed for their costs, according to ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok.

The secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections is proposing a state jail system for prison inmates serving less than 18 months behind bars. A typical inmate would be a nonviolent drug offender or probation violator. Walter McNeil pitched his concept Monday to some Tampa area lawmakers.

The state will be spending $16.4 million for improvement projects at correctional facilities statewide, including $9 million to design a new prison on the Valley Isle, state officials said yesterday. An additional $7.4 million will pay for various improvements and upgrades at correctional facilities on Kauai, Oahu and the Big Island, addressing numerous health, safety and security issues at the six facilities, they said. "Improvements to our correctional facilities will help ensure the health and safety of inmates and public safety employees, as well as the overall security of the surrounding communities," Gov. Linda Lingle said.

It was the day after Christmas 2004 and the bars of the segregation unit in the nearly century-old Stillwater prison couldn't contain the inmates' fury. Convicts - some of the most disruptive and dangerous in the prison - plugged their toilets and sinks, flooding the wing. A fire burned on one of the cellblocks. Inmates laughed, booed and bellowed from their cells as correctional officers tried to contain the damage.

West Feliciana Parish Sheriff J. Austin Daniel say a Louisiana State Penitentiary inmate allegedly slashed two security officers with a prison-made knife in Angola's Camp D. Daniel says 37-year-old Karsten Keelen, formerly from Baton Rouge, will be booked at the West Feliciana Parish Jail over the weekend on two counts of attempted first-degree murder. Keelen, serving a life sentence for second-degree murder from East Baton Rouge Parish, is also facing an aggravated battery count for an October 2006 razor-blade attack on an officer.

The debate over whether to privatize all or part of the McLennan County jail system continued Tuesday with a divided commissioners court voting to pursue talks with Community Education Centers. CEC, a private detention company based in New Jersey that is leasing the downtown jail from the county, submitted the only proposal last week out of 14 companies solicited by the county to bid on possible jail privatization. County Judge Jim Lewis and commissioners Wendall Crunk and Ray Meadows voted Tuesday to take discussions with CEC to the next level. However, commissioners Lester Gibson and Joe Mashek disagreed, with Mashek questioning the legality of the move without approval from Sheriff Larry Lynch.

The Luzerne County Prison Board on Monday rejected two proposals from outside companies to run the prison’s commissary, opting instead to keep the operation in-house. Warden Gene Fischi recommended the board keep the current setup, saying the two companies that were interested in the contract would provide virtually identical service to what is already offered in-house. Fischi said concerns that had been raised regarding the no-bid deal with FR Wholesale have become a non-issue because the prison now utilizes numerous other vendors for commissary purchases.

Classic American diners are dinosaurs these days. Many of them, anyway. Take Sherwood’s Diner, once so popular in Worcester, Mass., that patrons who were firefighters rigged a fire bell to ring inside the diner. Or Hickey’s Diner, hooked to a 1954 Chevy truck on the town green in Taunton, Mass.

Kenyatta Kalisana completed his training here this month, departing with a choice of three jobs and a possible six-figure annual salary. Kalisana's career options would be impressive simply because of the troubled national and California economies. More extraordinary is that the 40-year-old Los Angeles man, a twice-convicted drug dealer, left the California Institution for Men after three years with an international certification as a deep-sea diver, underwater welder and heavy construction rigger.

When the Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility opens next month, the number of inmates living in the state's privately run prisons will almost match the number living in state-run slammers. Nearly 47 percent of male inmates will be in prisons run by private companies. The other 53 percent will be in state-run prisons. All female inmates are housed in private facilities. The prison near the Rabbit Ear Mountains in Clayton in northeastern New Mexico caps a major shift in state policy over the past three decades of housing an increasing number of criminals in privately run prisons.

A corporation that already operates a private prison in Lawton wants local officials to consider building a new facility nearby that could bring jobs to the area. Comanche County commissioners will vote today on a resolution to authorize construction of a 1,536-bed prison to be located southeast of the 2,400-bed GEO Correctional Facility in Lawton. The medium-security prison would sit just outside the Lawton city limits, so by law, the county commission is required to make the decision, officials said.

Guards at high- security federal prisons will be provided the kind of stab-proof vests that might have saved Atwater correctional officer Jose Rivera, under a new Bureau of Prisons policy. Facing pressure from unions and lawmakers, the Bureau of Prisons has told union leaders the vests can be worn by guards at U.S. penitentiaries. These are the facilities that, like Atwater, house the most dangerous federal prisoners.

The intent was to get inmates unhooked from tobacco and, over the long haul, lower West Virginia’s medical bills by not having to treat them for nicotine-related illnesses. Yet, if letters sent by inmates to media and one legislative leader are accurate, the smoking ban isn’t working. Cigarettes have become the hot new item of contraband, and it’s a seller’s market in the black market behind prison walls.

Prince George's County officials are seeking an outside review of the county jail following the death of an inmate who was strangled while being held on murder charges for allegedly killing a police officer. County Executive Jack Johnson said today that the county has asked the American Correctional Association and the National Institute of Corrections to conduct a review of the jail's management, training and inmate security. The Maryland State Police and FBI are investigating the death of Ronnie White, who was found strangled in his maximum security cell June 29.

An inmate at Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center was charged with attempted murder and first-degree assault Wednesday after attacking two on-duty correctional officers, one with a homemade weapon, state police said. Bobby Beale, 25, originally of Waterbury, attacked the two unidentified officers around 2:30 p.m., according to police. The altercation began when Beale stabbed one of the officers with the homemade “shiv” - a nail melted into a ballpoint pen, according to Department of Correction spokesman Brian Garnett.

Corrections officials across the country are trying to get cell phones out of prison cells. Maryland and Virginia have become the first states to train dogs to sniff out phones hidden in socks and books and under mattresses. Other states have passed bills to punish guards and visitors who provide them to inmates.

Chester County is on the hook for $1.25 million for failing to pay overtime to more than 200 corrections officers at its prison over two years, according to court records. A settlement last month in a federal class-action lawsuit filed by several corrections officers calls for the county to reimburse the workers for their time, and for the county to comply with state and federal wage and hour rules. According to court records, guards at the county prison were paid for an eight-hour shift, but were expected to report early for roll call and stay late to complete paperwork without pay.

At least 543 prisoners, about half the Galveston County Jail population, have been stricken with an illness, many of them vomiting and experiencing diarrhea, the Sheriff's Office said Thursday. Prisoners began complaining of stomach cramps and other symptoms about 5 p.m. Wednesday, and county health officials were called to test food for contamination and help identify the cause, the Sheriff's Office said in a statement. Food test results are expected today.

Jail inmates' phone calls to loved ones aren't private and the state can listen in and use the recordings against them, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. In its 7-2 ruling, the high court said that Desmond Modica had no reasonable expectation of privacy while making phone calls to his grandmother from King County jail. Modica was arrested in 2005 for striking his wife in the face, and he called his grandmother almost every day and enlisted her help in getting his wife to not appear in court. Signs near the telephones, and automated messages on the phone, warned that the calls would be recorded.

It was not the kind of paper you'd expect to find by a toilet. A St. Louis County jail employee found bundles of cash stuffed behind a tissue dispenser in a prisoner booking area restroom, and officials counted out $55,000 in $50 and $100 bills. Whose? They don't know. Why? There is only speculation. What happens to the money now? It's still under research.

Less than halfway into an investigation into an inmate who exposed almost 900 people at Bexar County Jail to a multidrug-resistant strain of tuberculosis, about 6 percent of inmates and staff to date have been found to have new but inactive TB infection, health officials said this week. Five more inmates have been isolated as potentially contagious. Those five are being treated for active TB, and those with latent, or inactive, disease are being offered preventive treatment.

Kootenai County Commissioners, after visiting recycling centers in Seattle and Portland, Ore., are talking about building a regional operation that might use inmate labor. "This could put recycling ahead 20 years in Kootenai County," Roger Saterfiel, the county's director of solid waste, told The Spokesman-Review. The commissioners are in early talks with Spokane Recycling Products. Under one plan, Kootenai County jail inmates would do the separating.

Some Republican lawmakers want to know what happens now that the state missed a deadline to justify closing Pontiac Correctional Center. State law said the Department of Corrections was required to report on the impact of closing the prison by July 2. The state asked for an extension, but hasn’t received one. So state Sen. Dan Rutherford and Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson Tuesday asked Attorney General Lisa Madigan for an official opinion on what happens next.

Nevada Prison Board members opted Tuesday to delay approval of $8.1 million in budget cuts outlined by Corrections Director Howard Skolnik after one panel member said he lacked enough information and wouldn't give a "rubber stamp" endorsement. Secretary of State Ross Miller, who serves on the board with Gov. Jim Gibbons and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, repeatedly questioned Skolnik about the basis for the cutback decisions the latest in more than $85 million in budget-balancing cuts for the prison system. Among the latest reductions is about $700,000 that can be saved by eliminating 5 percent differential pay that about 450 prison guards get for working swing-shifts a change scheduled for later this month that prompted questions both from Miller and Masto.

Legislation that could free up as many as 250 prison beds annually by immediately deporting illegal immigrants serving time for some nonviolent felonies is awaiting Gov. Mike Easley's signature. Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand's legislation cleared the House on Monday night by a 103-2 vote. There was no debate on the legislation. Lawmakers are looking at several ways to reduce demand and build more space for inmates.

The union representing a group of prison guards stripped of duties with the York County Prison K-9 unit is making good on its promise to exhaust all attempts to get the guards their back pay. Both the Commonwealth and Common Pleas courts have ruled that an arbitrator erred by awarding six union officers back pay and the cost of medical care for their dogs after they were cut from the prison K-9 unit in 2001. Now Teamsters 776, which represents the guards, is asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to hear the case.

On the evening of Wednesday, July 2nd, the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office arrested three correctional officers, at the Liberty County Jail. The three were taken into custody while they were on duty. The arrests stem from a joint investigation between the Sheriff’s Office and C.E.C., the private company that manages the county jail. The investigation was initiated six weeks ago, when information was received by Sheriff’s investigators about possible sexual activity between correctional officers and inmates

Capt. Leonard Dunn gets right into it. As soon as the inmates in the women's maximum security prison briefing room sit down, he begins the same talk he's given nearly every week for the past 14 years. The return inmates or transfers already know about the perils of violence, sex and drugs. It's the new inmates who watch Dunn closely for his honest preview about what their days - and for some, the rest of their lives - will be like.

Louis Rodriguez, a lifelong thief, is costing California taxpayers a lot of money. And so are others like him, aging criminals locked away for life or extended sentences who require expensive, ongoing medical treatment. The state's expanding prison population and the increasing average age of its inmates appear to be key factors behind one of the most contentious issues facing California lawmakers.

Two separate stabbings at the Jessup Correctional Institution on Thursday sent two inmates of the maximum-security prison to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with multiple wounds, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said yesterday. Neither of the stabbings was life-threatening, said Mark Vernarelli, the spokesman, in an e-mail. One victim has been released from the hospital, and the other was in stable condition, he said. Their names were not released.

Evidence in the search for the killer of a Prince George’s County jail inmate was brought before a grand jury Thursday as state and federal investigators continued to focus on three corrections employees who had the greatest opportunity to strangle a man suspected of murdering a county police officer, sources close to the investigation said. Meanwhile, officials declined to speak Thursday on the death of Ronnie White, 19, wanting the attention to fall on the burial of Cpl. Richard Findley, whom White allegedly ran over with a stolen truck last week. When asked if he thought too much attention had been given to White, County Executive Jack Johnson said, “That’s why I don’t want to talk about other events today. Today is a day we remember an officer who was killed.”

As baby boomers get older those who are a part of Ohio's inmate population are causing a concern about their high cost of incarceration in the prison system. As the number of geriatric jailbirds climb each year, a controversy is brewing over what to do with them. Many legislatures think the answer might be to release these convicted criminals back into the public, however, families of the victims think this is just another way the judicial system is proving the victims are completely forgotten.

A decreasing number of state inmates has prompted the New Mexico Department of Corrections to cancel a contract with Santa Fe County to house inmates in its jail. Corrections Secretary Joe Williams says the prison population has been dropping, from 6,873 in August 2006 to 6,269 now. The state plans to move 104 inmates it has housed at the county jail within 120 days.

The FBI and Maryland State Police are investigating the strangulation of a 19-year-old man found dead in his cell a day after he was jailed on charges of running over and killing a police officer, authorities said. Ronnie White's death was a homicide, the Maryland Medical Examiner ruled Monday. He died Sunday in the Prince George's County Correctional Center from asphyxiation and strangulation, the examiner said.

The Camden County Jail's inmate population was locked down for part of the weekend because there weren't enough corrections officers to properly staff the facility, county and union officials said. Union officers said inmates were confined to their cells from Saturday evening to Sunday evening for about 24 hours and predict such lockdowns could happen more frequently - especially on weekends - until more corrections officers are hired and warden Eric Taylor does a better job managing the ones he has. The county, however, said the brief lockdown Sunday was due to an unusually high number of inmates who had to be taken to the hospital and was not a sign of things to come.

Authorities are investigating fights at three Oklahoma prisons since Saturday that left nine inmates hospitalized with stab wounds and each prison on lockdown. Department of Corrections spokesman Jerry Massie says no staff members were injured and all the inmates are expected to survive. Fights at two prisons broke out on Monday.

Two months before a federal survey showed Clark County Jail inmates’ reporting the second-highest rate of sexual abuse in the nation, Sheriff Garry Lucas received another study, this one showing the jail is critically short-staffed and custody officers are unable to adequately monitor inmates. Officer Jeff Young, president of the Clark County Custody Officers Guild, released the study Tuesday to The Columbian in response to the June 25 U.S. Department of Justice study on sex abuse in the nation’s jails. Of 167 Clark County inmates surveyed for the federal study, 9 percent - three times the national average - reported some type of sexual abuse. Nationally, the overwhelming majority of abuse occurred in cells.

Two maintenance workers and an inmate at Oakhill Correctional Facility were injured Tuesday and prisoners from one building were evacuated after a natural gas explosion on the prison grounds. State Department of Corrections spokesman John Dipko said the explosion occurred in the boiler room of the main kitchen in a prison building that also has housing units. The explosion occurred about 8:45 a.m. as the two workers and the inmate were doing maintenance on a boiler.

Two people were taken hostage this afternoon by an inmate with a knife at the Maine State Prison in Warren, state officials said. The hostages were described by Associate Corrections Department Commissioner Denise Lord as an inmate and a staff member. No names were immediately released.

The head of a state employee union Monday issued a blistering response to a government audit suggesting Michigan could save tens of millions of dollars in prison food costs by hiring a private company to provide the meals. "The Auditor General has done a great disservice to the people of Michigan," said Albert Garrett, president of Michigan Council 25 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Garrett said prison food service workers "are doing an outstanding job and they're a real bargain for taxpayers. They do not deserve to be attacked with unfounded propaganda from an agency which is supposed to provide thorough, non-partisan analysis to state government."

The driver of a private security firm van ferrying prison inmates through south Arkansas fell asleep behind the wheel Friday, causing a crash that killed two prisoners and injured four others. Gregory O. Reed, 43, of Missouri, Texas, was driving a van for U.S. Extradition Service when he dozed off around 6:20 a.m., the Arkansas State Police reported. State police Cpl. Jeff Hust told the El Dorado News-Times that prisoners began screaming "Boss! Boss!" and another guard grabbed the wheel and overcorrected.

State officials will not appeal a recent District Court ruling that paves the way for a disputed Hardin jail to house out-of-state inmates. Bob Anez, a spokesman for the Montana Department of Corrections, said officials decided not to appeal Helena District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock's June 6 decision allowing the never-opened Two Rivers Detention Center to take out-of-state felons. "The state does not intend to impede the efforts by (Two Rivers) to find offenders," he said.

"Great, we have to choose between hospital food and jail food." It was said in jest, but it was the truth for the Meals on Wheels and senior center food program run through the Mountainland Association of Governments. The provider of choice, after 23 years using Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, is now the jail.

A proposed settlement seeking to reduce California's prison population collapsed Friday, setting the stage for a trial that could result in the court-ordered release of thousands of inmates. A court-appointed referee told a panel of federal judges that the Schwarzenegger administration and attorneys for inmate-advocacy groups have been unable to agree on the optimum size of California's prison population or on ways to reduce crowding. The referee had proposed reducing the population by 26,500 inmates by diverting many parole violators and inmates with relatively short sentences to county-run programs.

There are serious questions about safety inside the Tomoka Correctional Institution in Daytona Beach after a 50-year-old female guard was stabbed to death by a convicted rapist at the prison. Her fellow jail guards told Eyewitness News they were saddened by her death, but not surprised. In fact, some said they predicted such an incident.

Extra cash is being dished out to keep oklahoma prison guards on the job. The state says some guards will be getting a 12 hundred dollar bonus in an effort to stop a high turnover rate. The first three levels of correctional officers will be eligible for the bonus if they have less than three years continuous service.

State officials will begin moving inmates out of certain wings at the St. Albans prison early next month - the first step in a massive reorganization aimed at controlling the cost of Vermont's corrections system. Meanwhile, work is also expected to start in the fall to transform the Windsor prison into a work camp for offenders, which is also expected to open January 2009, Buildings and General Services Commissioner Gerry Myers said.

An inmate, with a criminal history of rape and kidnapping charges, is under confinement this morning after being accused of raping and murdering a female corrections officer at the Daytona Beach prison Wednesday, officials said. Investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are interviewing inmate Enoch Hall, 39, in the murder of Officer Donna Fitzgerald, a 13-year veteran of the Tomoka Correctional Institution. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said that Fitzgerald, 51, of Port Orange, was attacked at 7:30 p.m.

A new report from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics said Missouri is the only state in the country with a decreasing prison population in the last three semiannual counts - while the overall U.S. prison population continued to climb. There's no question that “Missouri's success is the result of a double-barreled attack on recidivism that the Department of Corrections and the Sentencing Advisory Commission launched in 2005,” said Supreme Court Judge Michael A. Wolff, who chairs the Sentencing Advisory Commission. “There's a very interesting table that shows the population going up month by month by month by month by month, up until November 2005 when the sentencing recommendations went statewide. ... And, from then on, it goes pretty much downhill from there.”

The New Jersey Department of Corrections will close its minimum-security facility in Stokes State Forest next week to save $2.8 million amid statewide budget woes, officials said Thursday. No one will lose their job, and its 18 inmates will be sent to comparable prisons when the Mountainview Youth Correctional Facility satellite unit closes Tuesday, said Deirdre Fedkenheuer, a corrections spokeswoman. The Stokes unit, which can hold up to 110 inmates, is the only corrections facility affected by the measure.

An inmate at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility took a prison employee hostage for 90 minutes Wednesday morning, sending the facility's intake center into full lockdown. The employee - whose identity was not released - was not harmed. The inmate, John Anthony Brown, 40, was secured without injury, ending the incident about 8:15 a.m., according to Chane Griggs, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman. Corrections officials said Brown will be transferred to another facility.

Pontiac-area officials reacted skeptically Wednesday to news that Gov. Rod Blagojevich may be backing off his plan to close the maximum-security prison. "It put a smile on my face, but I'll believe it when I see it," Pontiac Mayor Scott McCoy said. The governor announced in May he wants to close the 130-year-old prison and transfer the inmates to a newer, unused facility in Thomson.

In remembrance of a slain corrections officer, state officials will rename a building at the Utah State Prison in officer Stephen Anderson's honor. The Utah State Building Board gave unanimous approval on Wednesday to renaming the warden's building the Stephen R. Anderson Memorial Building. A memorial will be constructed inside the administration building and a formal dedication ceremony will take place in August. "This will allow members of our staff, and the public, to honor his memory and remember his sacrifice every day," Utah Department of Corrections Director Tom Patterson said in a statement.

Officials Tuesday announced that an inmate attacked an officer at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility with a bladed weapon. The officer was able to defend himself, preventing additional injuries, until responding staff arrived to gain control of the inmate, according to officials. The officer - who was transported to an area hospital for treatment of laceration wounds to the back of the neck - was in good condition, authorities said.

A bus filled with Riverside County firefighter inmates toppled in Aguanga on Monday night, injuring all 16 on board, according to the California Highway Patrol. The Riverside County Fire Department bus was leaving the scene of a 20-acre blaze about 7:30 p.m. near Highway 371 and Wilson Valley Road. The Oak Glen Conservation Fire Camp inmate crew was brought in during cleanup efforts to assist firefighters, Riverside County fire officials said.

A riot broke out at a the California Men’s Colony west of San Luis Obispo last week, leaving two people injured, prison officials confirmed Tuesday. The riot started shortly before 2:30 p.m. Thursday when two groups of Hispanic inmates began fighting after one perceived the other had disrespected it, according to prison spokesman Mike Siebert. The fight did not involve weapons and happened outside in a yard, lasting only a few moments before guards stopped the riot using pepper spray and ordering a lockdown at the prison’s west facility, which houses minimum security inmates, according to Siebert.

Taxpayers spend $83.4 million a year feeding Michigan's 51,000 prison inmates, and could save nearly half that amount by hiring a private food service company, a critical new state audit says. Furthermore, the State Auditor General's office says, even more money could be saved by cutting back on fresh produce and milk, trimming overall calories and preventing convicts from stealing additional meals. "Reducing costs would assist (the Department of Corrections) in achieving its goal to provide the greatest amount of public protection while making the most efficient use of the state's resources," said the auditors, whose job is to make sure the state is getting the best bang for taxpayers' bucks.

The Passaic County Sheriff's Department has issued another round of pink slips to 55 employees, more than a third of whom are corrections officers at the county jail. This week's layoffs were the sheriff's latest staff reductions stemming from $21 million in cuts to the department's budget enacted by the county freeholders. Letters were sent on Monday to employees affected by the layoff plan, said Maryann Jemison, state Department of Personnel spokeswoman.

The tall, burly death row inmate starts complaining to a prison official as soon as he is brought downstairs for an interview with a reporter. He wants the handcuffs off. "Do you know what it feels like to have your hands cuffed behind your back for 30 minutes?" Eric Wrinkles asks. "Now you know what they do to try to discourage interviews," he adds to a reporter.

A spokesman for the D.C. Department of Corrections says a disturbance at the D.C. jail ended early Monday when corrections officers used pepper spray to subdue 35 inmates who had refused to return to their cells. Spokesman Anthony Diallo says there were no major injuries and the jail was not on lockdown. According to Diallo, the trouble began when two inmates began fighting during dinner Sunday evening, delaying the meals until about 9 p.m. Diallo says 35 inmates then complained about the temperature of their food and didn't obey orders to return to their cells.

A guard was stabbed to death Friday by two inmates at a federal prison in the Central Valley officials said. The guard, Jose Rivera, 22, was taken to Mercy Medical Center in Merced with stab wounds at about 3:30 p.m. and was declared dead soon after, said Merced County Sheriff and Coroner Mark Pazin. "Our hearts go out to our fellow officers at the federal prison," Pazin said. "Any time you lose an officer, it's always traumatic."

The inmates sit on a metal bench in a converted cell at a Los Angeles County jail. Many have served their time and are ready for release. But not before a quick interview. Where were you born? Have you ever been deported? Did you know that a judge had ordered you to leave the country? Sheriff's officials, who have been trained by federal authorities to screen for illegal immigrants at the jail, have interviewed nearly 20,000 inmates since the controversial program began more than two years ago. They have referred 10,840 people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for possible deportation.

Even episodes of pouring rain could not stop more than 1,000 people from showing their support for keeping Pontiac Correctional Center open. Mayor Scott McCoy estimated 1,500 to 2,000 people showed up for a “Save Pontiac Prison” photograph. Everyone wore a navy blue shirt as they milled around the Livingston County Courthouse.

The state prison system relies mostly on inmates to tell them their immigration status when they are admitted, officials say, and many local jails and detention centers also do not verify each prisoner. Locally, the problem is jails either have not applied to participate in a federal program to train staff on how to do it or because they are on the federal waiting list for such training. Greenville County is among the local detention centers that rely on inmates to self-report their legal status because the facility is on the waiting list.

State corrections officials are investigating the California prison guards union for giving a paid internship to a paroled carjacker. California Correctional Peace Officers Association President Mike Jimenez says the union was trying to do the right thing when it gave the internship to Raul Gomez. The 21-year-old was paroled in August after serving more than four years at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi.

Despite some perceptions, Kane County Jail officials say inmates with mental illnesses have opportunities for treatment. While counties, including Kane, have programs to treat defendants with a mental illness – instead of incarcerating them – institutions continue to address mental health issues. Many defendants often don’t qualify for the diversion programs, and end up in jail.