Inmate

The death of a male inmate at the state prison in Lancaster on Sunday is being investigated as a homicide, and his cellmate is the main suspect, authorities said. The dead man had been serving a sentence for a second-degree robbery committed in Los Angeles County. Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the suspect passed a note to guards at breakfast time saying his cellmate appeared to be dead. Guards found the dead man "in his bunk, under the blanket," and emergency efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, Thornton said.

Until 1996, members of the news media could conduct one-on-one interviews with inmates in California prisons, giving the public a deeper understanding of what went on behind the barbed wire. This did not please the administration of Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, which was disgusted by the way some inmates abused this privilege to promote themselves - calling in to radio talk shows to complain about their treatment, or appearing on TV to plug their books or movie deals. So reporters were barred from holding in-person interviews.

Reporting from San Quentin -- Fifteen years ago, Jackie Clark was so disgusted with the healthcare at San Quentin prison that she quit her job there as a nurse consultant. "We didn't have sinks. We didn't have appropriate medical equipment," she recalled recently. "We were in converted offices and converted cells. " The care there and elsewhere in California's overcrowded lockups was so poor that in 2006 a federal judge, saying that an inmate was dying unnecessarily every week, put a receiver in charge of the health system.

President Obama has never been wildly popular in West Virginia, but Tuesday's Democratic primary marked the state's sharpest rejection of the president yet. A Texas prisoner, listed as Inmate No. 11593-051, received 69,766 votes, a surprising 41% of the total, showing that many West Virginians would vote for just about anyone other than Obama, regardless of their status as a felon. Obama still won the primary, with 59% of the vote. Keith Judd, the prisoner in question, is currently serving a 17½-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana after being sentenced for extortion in an altercation with the University of New Mexico.

An autopsy has found that the sudden death of a Los Angeles County jail inmate last year was not caused by a deputy's blow to his head two days prior but may have been linked to drugs the inmate was given for his mental illness. George Rosales, 18, was found unresponsive in a single-person cell in the medical ward attached to the Twin Towers jail in October. He was pronounced dead a short time later. Rosales had been punched in the head by a deputy two days earlier after the inmate made a break for an elevator, authorities said.

An inmate enforcer known at Corcoran State Prison as the "Booty Bandit" testified Monday that his rape of an inmate troublemaker was set up by correctional officers, some of whom laughed at the victim's pleas that his life was in danger. Wayne Robertson, the 6-foot, 2-inch, 220-pound rapist, manacled and glowering, told the Superior Court here that inmate Eddie Dillard, a prisoner half his size, should have never been put in his cell to endure two days of sexual assault in March 1993.

A civilian jail monitor said she witnessed two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies treat an inmate like "a punching bag," unjustifiably beating him as he lay unconscious for at least two minutes, according to a court declaration filed Monday by the ACLU. The representative for the civil liberties organization was at Twin Towers jail for an unrelated meeting with another inmate when, according to her declaration, she heard thuds from outside the room she was in. Through a window, she said, she saw two deputies punching, kicking and Tasering an inmate.

The tiny jail on Catalina Island is hardly Alcatraz. Just ask Frank Carrillo. The pro golfer turned jewel thief couldn't believe his luck when he was moved out of his bleak Men's Central Jail cell in downtown L.A. and allowed to do his time on the sunny tourist isle. But things got even cushier when he met a Los Angeles County sheriff's captain interested in shaving a few strokes off his golf game. Carrillo said Capt. Jeff Donahue escorted him in a patrol Jeep to a hilltop golf course last summer.

Advocates for battered women are urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to release a terminally ill prison inmate who is serving a life sentence for her role in the 1982 murder of her abusive boyfriend at a secluded park near Lawndale. A state parole board decided last month that Deborah Peagler should be released after spending more than 25 years in prison for luring the victim to Alondra Park, where two men beat and strangled him with an electrical cord. The governor has until Aug. 21 to decide whether to reverse the parole board's decision.

A civilian jail monitor said she witnessed two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies treat an inmate like "a punching bag," unjustifiably beating him as he lay unconscious for at least two minutes, according to a court declaration filed Monday by the ACLU. The representative for the civil liberties organization was at Twin Towers jail for an unrelated meeting with another inmate when, according to her declaration, she heard thuds from outside the room she was in. Through a window, she said, she saw two deputies punching, kicking and Tasering an inmate.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court refused Monday to shield Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca from being sued for racial gang violence in the jails he supervises. The justices without comment turned down an appeal from the county's lawyers, who argued that Baca could not be held personally liable for the stabbing of an inmate since he had no personal involvement in the incident. Instead, the court let stand a decision of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said that Baca could be sued for "deliberate indifference" to the inmate's rights since he was aware of jailhouse violence and had failed to take action to stop it. Dion Starr said he was stabbed 23 times by Latino gang members at the Men's Central Jail in 2006.

Marie Kolasinski, a devoutly anti-government Orange County grandmother who was sent to jail at 85 after clashing with health inspectors at her popular quilting and crafts emporium, has died. She was 90. Once dubbed "Che Kolasinski" by a local newspaper for her militant stands, she died of natural causes April 23 at her Costa Mesa home, said her daughter, Marjorie Serr. Kolasinski was the driving force behind a tiny Christian sect whose members live communally and operate Costa Mesa's Piecemakers Country Store, which occupies a warren of rooms jam-packed with homemade knick-knacks, quilts and craft supplies.

SACRAMENTO — Officials Monday announced an overhaul of California prisons that would cut spending by billions of dollars, cancel some construction projects, close one lockup and bring back 9,500 inmates housed in other states — all while meeting court orders to reduce crowding and improve medical care. If state lawmakers and federal judges sign off on the proposals, California's long-troubled prison system would look significantly different by 2016 — smaller, cheaper and more autonomous.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - In a landmark ruling, a North Carolina judge Friday vacated the death penalty of a convicted black murderer, saying prosecutors across the state had engaged for years in a deliberate and systematic pattern of racial discrimination while striking black potential jurors in death penalty cases.      The decision by Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Weeks in Cumberland County, N.C., could help set a precedent nationwide in...

A Los Angeles County commission investigating jail abuse heard tearful testimony Monday from clergy and civilian monitors who worked in the lockups and said they witnessed deputies assaulting inmates and bullying witnesses to keep quiet. One jail monitor broke down as she recounted being intimidated by a deputy whom she said saw beat an unconscious inmate. A weeping jail chaplain described deputies calling him a rat after he reported another beating. In one case, a clergy member said he was told by gang member inmates that jailers had targeted them in retribution for the slaying of a deputy by members of their gang on the outside.

A private company has agreed to pay millions to install technology in California prisons to block Web searches, text messages and phone calls by inmates using smuggled phones. The deal won't cost taxpayers a dime, state officials insist, because the company, Global Tel Link, also owns the traditional pay phones prisoners can legally use. Company officials are betting that once the contraband cell devices are disabled, demand for pay phones will skyrocket. Like other states, California is battling a plague of phones smuggled to inmates.

Upon embracing her son for the first time in 13 years, Lois Taylor fingered the gray strands in his unkempt beard, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. "Stop crying, Mom," her son, Gregory, whispered into her ear. "It's over. I'm out. " Gregory Taylor, who was serving a 25-years-to-life prison sentence for a three-strikes offense, walked out of a downtown Los Angeles jail Thursday a free man. Once outside, Taylor, now 48, looked up at the cloudless blue sky and took a couple of deep breaths.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court refused Monday to shield Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca from being sued for racial gang violence in the jails he supervises. The justices without comment turned down an appeal from the county's lawyers, who argued that Baca could not be held personally liable for the stabbing of an inmate since he had no personal involvement in the incident. Instead, the court let stand a decision of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said that Baca could be sued for "deliberate indifference" to the inmate's rights since he was aware of jailhouse violence and had failed to take action to stop it. Dion Starr said he was stabbed 23 times by Latino gang members at the Men's Central Jail in 2006.

Responding to incidents of violence against transgender arrestees, the Los Angeles Police Department plans to open a segregated lockup for biologically male and female suspects who identify themselves as members of the opposite sex, officials said. By early May, a 24-bed transgender module will open at the LAPD women's jail downtown, the first such police lockup in the nation, according to Capt. Dave Lindsay, the jail division commander. "This is a major change," Lindsay said.

"Lockout" is about a troubled prison in space, starring Guy Pearce as an ex-secret agent all muscled up and throwing as many one-liners as punches. The mission is improbable, the film's logic loosey-goosey, and there are many explosive shortcuts - as in, if it doesn't make sense, just blow it up big time and maybe the audience won't notice. Ah, but they will. The film is based on an idea from espionage/action specialist Luc Besson, whose interest in the genre seems to know no bounds - writing, directing, producing, sometimes merely thinking.