Jail

Diane Tran is a 17-year-old honor student, a high school junior with two jobs, and now - thanks to one Houston judge and Texas student absentee laws - a criminal. So the world decided to lend her a hand. Going from job to job to support two siblings - while taking advanced-placement and dual-credit college level courses - Diane had missed too many days of school, according to KHOU in Houston, which first reported her story . So a judge, Lanny Moriarty, decided she needed to do some hard time.

In a jail system facing overcrowding and under growing pressure to release inmates early, one of the most difficult questions confronting the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is: Who do you let out? Officials hope a key part of the answer is computer software that can sift through a matrix of "psychometric" data, including a 137-question survey, and help identify inmates who seem least likely to commit new crimes. The questionnaire delves into personal histories: Were your parents divorced or separated?

Deion Sanders' estranged wife was released from jail Tuesday after spending the night there on a misdemeanor domestic assault charge. Speaking to reporters outside Colin County (Texas) Jail, Pilar Sanders denied her husband's claims that she attacked him in front of their children, saying the public is taking his side because he is a former star football player. “I'm a full-time mom, 100% for my children,” Pilar Sanders said, her voice breaking. “And I just haven't been given a fair shake.” She has been ordered by a magistrate judge to stay away from the family's home in Prosper, a suburb of Dallas, and is barred from threatening or harassing her husband, according to KTVT-TV.

HOUSTON -- A Texas judge has set aside contempt charges against a 17-year-old Houston-area honor student jailed for missing too much school as she worked to support her family. Last week, Justice of the Peace Lanny Moriarty sent 11th-grader Diane Tran to jail for 24 hours and ordered her to pay a $100 fine for excessive truancy. The ruling came after Tran had been issued a warning by a judge last month about her absences. The honor student had been working two jobs to support her two siblings after her parents divorced.

Re attorney F. Lee Bailey going to jail for six months (March 7): Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause. MORGAN McPHERSON Los Angeles

Gov. Pete Wilson has introduced his new crime bill and it will make it easier to put people in jail, and for longer periods of time (Jan. 22). In his budget for this year, Wilson proposed raising the fees for students attending community colleges, state colleges, and the University of California. Most reasonable people will agree that putting a person in college now will probably keep them out of jail later. Also, it would seem that California would be better served if its citizenry had spent time in college rather than in jail.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. must remain behind bars in the Clark County (Nev.) Detention Center, a judge has ruled, denying the world champion boxer's request to be removed to house arrest. After being taken into custody to begin his sentence in a domestic violence case, Mayweather "discovered his subjective understanding" of jail conditions "was inaccurate," Judge Melissa Saragosa wrote in a decision Wednesday that voided a scheduled Thursday hearing on the matter. "These facts do not give rise to jurisdiction of this court to modify defendant's sentence.

Re "Inmate Phone Calls," April 30. As I was reading the article by Anna Gorman, I felt I must respond and elaborate on the fact that phone calls are a privilege and not a right to inmates. The article makes it seem as if the family members, as well as the inmates, in Ventura County have no choice in keeping the calls short and not costly to family and friends! I was married to an inmate and realized too soon that phone calls are made for basically four reasons: 1. To keep in touch with family, friends and their support network; 2. To have their wives, especially, continue to market and continue the inmates' illegal activities which got them incarcerated; 3. To contact their paroled jail house buddies to do illegal activities which can include murder, and; 4. To intimidate witnesses in upcoming trials.

Floyd Mayweather Jr.  will be released from jail in Las Vegas as early as Thursday night, a Las Vegas police spokesman said Wednesday. Mayweather, the unbeaten world super-welterweight champion, has been jailed inside Clark County (Nev.) Detention Center since June 1 for a 2010 domestic violence crime against the mother of his three children. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail but was eligible for early release based on good behavior. Jail officials informed Mayweather's attorney that additional inmates might accelerate the boxer's release, according to a person familiar with the situation but unauthorized to speak publicly about it. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept.