Prisoner Transfer

It was a rough night at the GOP debate in Las Vegas for Herman Cain -- and after the debate it got rougher still. Cain was asked about remarks he made earlier in the day during a CNN interview about whether he would consider a prisoner exchange involving suspected terrorists jailed at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and an American soldier, similar to the deal that freed Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit along with more than 1,000 Palestinians....

A multiple homicide outside a Northridge boardinghouse has prompted Los Angeles County supervisors to call for legislation that would prevent state prisoners with a serious criminal history from being released to county supervision. Realignment - intended to help the state meet a federal mandate to reduce its prison population - requires that some felons convicted of nonviolent offenses serve their time in county jails rather than state prison. It has also resulted in some inmates being released to county supervision instead of state parole.

Suspected members of a Mexican drug cartel disguised as federal police officers entered a prison in the northern state of Zacatecas and freed 59 inmates, police and army officials said. Most of the prisoners who escaped are believed to be members of the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, one of the country's most powerful criminal organizations. President Felipe Calderon has staked his presidency on crushing drug gangs that killed more than 6,000 people last year across the nation. The United States is increasingly alarmed by the violence, fearing it could spill across the border.

It was a rough night at the GOP debate in Las Vegas for Herman Cain -- and after the debate it got rougher still. Cain was asked about remarks he made earlier in the day during a CNN interview about whether he would consider a prisoner exchange involving suspected terrorists jailed at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and an American soldier, similar to the deal that freed Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit along with more than 1,000 Palestinians....

About 1,200 Lebanese prisoners from the Israeli army's top-security Ansar detention camp, about 15 miles west of here, were moved across the border Tuesday to a prison in northwestern Israel. The move was carried out in secret, and there appeared to be some question about its legality under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

The airline uses conventional passenger jets and makes scheduled stops at more than three dozen cities across the United States. Aside from that, "Con Air" is a little different. There are no movies to watch, magazines to read or pillows to make a nap more comfortable. Window shades stay up, seats don't recline and tray tables are stowed even when lunch is served.

U.S. marshals transferred former Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. from an Ohio jail to a federal prison in Pennsylvania, where he will serve eight years for bribery and racketeering. Traficant had asked to be placed in an Ohio prison so he can run for reelection Nov. 5 from his Youngstown district. But the sentencing judge made no recommendation either way. The Constitution states that a congressional candidate must be a resident of the state where he is seeking office.

Facing anxious citizens afraid of becoming terrorist targets, federal officials confirmed Tuesday that some of the most notorious Guantanamo detainees could be sent to Illinois if the Obama administration buys a state prison. The proposed federal prison in Thomson would be the site for military tribunals for five alleged plotters in the 2000 bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole, said Alan Liotta, the Defense Department's principal director for detainee policy, at a public hearing on the plan.

Officials at a state prison in Norco transferred a dozen inmates to three other state facilities Wednesday night, completing their removal of 170 men in the wake of two brawls that began as a dispute over seats in a television room and escalated into what the officials described as a racial conflict. On Jan. 20, between 30 and 40 inmates of the California Rehabilitation Center fought over seats to watch the Super Bowl game in a dormitory television room, said Lt.

The planned transfer of Phil Spector to a different prison has been halted, a corrections official said Friday, but different reasons were given as complications continued to surround his incarceration. Spector, 69, a legendary music producer, is serving 19 years to life for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson. Spector's wife, Rachelle, said she interceded with a prison official and Spector filed an inmate appeal after it was announced that he would be moved to Pleasant Valley State Prison at Coalinga with a group of other prisoners.

Los Angeles County officials are exploring an unconventional solution for handling the prisoners the state is passing off to them: passing them off to someone else. By year's end, hundreds of criminals who would have done their time in state prisons are expected to go instead to county lockups as part of the governor's plan to thin the population in California's chronically overcrowded prisons. Taking some of those inmates and shipping them out again is being considered as a last resort, county officials said.

The Obama administration wants to retain the ability to hold terrorism suspects from other countries at its largest prison in Afghanistan, even after it hands control of the facility to the Afghan government next year, according to U.S. officials. If Afghan officials agree, it would give the administration a place to interrogate terrorism suspects captured in countries such as Somalia or Yemen. President Obama made a high-profile pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after taking office last year.

Facing anxious citizens afraid of becoming terrorist targets, federal officials confirmed Tuesday that some of the most notorious Guantanamo detainees could be sent to Illinois if the Obama administration buys a state prison. The proposed federal prison in Thomson would be the site for military tribunals for five alleged plotters in the 2000 bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole, said Alan Liotta, the Defense Department's principal director for detainee policy, at a public hearing on the plan.

The planned transfer of Phil Spector to a different prison has been halted, a corrections official said Friday, but different reasons were given as complications continued to surround his incarceration. Spector, 69, a legendary music producer, is serving 19 years to life for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson. Spector's wife, Rachelle, said she interceded with a prison official and Spector filed an inmate appeal after it was announced that he would be moved to Pleasant Valley State Prison at Coalinga with a group of other prisoners.

Suspected members of a Mexican drug cartel disguised as federal police officers entered a prison in the northern state of Zacatecas and freed 59 inmates, police and army officials said. Most of the prisoners who escaped are believed to be members of the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, one of the country's most powerful criminal organizations. President Felipe Calderon has staked his presidency on crushing drug gangs that killed more than 6,000 people last year across the nation. The United States is increasingly alarmed by the violence, fearing it could spill across the border.

The CIA's secret prisons are being shuttered. Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits. And Guantanamo Bay will eventually go back to being a wind-swept naval base on the southeastern corner of Cuba. But even while dismantling these programs, President Obama left intact an equally controversial counter-terrorism tool.

A multiple homicide outside a Northridge boardinghouse has prompted Los Angeles County supervisors to call for legislation that would prevent state prisoners with a serious criminal history from being released to county supervision. Realignment - intended to help the state meet a federal mandate to reduce its prison population - requires that some felons convicted of nonviolent offenses serve their time in county jails rather than state prison. It has also resulted in some inmates being released to county supervision instead of state parole.

A federal judge Monday ordered the U.S. military not to hand over to the Iraqi government a U.S. citizen suspected of being a senior associate of insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi. The case of Shawqi Omar is the latest legal fight that tests the limits of the Bush administration's power to keep Americans it has identified as terrorists out of U.S. courts. U.S.

A federal judge Monday ordered the U.S. military not to hand over to the Iraqi government a U.S. citizen suspected of being a senior associate of insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi. The case of Shawqi Omar is the latest legal fight that tests the limits of the Bush administration's power to keep Americans it has identified as terrorists out of U.S. courts. U.S.

The scandal-plagued juvenile prison in Camarillo, the only coed facility in the California Youth Authority system, will probably house only female inmates beginning next year -- a change that would save money and solve nagging problems, state officials said. "When you look for an obvious place where you can cut back on expenses, I would anticipate closing the male portion. That is such a logical option," said Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara).