Prisoners

The early release of inmates in some parts of California is accelerating as officials at county jails struggle to accommodate state prisoners flowing into their facilities. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department planned to begin releasing about 150 inmates Friday because of overcrowding in county jails. Sheriff Rod Hoops has decided to release the inmates, mostly parole violators or those convicted of nonviolent crimes, over the next five days. The inmates must have served at least half of their sentence, and have less than 30 days remaining on their sentence.

Informally sketched but deeply felt, Bradley Beesley's documentary "Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo" mingles with the spirited cowgirl inmates who compete in Oklahoma's annual state penitentiary rodeo, a 70-year tradition of Wild West-style showbiz that began to allow females to participate only in 2006. Although there's a queasy tinge of gladiatorial bloodlust in seeing society's punished put themselves in hooves' and horns' way for spectator sport, the tears in one woman's eyes as she describes leaving the correctional facility for an afternoon of outdoor training speak wonders.

Justice delayed was justice denied for Omer Harland Gallion. He died in prison in his sixth year of waiting for U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson to act on a decision that he had been wrongfully convicted and should be released or retried. Anderson took no action until December, when he dismissed the matter as moot after an attorney brought Gallion's death to his attention. Two other cases in which junior judicial officials found grounds for striking prisoners' felony convictions also languished unattended by Anderson for five and a half and eight years, respectively.

In a daring escape, 16 prisoners, five of them awaiting execution, apparently crawled through a window of an Iraqi jail before fanning out in different directions, police and local officials said Thursday. The escape in the northern town of Tikrit, which raised concerns about corruption within security forces, resulted in a curfew in the birthplace of the late dictator Saddam Hussein, as authorities hunted for the men. At least two of the fugitives were later captured, one at a checkpoint in Tikrit and another elsewhere in Salahuddin province, outside Samarra, the provincial capital, police said.

Hundreds of Sunni men disappeared for months into a secret Baghdad prison under the jurisdiction of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's military office, where many were routinely tortured until the country's Human Rights Ministry gained access to the facility, Iraqi officials say. The men were detained by the Iraqi army in October in sweeps targeting Sunni groups in Nineveh province, a stronghold of the group Al Qaeda in Iraq and other militants in...

I see by The Times (April 1) that there is a bill in the California Legislature to prohibit prisoners from watching television. If the object is to punish them, they should be made to watch it. Let them pay for their crimes to the fullest extent. IRV ELMAN Pacific Palisades

The persons being detained for terrorist investigation (Oct. 17) are essentially prisoners of war, whether they are captured in the U.S. or in another country. After all, we are at war and they very well might have information that we can use to protect ourselves. It is unfortunate that some of them are here illegally or some from repressive regimes, but if they ask for rights that we guarantee to our citizens they have to at least adhere to our laws. Herb Yellin Northridge