April 1, 2008
Across the Country
COLORADO
February 6 - A suspected serial rapist was formally charged in Denver with sexually assaulting and kidnapping a woman in 2005. An extensive investigation into the incident yielded no results at the time, but a DNA profile from the case was matched in January 2008 to a prison inmate who was then arrested at a corrections facility in Centennial. He has already been charged with two other similar attacks in Denver and is a suspect in several similar attacks in Aurora.
GEORGIA
February 8 - An attorney charged with smuggling a 14-inch saw blade to a jailed client was sentenced to five years in prison. The attorney was representing an inmate against charges of armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
IDAHO
January 23 - The governor began selling a plan to lawmakers to let prison companies own and operate for-profit lockups in Idaho, arguing it would be better for corporations to pay upfront costs of housing a growing inmate population rather than the state selling bonds for such projects, as it's been done in the past.
INDIANA
January 25 - An Indiana state prison that was the site of a riot last year involving inmates from Arizona was locked down after three officers were treated for minor injuries in a fight with prisoners. At least some of the inmates involved in the fight were from Arizona, according to a corrections department spokesperson.
January 14 - State police and prison internal affairs officers were investigating the assault of a Westville Correctional Facility secretary by an inmate. The secretary was treated at a hospital following the attack and released later that evening, said a prison spokesman, who would not elaborate on the nature of the attack that occurred in a stairwell of the prison's administration building.
MARYLAND
February 7 - Two prison inmates convicted of stabbing two correctional officers will be spending the rest of their lives behind bars. At the now-closed Maryland House of Correction in Jessup, the inmates stabbed the two correctional officers with eight-inch homemade knives in March 2006. Both inmates were already serving lengthy prison sentences for murder. They will now serve consecutive life sentences after completing their current sentences.
January 28 - A judge sentenced a state prison inmate to life without parole for murdering a correctional officer while escaping from a hospital two years ago. After shooting the officer in the head with the officer's gun as he pleaded for his life, the inmate took a hospital visitor hostage briefly and then carjacked a taxicab.
MASSACHUSETTS
January 29 - One of the instigators of a violent melee at Middleton Jail in June was sentenced to six to eight years in state prison. The 25-year-old inmate pleaded guilty to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon-a metal waist chain he used to attack an officer in the early morning. The officer suffered a serious head wound and was one of five officers injured.
January 18 - Inmates in Massachusetts prisons will have to wait until they are released before they can see movies like Sweeney Todd and Atonement. A prison ban on movies rated R, NC-17, and X was upheld this week by a federal judge who said the policy served a legitimate purpose by shielding prisoners from depictions of sex and violence. The judge rejected an argument that the Department of Corrections ban violated the constitutional rights of inmates.
MINESOTA
February 7 - An inmate who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a staff member at the Moose Lake state prison in 2005 will receive a life prison sentence in Carlton County District Court next week. Michael Howard Bale, 48, was scheduled to stand trial starting Jan. 22 in Carlton, but at the last moment pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
MISSISSIPPI
January 28 - The Harrison County sheriff said four inmates escaped from the Harrison County jail by knocking a hole in a cell wall, lowering themselves with sheets, and scaling the fences. He believes other inmates created diversions to distract jailers to other areas of the facility while the escape went unnoticed. Security cameras in the cell blocks haven't worked in a couple of years, he said, and the alarm system at the perimeter worked for only a month after it was installed.
NORTH CAROLINA
January 22 - A state corrections officer shot and killed a 33-year-old Stokes County inmate as he tried to escape from the Johnston Correctional Institution in Smithfield. The inmate, who had scaled two fences surrounding a paint plant adjacent to the prison when he was shot was serving a 10-year sentence for a 2001 killing.
OKLAHOMA
February 2 - Oklahoma's oldest and most well-known prison is entering its 100th year of operation, and according to prison experts, it hasn't aged gracefully. "Big Mac" should have been retired years ago, according to independent prison auditors. "Some of the things that were going on at the time of the riot in '73 are going on today, right here," a correctional employee said. "I really do think we are at a breaking point."
OREGON
February 6 - A Santiam Correctional Institution inmate serving less than a year for robbery was sentenced to two and a half years after he pleaded guilty to an escape charge. He fled to the home of his former employer, then 70, who was in a wheelchair. He was arrested the next day by sheriff's deputies after a five-hour standoff. He has a long list of previous convictions, including a murder conviction in 1973, and rape, assault and drug convictions.
RHODE ISLAND
February 1 - A correctional officer at the state prison has been found not guilty of assaulting an inmate two years ago. A Superior Court jury acquitted the officer of a misdemeanor charge of simple assault. The officer, who testified at trial that the alleged February 2006 attack never happened, is now seeking reinstatement.
WASHINGTON, DC
January 22-A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled a prison inmate cannot sue federal prison officers about how their possessions are handled. In a 5-4 vote, the justices ruled federal law enforcement officers are immune to lawsuits by prison inmates claiming the officers wrongly lost or misplaced the prisoners' personal property.
