Prisons

We Are Augustines

Civil commitment leaves Hennepin County offenders languishing

Mentally ill inmates wait months for evaluation, treatment

Eric Bower, lone at-large Native Mob defendant, arrested

​Suspected Native Mob member Eric Bower was arrested yesterday, ending the feds' manhunt that began earlier this year. In late January, the feds unsealed an indictment charging 24 people with crimes associated with the Native Mob. The feds shut down all Minnesota state prisons in pursuit of the a ... More >>

Native Mob takedown by feds shuts down Minnesota prisons

For more on the Native Mob, read our November 9 cover story, "The Banishing."​All Minnesota prisons were shut down from 4 a.m Tuesday to 5 a.m. yesterday morning as part of a federally orchestrated, multi-jurisdictional takedown on members of the Native Mob gang. In total, 24 suspected Nativ ... More >>

Prairie Correctional Facility, private prison, not re-opening soon, says Rep. Andrew Falk

Prairie Correctional Facility closed in early 2010.​The Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton won't be re-opening anytime soon, at least not according to Rep. Andrew Falk. Prairie Correctional Facility has been closed since February 2010. A report by the Minnesota Independent on the growth o ... More >>

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, freed from Iran, call for release of all political prisoners

Shane Bauer, left, Josh Fattal: Back home, and speaking out.​Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal have returned to the United States, and begun describing their two-plus-year ordeal in Iran as accused, convicted, and imprisoned "spies." The two Americans had to go on hunger strikes just to receive letters ... More >>

Minnesota criminal recidivism rate is nation's worst

There's a good chance he'll be back.​Minnesota has the worst criminal recidivism rate in the country? That's a national ranking we're not too proud of. A Pew Center on the States report finds that 61.2 percent of prisoners released here were back behind bars after three years, either because ... More >>

Prison inmates prepare Minnesota for potentially record-breaking floods

rian_beanPrison inmates are doing battle with old man river.​After record-breaking snowfalls all winter, warmer weather has riverside communities scrambling to prepare for some very serious flooding. St. Paul officials are predicting as many as 2,200 people could be forced to evacuate downtow ... More >>

Oedipus el Rey

rian_beanPrison inmates are doing battle with old man river.​After record-breaking snowfalls all winter, warmer weather has riverside communities scrambling to prepare for some very serious flooding. St. Paul officials are predicting as many as 2,200 people could be forced to evacuate downtow ... More >>

Denny Hecker jailed again for fumbling financials [UPDATE]

Denny Hecker is back behind bars.​Bankrupt auto dealer Denny Hecker has been booked into the Sherburne County jail, and treated to a new mug shot. That's not what he expected out of a routine federal court hearing yesterday, and today he got more bad news: He may stay behind bars until his se ... More >>

Denny Hecker accused of concealing $150,000

Hecker's dim future just got a little dimmer.​One would think that if you were already neck deep in a legal shitstorm -- say, facing more than enough fraud charges to keep you in federal prison for the rest of your life -- you'd cool your heels for a while. At least chill until the trial is ... More >>

Titillating programs aired on Moose Lake sex offenders' TVs

Photo: st33voNot what the doctor ordered​Oops. For about two months there, inmates at the Moose Lake Correctional Facility, including some sex offenders, were getting racy after-hours HBO and Showtime shows on their televisions.Corrections officers had reported the "pornographic" programming c ... More >>

John T. Babcook ran down woman 'like an animal'

Babcook faces a felony charge worth 20 years behind bars​John T. Babcook is this morning's poster child for road rage,sitting in jail on a first-degree assault charge, after he ran down a fleeing 23-year-old Oakdale woman "like a dog" in the Hill-Murray School parking lot in Maplewood. Cops s ... More >>

Lil Wayne blackface skit roils Bethel University

​Here's a great bad idea for a campus AIDS program fundraiser: Have a student in blackface impersonate Lil Wayne, complete with dreadlocks, gold teeth and baggy pants. Seriously? Evidently that's what happened recently at Bethel University. The students in the skit have apologized, but their ... More >>

Tom Petters appeals as pauper and seeks public defence

Ken AvidorPetters hears the judge sentence him to a life behind bars​Tearing a page from the Denny Hecker instructional manual on getting the public to cover the costs of private enterprise deceit, convicted Ponzi schemer Tom Petters filed notice on Tuesday in the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of ... More >>

Lowertown Reading Jam

Ken AvidorPetters hears the judge sentence him to a life behind bars​Tearing a page from the Denny Hecker instructional manual on getting the public to cover the costs of private enterprise deceit, convicted Ponzi schemer Tom Petters filed notice on Tuesday in the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of ... More >>

D&D banned at Wis. prison because it promotes gang activity

Ah yes, should have known those D&D kids were up to something bigger than monster figurines and not having real friends.

Man actually marries woman in jail for crash that killed 4 kids

The relationship started last August when Harvieux began writing her letters in prison, saying he thought she was unfairly targeted because she was an illegal immigrant.

T.I. heads to the pokey

Group showers, a 6 x 6 cell, supervised visits-- the Atlanta rapper can have whatever he likes.

Simon Says

Motivational speaker Russell Simon made a career out of imploring teens to steer clear of drugs and alcohol. So why did he go on a drunken, meth-fueled rampage?

Did James Earl Ray act alone?

A Minneapolis author helps raise new questions about the King assassination

A Soldier in Winter

A 24-year-old veteran seeks redemption for atrocities committed during the Iraq war

Binary Star

A 24-year-old veteran seeks redemption for atrocities committed during the Iraq war

To Hell And Back

Michael Winterbottom puts a face—and a hood—on the suffering at Guantanamo

Disgraced ex-judge Amundson talks to the NYT

Michael Winterbottom puts a face—and a hood—on the suffering at Guantanamo

The American Way of Torture

Local physician and author Steve Miles examines the forensic record of U.S. abuses in Iraqi prisons

Lino Lakes Correctional Facility: the other body of Christ

Local physician and author Steve Miles examines the forensic record of U.S. abuses in Iraqi prisons

Meth overdose

Local physician and author Steve Miles examines the forensic record of U.S. abuses in Iraqi prisons

Just Who Are We Punishing?

Local physician and author Steve Miles examines the forensic record of U.S. abuses in Iraqi prisons

The Drug War: Back with a Vengeance

A new bill in Congressional committee would drastically increase sentences for many kinds of drug offenses

The drug war: back with a vengeance

A new bill in Congressional committee would drastically increase sentences for many kinds of drug offenses

Spotlight: King of Hearts

Theatre Latté Da at the Loring Playhouse

Capitol Offenses

State legislators are poised for a spending spree--on stadiums and prisons

The Death Trap

What's wrong with Pawlenty's execution song

Stupid Sentencing Tricks

A Minnesota judge is targeted for speaking out against federal drug-sentencing guidelines

Musical Minimalism

Michelle Hensley takes a bit of Broadway to the workhouse

Trial & Era

When Sara Jane Olson goes to court in coming weeks, a Los Angeles jury will be asked to pass judgment on the most divisive time in recent American history.

Homeless

A felon, his father, and U.S. immigration law

S is for Spriegl

One jury sent Dameion Robinson to prison for life. The other said he was not guilty. Confusing? Not to the state Supreme Court.

Love and Death

In Mr. Death, documentarian Errol Morris trains his beloved Interrotron on execution technologist-turned-Holocaust denier Fred Leuchter

Bustin' Loose

In Mr. Death, documentarian Errol Morris trains his beloved Interrotron on execution technologist-turned-Holocaust denier Fred Leuchter

Deep River of Song, the Alan Lomax Collection

In Mr. Death, documentarian Errol Morris trains his beloved Interrotron on execution technologist-turned-Holocaust denier Fred Leuchter

CODE Red

For the last year, Minneapolis's CODEFOR strategy has been packing the jails. Now state taxpayers are being asked to pay the price.

Kim Wozencraft: The Catch

For the last year, Minneapolis's CODEFOR strategy has been packing the jails. Now state taxpayers are being asked to pay the price.

A Prison by any Other Name

At the Minnesota sexual psychopathic personality treatment center, they lock up men who are dangerous--or unlucky--enough to be tabbed menaces to society even after they've done their prison time

Fall Guy

Larry Gould was a long-time junkie on the mend in a methadone program until he was lured into a drug sting. Now he's doing five years. But he made a few undercover cops look good in the process, and that was the important thing.

Dead On Arrival

Tupac's posthumous Makaveli, along with new releases by Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, take gangsta rap to different ends

LEFT FOR DEAD

Nguyen Cao Son and his fellow South Vietnamese soldiers were part of a secret U.S. spy commando force--so secret, in fact, that the American government turned its back and let him spend 14 years in North Vietnamese prison camps.

A Decent Burial

Nguyen Cao Son and his fellow South Vietnamese soldiers were part of a secret U.S. spy commando force--so secret, in fact, that the American government turned its back and let him spend 14 years in North Vietnamese prison camps.

Death Row Stories

During the 1970s the Supreme Court outlawed capital punishment on the grounds that it was applied in an "arbitrary" and "capricious" manner. Now it's back with a vengeance, but as a group of Minnesota attorneys is learning, nothing has really changed.