Prisons

Stillwater corrections officer pulled over with cocaine, pot, and crack pipe

Randy Anderson, a 21-year veteran officer at the Minnesota Corrections Facility in Stillwater, could spend the rest of his life behind bars after he was pulled over with a smorgasbord of drugs and paraphernalia near Mauston, Wisconsin.SEE ALSO: Duluth's "Operation Crackdown": 30 arrested in connecti ... More >>

The House I Live In explains failed war on drugs

Powerful voices argue for policy changes in Sundance prize-winning documentary

Danny Bettcher, state DWI record holder, back in jail after getting busted drinking

It's not a record anybody wants to have, but it's Danny Bettcher's claim to fame. The 59-year-old resident of New York Mills has the most DWIs in Minnesota history -- 27.SEE ALSO:-- Kevin Tegtmeier arrested for 14th DUI, called "menace to society"-- Justin Clark had roughly 35 drinks in four hours b ... More >>

CeCe McDonald supporters throw Molotov cocktail at Portland Wells Fargo

A group claiming solidarity with Chrishaun "CeCe" McDonald, a transgender woman who recently pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in Hennepin County, is taking credit for an unlit Molotov cocktail found inside a Wells Fargo in Portland, Oregon last week. The bank manager found the homemade ... More >>

We Are Augustines

Civil commitment leaves Hennepin County offenders languishing

Mentally ill inmates wait months for evaluation, treatment

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

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 >>

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 >>

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.

Want a free necklace? Show your job-termination slip

Interesting things happen when the economy plummets. Wisconsin already has a running start.

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

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

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

Meth overdose

Just Who Are We Punishing?

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

Flirting With Death

How an unlikely date led to the writing of 'The Exonerated'

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

Public Image Limited

A new exhibition moves public art out of the town square and into a conceptual realm

Bustin' Loose

Deep River of Song, the Alan Lomax Collection

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

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

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.