1. SAN QUENTIN – A Death Row inmate has been found dead in his San Quentin cell, apparently a suicide, Lt. Sam Robinson reports. Kenneth Friedman, 58, was awaiting execution from the murders of two men in Los Angeles. Since California reinstated capital punishment in 1978, 57 condemned men died from natural causes, 21 committed suicide and 13 were executed. There are 728 prisoners on California’s Death Row.
2. LOS ANGELES – The federal government has agreed to pay $425,000 to an inmate who contracted valley fever at the Taft Correctional Institution after he was transferred from New York in 2005. The prisoner, Arjang Panah has since been released.
3. BOISE, Idaho. – The Idaho Department of Correction has transferred 130 inmates to Kit Carson Correctional Center in Burlington, Colo. because Idaho’s prison don’t have enough room to hold the state’s growing inmate population. Idaho’s inmate population topped 8,000 for the first time in April.
4. FORT WORTH, Texas. — A man who spent 24 years in prison has been freed after DNA evidence cleared him in the rape of a 14-year-old girl. David Lee Wiggins said, “I always believed the truth would come out,”
5. CORONA — Fourteen female inmates have graduated from a self-help program that teaches women about choices they did not know were available to them in previous environments. The program has a 3.5 percent recidivism rate among the 114 participants who have paroled. The program is Choice Theory Connection Program at California Institution for Women.
6. TUCKER, Ark. — Department of Corrections officials say about 260 prisoners were isolated with a stomach virus or food poisoning at the Tucker Unit Prison, reports The Associate Press. Officials suspect a highly contagious virus because some of the prisoners who were sickened did not eat the suspect food.
7. BALTIMORE, Md. — The Baltimore Sun reports juveniles detained at the city jail say there is little supervision from correctional officers, which allows regular attacks among detainees.
8. CHICAGO, Ill. — A City Council committee has signed off on settlements in two lawsuits against police torture cases, according to The Associated Press. More than $5 million would go to Michael Tillman, who said police tortured him for four days until he confessed to a murder, of which he was later exonerated. He spent more than 23 years in prison. David Fauntleroy would get $1.8 million for the 25 years he spent in prison for a 1983 double murder that was dropped in 2009. Former Police Commander Jon Burge is serving 4 1/2 years in prison for lying about the torture allegations. The settlements requires full City Council approval.
9. OAKLAND — The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation recently held a public forum to solicit suggestions for improving rehabilitation programs for inmates and parolees, reports the Oakland Tribune. “We are rebuilding our rehabilitation programs,” said Bill Sessa, a CDCR spokesperson. “We have a very clear understanding of the price everybody pays for the high recidivism rate. All the programs we’re putting in place are based on research and the latest scientific evidence that we have.”
10. COMPTON — Former Mayor Omar Bradley’s corruption conviction was tossed out by an appeals court. The court said his trial failed to prove he meant to break the law, according to The Los Angeles Times.
11. SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a defendant who represented himself in a 1994 hearing to determine whether he is mentally competent to stand trial should be reevaluated or receive a new trial, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The court said legal representation during competency hearings “is consistent with upholding the dignity and autonomy of the defendant and, more importantly, protects not only the fairness of the proceedings but also the appearance of fairness.” The ruling came in an appeal of the 1995 conviction of Christopher Charles Lightsey, who was sentenced to death for burglarizing, robbing and murdering 76-year-old William Compton, the Chronicle reports.
12. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Nearly 18,000 former prison inmates may not know their voting rights have been restored and are eligible to cast a ballot this year, according to a report in The Associated Press. Notices were mailed. However, they were undeliverable.
13. AUBURN, Ind. — The Indiana Supreme Court overturned Williman Spranger’s death sentence for killing a marshal in 1995. He was then sentenced to 60 years in prison. He completed his sentence after good-time credits and educational achievements were calculated. He will have to wear an electronic monitoring device for a year.
14. BOSTON — Families of jail and prison inmates want an investigation of Securus Technologies of Dallas and Global Tel Link, claiming they charge excessive rates for telephone use and service is poor, reports The Associated Press.
15. LANSING, Mich. — State officials are soliciting bids for a three-year contract to provide medical services to its 43,000 prisoners, according to The Associated Press. The move is part of a privatization effort to replace 1,300 state employees, officials said. Services would include physical and mental care, wound care, treatment of heart disease and diabetes, dental care, optometry and sex offender treatment, reports The Detroit Free Press.
16. ST. PAUL, Minn. — Prison officials are considering new garden plots in medium-security prisons next spring under a new state law. The foodstuff grown will help feed a minimum-security unit and families who get food from a local food bank, according to The Associated Press.
17. HARRISBURG, Pa. — State officials are implementing a new law designed to modernize its parole interviewing technique so more parolees will get into halfway house rehabilitation. The new approach is expected to save $253 million in five years, according to the State Republican Caucus.