Gas prices and strict state budgets have prompted at least 11 states — Connecticut, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota and Tennessee — to start regularly using teleconferences between judges and inmates. The move is seen as a way to both improve public safety and save cash.
The AP reports that some inmates say they'd prefer to plead their cases in person, but correction officials say the technology offers a fair alternative to spending millions of dollars moving inmates in person.
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Drug diversion courts around the country offer offenders a chance for redemption, rather than recidivism. After acknowledging guilt for crimes like low-level dealing or stealing to support addictions, addicts can volunteer for nine to 18 months of urine testing, group therapy, mandatory sobriety meetings, intensely supervised by a judge. Those that don't make it through, can end up in jail. 
Despite overcrowding in US prisons, an Illinois jail has booked one man who hasn't committed a single crime — the sheriff. The creative experiment sounds dangerous to me, but Sheriff Mark Curran, who will be behind bars until Aug. 27, thinks spending time in another man's jumpsuit is 
California's legalization of same-sex marriage has left prison authorities trying to figure out 
Well-behaved prisoners in England and Wales will 
Get this — California taxpayers will spend $378 million next year to care for 1,500 juvenile inmates. In addition to this exorbitant cost, the money spent is more of a waste than an investment, since three out of four juvenile inmates re-offend within three years.
These considerations have prompted a state watchdog group to 
Carolyn LeCroy had two children and a career in film and video production when she lent her storage unit to a friend who hid marijuana in it. In 1994, he fled and she got 55 years in prison. Paroled after serving just a fraction of her sentence in 1996, the former inmate started 
An Israeli soldier just received a 19-day jail sentence for 
With less than 5 percent of the world's population, the US has 25 percent of the world's prisoners. The US incarceration rate, which remained stable for much of US history, increased by seven fold with the late 1970s movement to get tough on crime. 
