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In The News

Accusations Of Torture Unleashed Inside Israeli Prisons Since Oct. 7

Recently released, a former Palestinian detainee recounts the beatings, humiliation, and deprivation he endured as human rights groups warn of a prison system turned into an instrument of state violence.

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In The News

Crime Has A Gender: How Male Violence Drains Public Resources

Crime would plummet, billions would be saved, and society could redirect resources toward care, education, and health instead of managing the costs of male violence.

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Eyes on the U.S. In The News

How New York Lost Control Of Its Notorious Rikers Prison

Federal authorities have stripped New York City of control over its notorious Rikers Island jail complex, plagued by violence and drugs. The prison, once slated for closure, still holds nearly 7,000 detainees.

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In The News Society Women Worldwide

Femicide: What To Do When The Murderer Is A Minor

Since its entry into force in June 2016, a Mexican law intended to protect juvenile criminals has been flagged by the families of femicide victims as hindering their access to justice.

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Geopolitics Society

Arrest Of Italian-Egyptian Adult Film Star Revives Fears Of Prisoner Abuse In Egypt

Italy is seeking information about the condition of Sharif el-Anain, an Italy-based adult film actor who was arrested in Egypt earlier this month under unclear circumstances. Italians have not forgotten Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old Italian researcher of labor rights, who died in Egyptian police custody after allegedly being tortured.

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Israel-Palestine War

Israel’s Wave Of West Bank Arrests Is Really Just Revenge Hostage-Taking

Israel has launched a massive campaign of retaliatory detentions in the occupied West Bank. The campaign aims not only to humiliate the detainees, but it has also targeted those who have been released and it has revealed widespread violations and Israel’s determination to punish “all” Palestinians.

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In The News

Gabon Coup Leader Sworn In, Escaping Burning Man, Google Turns 25

? Ǹdéèwō!* Welcome to Monday, where Gabon’s coup leader is sworn in as “transitional president” after President Ali Bongo was ousted last week, Russia launches an attack on one of Ukraine’s biggest grain ports and the most-used search engine celebrates its 25th birthday. Meanwhile, in Les Echos, Basile Dekonink reports from the small Balkan nation […]

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Geopolitics Ideas

How Can Colombia’s President Petro Still Sympathize With Russia?

Colombia’s leftist president claims Russia and the United States act in “much the same” way in the world, disregarding the fact that only one of those states poisons or throws critics out the window.

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In The News

India Faces Eternally Complex Child-Care Question: What To Do With Kids Of Women Prisoners

While growing up inside a prison leads to a range of difficulties for children, those separated from their mothers and left on the outside also face different traumas. In this in-depth reportage for India’s The Wire, journalist Sukanya Shantha talks to mothers who had to give birth in jail and those who went without seeing their children for years to keep them protected.

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Geopolitics Russia-Ukraine War

Ukrainian “Spies And Traitors” Dumped In Russia’s Already Crowded Prison System

Russian jails were already struggling thanks to long investigations and an arrest bias. But the conflict in Ukraine has made a bad situation worse in detention centers around the country, with so-called Ukrainian “spies and traitors” locked up without trial.

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In The News

Beyond The Artists, Days Are Numbered For The Cuban Regime

The Cuban government has once again jailed dissenting artists or forced them to flee. But anger at the 60-year dictatorship has spread far beyond artistic circles and the regime no longer has the power to silence people.

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In The News

​An Egyptian Son’s Plea: For​ My Father And Arab Spring Reconciliation

Essam El-Haddad, a senior adviser to President Morsi, was jailed more than eight years ago. His son Abdullah continues to fight for his father’s liberation, which he says is a necessary path toward national union in post-Arab Spring Egypt.

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In The News

Harder Time: How Egypt Cuts Prisoner Communication With Loved Ones

Letters from inmates provide a crucial link with the outside world, and yet the process of sending and receiving them in Egyptian prisons is both arduous and arbitrary as an extra means of control.

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In The News

Fisherman Are Easy Bait To Feed India-Pakistan Conflict

When Pakistani fisherman Abdul Karim Bhatti, who had been a prisoner in India for seven months, was flown home to Karachi, Pakistan, at the end of July, his family didn’t rejoice. They were receiving his dead body. The only information they received was that he died on July 1 at the B.K. Hospital, Bhuj. Or so stated the death certificate, a bilingual document in English and Gujrati, issued on July 9 by the government of the state of Gujrat. No postmortem was carried out. The Indian maritime security forces had arrested Bhatti, along with other fishermen, on January 8 and […]

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In The News

COVID-19 Stirs Prison Policy Around The World

Social distancing, disinfecting common areas and accessing health care: All three key tactics for curbing the spread of coronavirus are particularly complicated inside jails and prisons. While it might seem like an already self-isolating bubble, life inside prisons has changed dramatically since COVID-19 arrived. In an effort to keep healthy, many have lost their rights […]

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Eyes on the U.S. Future Society

Facebook For Felons? New Apps Are A Digital Lifeline For Inmates

Pigeonly is one of several applications that were designed by ex-cons and are transforming the way U.S. prisoners communicate with the outside world.

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Ideas

In Egypt, A Jailed Blogger’s Brief Farewell To His Father

Family and friends waited for incarcerated Egyptian blogger Shady Abu Zeid to be able to arrive at his father’s funeral.

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blog

Tora Prison Diary: Conjuring Harry Potter Magic In The Darkness

Abdelrahman al-Gendy, a standout student and Harry Potter aficionado, was just 17 when he was arrested in Cairo, charged with multiple crimes, and given a 15-year prison sentence.

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In The News

Exclusive – Lula’s Letter From Jail: Brazil Needs Me More Than Ever

Brazil’s imprisoned former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, writes an impassioned plea published by Le Monde, alongside a call by European leaders to Brazilian authorities to let Lula run for president in October.

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In The News

Wife Of Chinese Activist Petitions To Live In Jail With Husband

Lai Wei’e wants to stay by the side her Chinese human rights advocate husband, Liu Yao, who was recently condemned to a 20-year prison sentence.

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In The News

Worse Than Prison, The Life Of Syria’s Female Ex-Inmates

Women held in Syria’s government prisons report psychological abuse, sexual assault and torture. But for many, the suffering they experience after their release is even worse.

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Society

Lessons For Duterte, Why Thailand Softened Its Drug War

The current deadly war on drugs in the Philippines echoes what happened in Thailand in the early 2000s — massive arrests and a wave of extrajudicial killings. Officials in Bangkok now admit the crackdown didn’t work, th

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Society

Two Friends, Prison Time And Breakout Rap In Buenos Aires

BUENOS AIRES — Brian Molina and Maximiliano Fernández, two of Argentina’s emerging rap stars, met in jail. Molina was 11 years old when he wrote his first song. It was May 2005, and he was living at the Borchez de Otamendi home for minors in Buenos Aires. When he performed his song for friends, teachers […]

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blog

Extra! La Razon On Chapo Prison Tunnel

La Razon de Mexico, July 13 “He left by this hole,” reads the front page of La Razon de Mexico“s Monday edition, a day after Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman’s escaped for the second time from a ­maximum security prison. Guzman — who already escaped from another Mexican maximum security prison in 2001, […]

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Society

This Muslim Woman Is A Prison Chaplain In France

VILLENEUVE D’ASCQ — Envelopes and calendars, decorative stickers, headscarves, prayer rugs and small copies of the Koran: Samia el-Alaoui Talibi, 54, has her car’s trunk packed full of gifts. A trained mathematician, she’s one of the only Muslim women in France to work as a prison chaplain. The presents she brings are for the convicts […]

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Society

Beer Parties And Prostitutes In One Of Brazil’s Most Violent Prisons

SALVADOR — There’s nothing quite like a barbecue with friends and beer, lots of it, to go down cool and easy with the sizzling steaks — and of course the photos to brag about the good time. The scene would be nothing remarkable if it wasn’t for its location: Lemos Brito Penitentiary, in Salvador, one […]

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Society

What Prison Jumpsuits In Court Say About Chinese Justice

China’s ambitious judicial reform must include such basic principles as ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ and equality before the law. But it must also happen one small detail at a time.

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Society Terror in Europe

How Jihad Recruitment Spreads In French Prisons

Islamist radicals have long known that inmates offer prime soldiers to help wage their war on the outside. Now the state must react.

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Geopolitics

No Room For Dissent: Democracy At Stake In Venezuela

After opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was jailed, the Maduro government is now targeting another political nemesis, Maria Corina Machado. The world must take notice.

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blog Geopolitics

Desperate For Freedom, Egypt’s Hunger-Striking Political Prisoners

Tired of being denied basic rights, Egypt’s political prisoners are increasingly trying to break the cycle of helplessness with the one bit of control they still have over their lives. 

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blog Geopolitics

Jehovah’s Witness Challenge To South Korea’s Military Service

SEOUL — Kim Ju-hwan is headed toward an uncertain future. The 24-year old university student was sentenced to a year in jail for refusing to serve in South Korea’s military. As a Jehovah’s Witness, Kim says he’s morally opposed to war. “Based on what I learned in the Bible, I’m a conscientious objector. There’s a verse that says love your enemy. That’s my belief, and it’s how I’m trying to lead my life.” All able-bodied South Korean are required to serve in the armed forces for about two years. But for conscientious objectors like Kim Ju-hwan, there is no alternative […]

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Geopolitics

Where Is My Son? A Visit To Egypt’s Tora Prison

TORA — It’s 10 a.m. and the contours of Tora Prison, south of Cairo, are filling with families arriving on time to visit relatives. Old Peugeot 504s are offloading passengers whose faces are marked by the fatigue of the trip. The scene feels like an invisible face of Cairo. Vendors selling oranges and mandarins are part of the prison economy, with families stopping and buying some on their way into the prison complex. A girl who looks about 10 years old is carrying a colossal tray of kanafeh pastries on her head. Her little brother is carrying a bag of […]

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Society

Canadian Helicopter Jailbirds Back In Custody After James Bond Moment

JOURNAL DE MONTREAL, METRO MONTREAL (Canada), CTV NEWS, CNN (USA), AP Worldcrunch MONTREAL – Two inmates have been recaptured early Monday morning, only one day after their daring escape from a jail northwest of Montreal, in the Canadian Province of Quebec. Quebec provincial police told the AP they had arrested four people about 30 miles […]

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Ideas

Why Do China’s Foreign Death Row Inmates Get Better Treatment Than Chinese?

-OpEd- BEIJING – The four foreign criminals who murdered 13 Chinese sailors in 2011 on northern Thailand’s Mekong River were put to death by lethal injection on March 1. I support the death sentence in this case and the execution of these men. The significance of this execution is three-fold. First, whoever commits a crime, […]

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Geopolitics

Seventeen People Killed During Mexican Prison Break

EL NORTE (Mexico), CNN (USA), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – At least 17 people were killed in a Northern Mexico prison on Tuesday, reports El Norte. Eleven inmates and six guards died in a shootout as the prisoners attempted to escape the prison through tunnels, reports CNN. “The inmates started to shoot with […]

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Geopolitics

At Least 20 Dead In Venezuela Prison Riot

CNN (USA), BBC NEWS (UK), EL NACIONAL (Venezuela) Worldcrunch CARACAS – Venezuela prison minister Iris Varela has confirmed that at least 20 people were killed after violence broke out in a Venezuelan jail, reports El Nacional. The violence occurred between rival gangs, with one of the dead a relative of an inmate, in Yare prison, […]

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