It appeared the entire gallery of men dressed in suits began shouting and stood on their chairs chanting that the decision wasn’t harsh enough. Fists flew and at least one man suffered a bleeding gash to his chin.

“We want honesty!” they shouted. “Revolution til victory!”

Other Mubarak opponents headed to Tahrir Square, the center of last year’s protests, shouting, “Illegitimate! Illegitimate!” They also chanted for Mubarak’s execution.

Vowing not to leave, the crowd later forced the square to be shut down.

The echoing cheers outside the police academy where the trial was held turned to angry shouts as people heard that all of Mubarak’s senior advisers and his two sons were acquitted.

The mostly anti-Mubarak crowd threw rocks at police, smashed cars, and cursed the ruling military council.

Mubarak was immediately transferred to a prison in southern Cairo to serve his life sentence, a prosecutor said, a final fall from grace for a man who ruled the nation with an iron fist for nearly three decades.

“Mubarak arrived to Tura prison by helicopter, and will be admitted to a hospital in prison,” said Adel Saeed, a spokesman for the prosecutor. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said Mubarak refused to leave the helicopter on arrival at the prison.

About 840 people died and more than 6,000 others were injured in last year’s 18-day uprising, according to Amnesty International.

Arab leaders: Where are they now?

The sentence delivered by Judge Ahmed Refaat was the final chapter of Mubarak’s iron rule of Egypt that ended in February 2011.

Handing down the verdict before a packed courtroom, the judge praised the revolution, saying it offered people relief after living “in 30 years of dark without any hope.”

He found Mubarak guilty of the killings, but cleared him of corruption and misappropriation of funds.

The judge also convicted former Interior Minister Habib El Adly of ordering security forces to kill protesters and sentenced him to life in prison.

The courtroom melee erupted after the judge cleared six of Mubarak’s aides, primarily security officials, in connection with the killings. Authorities removed Mubarak and the judge from the courtroom amid the outburst.

The judge also cleared Mubarak’s sons, Gamal and Alaa, of corruption and using their father’s political power for profit.

“The verdicts are insults to the Egyptian people and the judicial system. It’s a festival of innocent verdicts to El Adly’s aides who killed and tortured free citizens for years,” said Rami Shath, a member of the Egyptian Revolution Alliance.

Human Rights Watch said the verdict sends a message to Egypt’s future leaders that they are not above the law, though it said the acquittals give “a green light to future police abuse.”

Amnesty International said the verdict is “a significant step towards combating long-standing impunity in Egypt,” but it, too, said the ruling leaves many waiting for full justice.

David Scheffer, an American lawyer and diplomat who served as the first U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, said it the trial was significant for the Arab world even if it could have been run better.

“While I want to emphasize the problems with the trial itself, it’s also important to recognize that the Egyptian judicial system has held a leader accountable for very serious crimes that occurred during the uprising in Egypt,” Scheffer told CNN.

“In the very heart of the Arab world, where this has not occurred before in a civilian court, a leader has actually been brought to to justice, a leader who has been present in the courtroom has brought to some level of justice by a domestic court for gross human rights abuses.”

The trial has been a spectacle few Egyptians thought they would see. Images broadcast worldwide showed the 84-year-old former leader wheeled into the court on a hospital gurney and locked in a defendant’s cage.

The verdict follows Friday’s expiration of a notorious emergency law that was in effect since shortly after Mubarak came to power in October 1981 and gave police sweeping powers. It comes ahead of a polarizing mid-June runoff in the presidential election that pits the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi against the more secularist Ahmed Shafiq, a former official in Mubarak’s regime.

Analysts in Egypt say the verdict may not help Shafiq and may strengthen Morsi’s chances, given his position as an opposition figure.

The Muslim Brotherhood said it is not happy with Saturday’s verdict and may call for a retrial. Shafiq’s side did not immediately comment on the outcome.

On a recent Thursday, however, at this summer-camp-like island prison in southern Norway, where convicts hold keys to their rooms and there are no armed guards or fences, Vala used those same enormous hands to help bring life into the world.

The 42-year-old murderer stood watch while an oversize cow gave birth to a wobbly, long-legged, brown-and-white calf. He cried as the baby was born, he said, and wiped slime off of the newborn’s face so she could gulp her first breath.

Afterward, Vala called his own mother to share the good news.

“I told my family that I’m going to be a dad,” he said, beaming with pride.

This is exactly the type of dramatic turnabout — enraged killer to gentle-giant midwife — that corrections officials in Norway hope to create with this controversial, one-of-a-kind prison, arguably the cushiest the world has to offer.

Founded in 1982, Bastoy Prison is located on a lush, 1-square-mile island of pine trees and rocky coasts, with views of the ocean that are postcard-worthy. It feels more like a resort than jail, and prisoners here enjoy freedoms that would be unthinkable elsewhere.

It’s the holiday version of Alcatraz.

There’s a beach where prisoners sunbathe in the summer, plenty of good fishing spots, a sauna and tennis courts. Horses roam gravel roads. Some of the 115 prisoners here — all men and serving time for murder, rape and trafficking heroin, among other crimes — stay in wooden cottages, painted cheery red. They come and go as they please. Others live in “The Big House,” a white mansion on a hill that, on the inside, looks like a college dorm. A chicken lives in the basement, a guard said, and provides eggs for the inmates.

When you ask the cook what’s for dinner, he offers up menu choices like “fish balls with white sauce, with shrimps” and “everything from chicken con carne to salmon.”

Plenty of people would pay to vacation in a place like this.

On first read, all of that probably sounds infuriating. Shouldn’t these men be punished? Why do they get access to all these comforts while others live in poverty?

But if the goal of prison is to change people, Bastoy seems to work.

“If we have created a holiday camp for criminals here, so what?” asked Arne Kvernvik Nilsen, the prison’s governor and a former minister and psychologist. He added, “We should reduce the risk of reoffending, because if we don’t, what’s the point of punishment, except for leaning toward the primitive side of humanity?”

Take a quick look at the numbers: Only 20% of prisoners who come through Norway’s prisons reoffend within two years of being released, according to a 2010 report commissioned by the governments of several Nordic countries.

At Bastoy, that figure is even lower, officials say: about 16%.

Compare that with the three-year re-offense rate for state prisons in the U.S.: 43%, according to a 2011 report from the Pew Center on the States, a nonpartisan research group. Older government reports put that number even higher, at more than five in 10.

Ryan King, a research director at Pew and an author of the group’s recent report, said it’s difficult to compare recidivism rates from state to state, much less from country to country. Instead of focusing on the numbers, he said, one should focus on what a country is or isn’t doing to tackle re-offense rates.

Still, Bastoy remains controversial even in academia. Irvin Waller, president of the International Organization for Victim Assistance and a professor at the University of Ottawa, said in an e-mail that the relative niceness of a prison has no effect on whether people commit crimes when they’re released. “The key is not that much what happens in prison but what happens when the men are released,” he said.

But officials here maintain that their methods do make a difference, and they follow it up with post-release programs. The aim of Bastoy is not to punish or seek revenge, Nilsen said. The only punishment is to take away the prisoner’s right to be a free member of society.

Even at a time when Anders Behring Breivik is on trial in Norway for killing 77 people in a terror attack last year — and the remote possibility he could end up at Bastoy or a similar prison some day — Nilsen and others stand up for this brand of justice.

To understand Norway’s pleasant-prison philosophy, first you have to get a sense of how life at a cushy, low-security prison like Bastoy actually plays out.

There are few rules here. Prisoners can have TVs in their rooms, provided they bring them from “outside” when they’re sentenced. They wear whatever clothes they want: jeans, T-shirts. One man had a sweater with pink-and-gray horizontal stripes, but that’s as close as it got to the jailbird look. Even guards aren’t dressed in uniform, which makes conducting interviews tricky. It’s impossible to tell an officer from a drug trafficker.

A common opening question: “So, do you live here?”

Everyone at Bastoy has a job, and prisoners must report to work from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays. Some people garden; others farm. Some chop down trees and slice them into firewood (It’s hard not to think about the wood chipper scene in “Fargo” when you see inmates filleting tree trunks with an enormous circular saw). Others tend to a team of horses, which are used to cart wood and supplies from one part of the island to another. Everyone moves about freely during these tasks. Guards are sometimes present, sometimes not. No one wears shackles or electronic monitoring bracelets.

The idea is for prison to function like a small, self-sustaining village.

For their work, inmates are paid. They get a stipend of 59 Norwegian kroner per day, about $10. They can save that money or spend it on odds and ends in a local shop. Additionally, they get a monthly stipend of about $125 for their food. Kitchen workers — that’s another inmate job — serve Bastoy residents dinner each day. For breakfast and lunch, inmates use their stipend to make purchases in the local shop and then cook for themselves at home. Many live in small houses that have full kitchens. Others have access to shared cooking space.

The goal, Nilsen said, is to create an environment where people can build self-esteem and reform their lives. “They look at themselves in the mirror, and they think, ‘I am s***. I don’t care. I am nothing,’ ” he said. This prison, he says, gives them a chance to see they have worth, “to discover, ‘I’m not such a bad guy.’ “

In locked-down prisons, inmates are treated “like animals or robots,” he said, moving from one planned station to the next, with no choice in the matter. Here, inmates are forced to make choices — to learn how to be better people.

Prisoners, of course, appreciate this approach.

Kjell Amundsen, a 70-year-old who said he is in jail for a white-collar financial crime, was terrified when he rode the 15-minute ferry from the mainland out to Bastoy.

On a recent afternoon, he was sweeping up in a plant nursery while John Lennon’s “Imagine” played on the radio. “I think it’s marvelous to be in a prison this way,” he said.

He plans to keep up the task after his sentence ends. “I’m living in a flat (when I get out), but I am convinced I should have a little garden,” he said.

Some prisoners get schooling in a yellow Bavarian-style building near the center of the island. On a recent afternoon, three young men were learning to use computer programs to create 3-D models of cars. All expressed interest in doing this sort of work after their prison terms end.

Tom Remi Berg, a 22-year-old who said he is in prison for the third time after getting into a bar fight and beating a man nearly to death, said he is finally learning his lesson at Bastoy.

He works in the kitchen and is seeking training to become a chef when he’s released. He also plays in the prison blues band — Guilty as Hell — and lives with his bandmates.

“It’s good to have a prison like this,” he said. “You can learn to start a new page again.”

If escaped, please call

The prisoners are required to check in several times a day so guards can make sure they’re still on the island. Nothing but 1½ miles of seawater stops them from leaving; they’d only have to steal one of the prison’s boats to cross it, several inmates said.

An escape would be relatively easy.

Prisoners have tried to escape in the past. One swam halfway across the channel and became stranded on a buoy and screamed for rescuers to help, prison officials said. Another made it across the channel by stealing a boat but was caught on the other side.

Many, however, don’t want to leave. If they tried and failed, they would be forced to go to a higher-security prison and could have their sentences extended.

When inmates come to his island jail, Nilsen, the governor, gives them a little talk.

Among the wisdom he imparts is this: If you should escape and make it across the water to the free shore, find a phone and call so I know you’re OK and “so we don’t have to send the coast guard looking for you.”

This kind of trust may seem shocking or naïve from the outside, but it’s the entire basis for Bastoy’s existence. Overnight, only three or four guards (the prison employs 71 administrative staff, including the guards) stay on the island with this group of people who have been convicted of serious crimes. If guards carried weapons (which they don’t) it might encourage inmates to take up arms, too, he said.

Further complicating the security situation, some inmates, toward the end of their terms, are allowed to leave the island on a daily ferry to work or attend classes on the mainland.

They’re expected to come back on their own free will.

Inmates are screened to make sure they’re mentally stable and unlikely to plot an escape before they come to Bastoy. The vast majority — 97%, according to Nilsen — have served part of their sentences at higher-security jails in Norway. In the four years Nilsen has been heading up the prison, there have been no “serious” incidents of violence, he said.

By the time they get to Bastoy, inmates view the island as a relief.

‘It’s still prison’

There’s a question inmates here get asked frequently: When your sentence is up, will you want to leave?

The answer, despite the nice conditions, is always an emphatic yes.

“It’s still prison,” said Luke, 23. He didn’t want his full name used for fear future employers would see it. “In your mind, you are locked (up).”

The simple fact of being taken away from family members is enough to stop Benny, 40, from wanting to offend again. The refugee from Kosovo said he was convicted on drug charges after he was found with 13 pounds of heroin. He didn’t want his full name used because he doesn’t want to embarrass his family or jeopardize his chance of finding a job after he’s released.

Before coming to Bastoy, he sat in a higher-security prison while one of his children was born.

“It doesn’t matter how long the sentences get. The sentence doesn’t matter,” Benny said. “When you take freedom from people, that’s what’s scary.”

There are only 3,600 people in prison in this country, compared with 2.3 million in the United States, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Relative to population, the U.S. has about 10 times as many inmates as Norway.

More than 89% of Norway’s jail sentences are less than a year, officials said. In U.S. federal prisons, longer sentences are much more common, with fewer than 2% serving a year or less, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Some researchers support Norway’s efforts to lighten sentences.

Think of prison like parenting and it starts to make sense, said Mark A.R. Kleiman, a professor of public policy at UCLA and author of “When Brute Force Fails.”

“Every parent knows this. What if you tried to discipline your kid by saying, ‘If you don’t clean your room, there’s a 10% chance I’ll kick you out of the house and never see you again’?” he said, referencing the fact that many crimes in America go unpunished, but the justice system issues harsh sentences when offenders are caught. Grounding the child immediately, a softer sentence, would work better, even though the punishment is less severe, he said.

“We have a criminal justice system (in the United States) that, if it were a parent, we would say it’s abusive and neglectful.”

Kleiman said victims do have a right to see offenders punished. But in Norway, a country with one of the highest standards of living in the world, staying on a resort-like island with horses might feel like punishment to many people, he said.

Research also suggests that programs like Bastoy that train inmates for their transition back into the free world — with education, counseling and such — do help prisoners adjust.

“There is overwhelming evidence that rehabilitation works much better than deterrence as a means of reducing re-offending,” said Gerhard Ploeg, a senior adviser at the Ministry of Justice, which oversees Norway’s corrections system.

“It’s all in the name of reintegration,” he added. “You won’t be suddenly one day standing on the street with a plastic bag of things you had when you came in.”

Mass shooting challenges system

Norway’s unusual prison policies have been pushed into the international spotlight after a bombing and shooting spree last year in which 77 people were killed, including children.

There’s a chance — although minimal — that Anders Behring Breivik, who confessed to those crimes, could end up in Bastoy, one of Norway’s “open prisons,” Nilsen said.

Norwegians value respecting killer’s human rights

It’s more likely Breivik will be sent to one of Norway’s many high-security “closed” prisons, which look much more like their U.S. counterparts.

He also could be set free some day. Norway has a maximum jail sentence of 21 years, which can be extended only when an inmate is deemed to be a real and imminent threat to society. The country expects nearly every prisoner to be returned to society, which influences its efforts to create jail environments that reduce re-offense rates.

Lawyer: Norwegian killer vows not to appeal guilty verdict if found sane

“The question we must ask is, ‘What kind of person do I want as my neighbor?’ ” Ploeg said. “How do we want people to come out of prison? If your neighbor were to come out of prison, what would you want him to be like?”

Still, it’s likely Breivik’s sentence will be extended to the point that he will spend his life in a high-security prison, he said. Or he could go into life-long psychiatric care.

Breivik’s case challenges a system that hopes to fix everyone.

The case has unearthed levels of anger that are uncharacteristic of Norway, which prides itself as a home for conflict mediation and human rights, a place that hosts the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and has one of the best standards of living in the world.

Last week, a man lit himself on fire outside the Oslo courthouse where Breivik’s trial is taking place. His motives were unclear, police said.

“(Breivik) doesn’t deserve to go to prison,” said Camilla Bjerke, 27, who tends bar in Horten, the town on the other side of the water from Bastoy. “He deserves to be hanged outside the courthouse. … He’s just going to go into prison and watch TV and download movies.”

Then there’s this sentiment: If Breivik were ever released into the public, someone would kill him, several Norwegians said. Inmates at Bastoy echoed those sentiments, saying he would have to be quarantined or he wouldn’t be safe on the island.

Others are trying to fight that anger.

Bjorn Ihler, a 20-year-old who narrowly escaped Breivik’s shooting spree by diving into the ocean with two children while bullets flew at them, said, “it’s very important that we don’t let this terrorist change the way we are and the way things work.”

“The prison system in Norway is based around the principle of getting criminals back into society, really, and away from their criminal life — and to get them normal jobs and stuff like that,” he said.

He doesn’t know how he would feel if Breivik were to be released, but he would like the system to function as usual. “So prisons must be very much focused on getting people to a place where they are able to live normal, non-criminal lives. And that’s the best way of preserving society from crime, I think.”

Looking to the future

All of these efforts aim to help a person like Vala, the gentle giant who strangled his girlfriend, to get ready for release back into society at the end of his 10-year sentence.

After he helped a toddling calf come into the world, Vala said, he leaned on a rail next to the cow’s pen and thought about his life and the murder that landed him here. The symbolism that he had used his hands to end one life and help begin another was not lost on him. “I stayed for six hours,” he said. “It was very beautiful.”

The night he killed his girlfriend, Vala says, he blacked out and then came to with his hands around her neck, after she was dead.

“We never fight,” he said. “We never do. So I don’t know what happened.”

He felt helpless and out of control when he came to.

But now he’s trying to pull it together. He decided to quit drinking for good. And when he’s working with animals, he said, feels a new calm wash over him.

It’s a change the prison guards have noted, too. Sigurd Vedvik said he met Vala while he was serving out the earlier part of his sentence in a high-security prison. Vedvik was screening him for entry into Bastoy. Vala barely could communicate. He seemed broken.

“When he first came here, he was very afraid of many people,” said Vedvik, who sees himself as more of a teacher or social worker than a person who enforces security.

Now, Vala is making friends. Talking more. Taking responsibility for the cattle he’s tasked with caring for. He strokes the cows’ necks so gently, it seems as if he’s worried they will shatter.

When Vala leaves Bastoy, he plans to go into the construction business and hopes to find some way to spend time on a farm.

“I’m trying to think to my future.”

That’s something he couldn’t do after the murder.

And it took a posh prison — one with cattle and horses — to get him into that state of mind.

     Diane found Ann’s dog at the pound and brought her home.  When Ann got out of prison, Diane was going to rent a van and take Ann to get her belongings.  We have a van and I volunteered to make the drive.  I am so grateful I did.  Ann turned out to be a very pleasant person.  She has been a truck driver for over 20 years.  Instead of being angry at the injustice accorded her in light of the other person not even being charged with anything, she was grateful for the chance to be in a new place and maybe start over doing something besides trucking.  Her note was a delight in thanking me and my husband for being kind to a stranger.  It’s tone and content was that of an educated person.  It hit me anew of the injustice she experienced.

     When I go to the prison each week, I meet with the hard-core men who have the misfortune to be there.  Of course some complain that they are innocent.  Once in a while I believe them, but not often, and most know they deserve to be in prison.  A really sad fact, though, is that most of the men in the 2 pods I go to are hispanic or black.  There aren’t too many white men there.  Is it a matter of racial profiling that makes for the lop-sided population?  I don’t really know, but there are more stories similar to Ann’s than I want to think could be true.

We all have our predjudices. They may not be racial, they may have more to do with distain for poor people, or alcoholics, drug addicts, thieves, or any number of other levels of misfortune. We can sound very smug, when we firmly state that “That could NEVER happen to me!” We pride ourselves in making better choices in life. We are so proud to brag about how much better we plan for our lives, and how people make their own bed, and now must sleep in it. 

Most children, when asked what they want to be when they grow up, do not say, “I wanna be an alcoholic and a wife beater, just like my papa.” Most children will focus on what is noble, such as being a firefighter, a policeman, a pilot or a doctor. Little girls especially think about being a nurse, a teacher, a mother or veteranarian. Of course, in little girl or boy fashion, there are those who simply say, “I wanna be rich!” 

Along the way, and long before the child reaches adulthood, hormones kick in, adventure is right outside the door, and the feeling of being immortal is firmly established. In those years of learning and experimentation, much can go wrong. Too much drinking and partying can lead to alcoholism, disease, lack of sexual morality, loss of respect and expectation of self, and disregard of those in authority, including parents. Once a ball starts rolling with a young person who is trying to find their way in life with perhaps little guidance, there is little knowledge about how to stay on the tracks. Fun takes over, and school may drop by the wayside, as does a future that must be built on something stronger than self-interest and parties.

Even those who had “all the right things,” got an education, had money, had success in life and otherwise enjoyed all the benefits, can follow irresistable urges for drink, sex, money, power or worse. If you were to ask that person in prison, doing 30 years for stealing money or some other crime, if they planned to go to prison, they would think you were out of your mind.

At the bottom of this heap of humanity, lies feelings and beliefs we all have. These might be feelings of rejection, feelings that we don’t have enough money or posessions, unworthiness or lack of love. All of these feelings stem from our thoughts about ourself and life. Our thoughts can take over, if not reigned in, and we can believe what we tell ourselves after awhile. It becomes our truth. When we don’t listen to others who try to tell us another truth, a better truth, we sink. Maybe we don’t have evidence of a better truth, and while we don’t plan to end up in prison for 30 years, one thing leads to another, and to another, with an increasing risk of our destroying ourselves.

If I steal $10 from a friend’s coffee table because I am out of work and need food, and that person will not lend me money, thoughts about what I have done may start. “Well, that was easy. I don’t feel right about it, but at least I got some food.” This may lead to, “Heck, I’ve done favors for him many times. It was payback time anyway. He owes me.” It continues to, “A lot of people owe me favors. I’m gonna go collect one way or another.” The world becomes a symbol for all that have done this person wrong. So, when this individual robs a convenience store or steals a car to sell, it can be justified by the thought patterns that preceed them. We convince ourselves that the world is full of rotten people who do not love us, so they get what they get. It snowballs.

Along the way, we may experiment with drugs or alcohol, telling ourselves that the world is so bad, that the only way we can cope with it is to get high or drunk. It starts to feel good, but it takes more and more to feel good any more. And who can think straight, or be responsible for actions under the influence?

People who have damaged their lives didn’t plan for things to happen this way. Inch by inch, piece by piece, things started falling apart. Getting a grip at some point became more of an overwhelming task, and it was easier just to surrender.

“There but for the grace of God, go I” has been around for a long time. I do not know who said the original quote. It is universal. All of us could be in deep trouble or have serious problems. Even being “all grown up” doesn’t save us from becoming an alcoholic or committing suicide. Senior citizens are known for robbing a store for the first time in their 70’s because they have no money and they are desperate. 

Our ivory towers are built on shaky ground, and it pays to do inventory on our foundation frequently. Often little cracks will appear, and they should not be ignored. We have seen what happened to others who did not tend to their own foundations. Health and wellness deteriorated, friends were losts, money evaporated, and trails of sorrow were laid down. The foundations to lives crumbled. 

Compassion begins with seeing that we are all on potentially shaky foundations, and that we make our own foundations stronger when we help those who are in  the rubble. There, but for the grace of God, go all of us.

        Prison is a place where no one wants to go or at least no sane person.  Yet in the United States we house more inmates than the top 35 European countries combined.  As of 2008, the U.S. housed a quarter of the world’s prisoners – 25 percent! That is an outstanding statistic.  I sometimes wonder if there is a better way to handle crime.  I could not imagine being locked up for two thirds of my life.  Who determines when a man can receive forgiveness for his mistakes?  More and more I see stories of people that were wrongfully accused of things that they did not do.  What is our justice system doing to our families?  Did you know that in 2010 one in every 28 children has an incarcerated parent and that those who have actually gotten out of prison earn 40% less a year? 

        I faintly remember someone once saying, “I had to go to prison to become a criminal.”  A 2002 study survey showed that among nearly 275,000 prisoners released in 1994, 67.5% were rearrested within 3 years, and 51.8% were back in prison.  So I interpret this statistic saying that prison causes more problems than it solves.  Some prisons are so overcrowded that officials are forced to let some of them go.  And we haven’t even discussed the obvious financial burden on our tax dollars. 

        Found in the 2010 census, blacks accounted for only 13.6% of the US population.  In 2009, the US Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that non-Hispanic blacks accounted for 39.4% of the total prison population. That is just ridiculous.  If it weren’t true, I wouldn’t believe it. Census data for 2000, which included a count of the number and race of all individuals incarcerated in the United States, showed for each state that the proportion of blacks in prison populations exceeded the proportion of whites among state residents in every state.  In twenty states, the percent of blacks incarcerated was at least five times greater than their share of resident population. How can a minority dominate the prison population?  Why is this so? More than one in three young black men without a high school diploma is in prison. That is approximately one third.

        The reason I have took the time to educate you on prison statistics is because I believe that we need to shorten these prison terms.  Over crowding is a problem, recidivism is a problem, social disorder due to broken families is a problem.  This is a social issue that needs addressing.  Rehabilitation is more important than throwing people away.  We have learned that recycling is better for the planet that putting trash in a corner and hoping it disappears. Some people are taking steps to help the cause.

        High rates of imprisonment are attributed to sentence length. The U.S. Congress has taken steps to change this trend.  They have ordered federal judges to, in summary, lighten prison sentences.  They have recognized that imprisonment is not an appropriate means of promoting correction and rehabilitation. Human Rights Watch believes that the rate of incarceration in the US wreaks havoc on individuals, families and communities.  It saps the strength of the nation as a whole.  And I agree.

        I understand that some people want justice for crimes against them and I agree that some punishment is due for crimes committed.  I do not agree that people should pay for some of their wrong decisions for the rest of their lives.  We all deserve another chance to make our lives right.  As Real Live Preacher once said, “Forgiveness is the healing of wounds caused by another.  You choose to let go of a past wrong and no longer be hurt by it.”  As a nation we need to work together to grow and cultivate our society, and we need all the help we can get.  Condemning a man for life is the worst crime that we can commit.  It discourages him and keeps him in the system, but, more importantly, it increases his chance to be a repeat offender and the cycle will never end.

Sukhdev was a famous Indian revolutionary who played a major role in the India’s struggle for Independence.Sukhdev Thapar was a member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), and organized revolutionary cells in Punjab and other areas of North India. A devoted leader, he even went on to educate the youth at the National College in Lahore, greatly inspiring them about India’s glorious past. He along with other renowned revolutionaries started the ‘Naujawan Bharat Sabha’ at Lahore that was an organization involved in various activities, mainly gearing the youth for the freedom struggle and putting an end to communalism.

Sukhdev himself took active part in several revolutionary activities like the ‘Prison hunger strike’ in 1929; however, he would always be remembered in the chronicles of the Indian Freedom Movement for his daring yet courageous attacks in the Lahore Conspiracy Case (18th December, 1928), that shook the very foundation of the British Government. Sukhdev was the accomplice of Bhagat Singh, and Shivaram Rajguru who were involved in the assassination of Deputy Superintendent of Police, J.P. Saunders in 1928, thus avenging the death of veteran leader, Lala Lajpat Rai owing to excessive police beating in the Conspiracy case. After the Central Assembly Hall bombings in New Delhi (8th April, 1929), Sukhdev and his accomplices were arrested and convicted of their crime, facing the death sentence as verdict.

On 23rd March, 1931, the three brave revolutionaries, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru were hanged, whilst their bodies were secretly cremated on the banks of the River Satluj. Sukhdev Thapar was just 24 years old when he became a martyr for his country.

Problems in the U.S. Elderly Inmates, In a recent report that the release, human rights groups expressed concern for the treatment of prisoners who enter old age. According to human rights groups, prison buildings are not designed for seniors. They are difficult to walk or climb stairs.

Some of them also is in a wheelchair and needs an oxygen tank. Correctional institution has attempted to make some changes that could facilitate the elderly to and out of prison building, however, change the old jail building construction would likely be difficult and costly.

Most of the LP in the United States managed by the government and private companies, for example, Correction Corporation of America (CCA). Currently private companies that handle as many as 75 thousand more than 60 prisoners in detention. One of the CCA said the company’s staff, employees and the CCA have been given training to the needs of each prisoner individually, including the elderly and working with medical personnel.

Prison Industrial Complex #occupysanquentin (Photo credit: @bastique)

Human rights report also revealed that most prisons in the United States does not distinguish between age groups in placing prisoners. Elderly inmates may be placed in a cell with inmate age. Inmates younger age groups tend to act with violence. Behavior that may endanger the safety of elderly inmates. There are only a few prisons in the United States that was designed to distinguish the placement of inmates based on age.

Ronald Aday is a sociologist at the University of Middle Tennessee State. He studied the aging process and conduct interviews of more than 800 elderly inmates. According to Aday, the inmates are concerned because of declining health conditions in prison and whether to receive health care. Aday added, most elderly inmates are treated with arbitrary physically and mentally, including goods that belong to the elderly, were seized.

But to give an early release for elderly inmates is not easy. It requires changes in legislation at the state and federal. California and some other states are looking for solutions to reduce the density of population in prison.

In addition, human rights report also said the government should find solutions to reduce the number of elderly inmates without creating risks to public safety. The human rights group suggested providing specific training for prison officers in dealing with elderly inmates. Because one of the biggest challenges for the guards is a lack of patience in dealing with elderly inmates.

What reason will choose to put you in prison? If it make some one money; Don’t you see where that could and would create corruption in the system. micheal moore proved that in Capitalism a love story where a judge was brought and he send kids to a privately owner reform school even kids that the prositcuter wasn’t going for detenion. THAT judge was caught and taken to jail for this crimes too. shouldn’t we be try to take corruption out of the system instead of adding

Cover of Capitalism: A Love Story

International Money Pile in Cash and Coins (Photo credit: epSos.de)

way for corperations to corrupt the system with more money?

The news
A woman named Robin (46) had been married to her husband Kevin (41) for 15 years.  Kevin was a hunter and a coach for her sons’ little league team.  According to the police, Robin was having an affair with her co-worker named John.  They worked at a social service agency in Buffalo, New York. 

According to the District Attorney, Robin had sex with John at her home and while they were at work.  When Robin’s husband discovered the affair, he confronted her.  He also planned to seek custody of their children.  Their sons are 11 and 9.  Robin would have been okay with a divorce, but she didn’t want to lose her children. 

In 2005, Robin shot Kevin in the back of the head while he was sleeping.  She used a rifle that Kevin bought for their oldest son. 

While Robin was in jail for her husband’s murder, she tried to get a hitman to kill her lover so he couldn’t testify against her in court.  The District Attorney sent an undercover police officer to Robin so he could record her asking him to kill her lover.  She took the bait and offered the undercover cop money to kill her lover. 

Robin has been through three trials for murder.  The first one ended with a hung jury.  During the second trial, the conviction was overturned.  During her third trial, she was finally convicted for second-degree murder.  She was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.  Robin and Kevin’s kids are living with relatives while she’s in prison.

My Thoughts
This story was very disturbing.  I couldn’t believe that Robin would practically orphan her kids by killing their father.  She was the one in the wrong for having an affair, but she had the nerve to kill her husband.  If that weren’t enough, she wanted to try and kill her lover too.  I wonder if she is mentally disturbed.

She could have gone through with the divorce.  She might have had joint custody with her husband.  She would still be able to see her kids.  Now she’s lost them for a long time since she was convicted for killing her husband.  Now her kids have lost both parents because of her foolishness.  Luckily her lover managed not to get killed since the police were on to her and got her before she had the chance to make the deal.

What are your thoughts on this love triangle turned deadly?  Can you believe that she would want to kill the father of her children when she was the one who cheated on him?  Do you think she was right to kill him in order to avoid losing her kids? 

Creditors have been manipulating the court system to extract money from the unemployed, veterans, even seniors who rely solely on their benefits to get by each month. Well city’s and states are having money problems too not to mention over crowded prisons from the (Snicker-snicker) war on drugs

One thing’s for sure you can’t get blood from a stone. What we need to do is only buy American mfg products. This will put Americans back to work and they can pay their debt.

Who would of thought that in the 21st century in the United States of American thing would start to revert to a Charles Dickerson tale

A mid-Victorian depiction of the debtors prison at St Briavel Castle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)