Tag: prison

Thousands march in Hungary in protest over child abuse scandal

Thousands of Hungarians marched to Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s offices on Saturday, led by opposition leader Peter Magyar, ‍who ​urged the veteran nationalist to resign over ‍an abuse scandal at a juvenile detention centre.

Protesters walked through Budapest’s frosty streets ​behind ​a banner reading “Protect the children!”, carrying soft toys and torches in solidarity with victims of physical abuse in a case dating ‍back several years.

The prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday that seven people ​had been detained at the ⁠state-run Budapest juvenile centre so far.

Orban, who faces what could be the toughest challenge to his 15-year rule in an election likely in April, condemned the ​abuse in an interview with news outlet Mandiner, calling it unacceptable and criminal.

“More and ‌more revolting things keep surfacing ​on a daily basis, which I did not think were possible in this country,” said Judit Voros, one of the protesters marching to Orban’s offices on Castle Hill in Budapest.

Earlier this week, the government placed Hungary’s five juvenile correctional institutions under direct police oversight while prosecutors ‍investigate the case.

Keep reading

Ghislaine Maxwell Begs Judge to Be Set Free, But There’s a Huge Twist

Ghislaine Maxwell, former lover and partner-in-crime of deceased human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, plans to beg a judge to let her out of the current minimum-security prison she calls home, according to a letter from her lawyer. However, she tossed in a twist this time around. Maxwell plans to represent herself. The delusion is strong with this one.

Can you imagine an adult woman who helped a man rape and auction off underage girls thinking she deserves freedom from any consequences for her actions? It staggers the mind. No universe exists where Maxwell should walk the streets. Her crimes targeted children, the most vulnerable citizens we have aside from the pre-born and elderly. Not to mention the fact that allowing her to go free would be a miscarriage of justice. She received her trial as the Constitution guarantees. She deserves nothing else.

Maxwell, who was transferred to the current facility in Texas from a prison in Florida earlier this year after she agreed to an interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, will file a habeas corpus petition, her attorney, David Oscar Markus, said in a letter he addressed to a federal judge.

“Understanding that President Trump has signed the Epstein Transparency Act into law, Ms. Maxwell does not take a position regarding the government’s request to unseal the grand jury transcripts and modify the protective order,” Markus stated in a letter he sent to Judge Paul Englemayer on Wednesday.

“At the same time, Ms. Maxwell respectfully notes that shortly she will file a habeas petition pro se,” the letter continued. “Releasing the grand jury materials from her case, which contain untested and unproven allegations, would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial should Ms. Maxwell’s habeas petition succeed.”

He gave no reason for the petition.

Legal experts say a habeas petition usually requires an extremely high burden of proof, and lawyers typically use it only after other appeals fail, according to Fox News.

“It appears from the filing that Ms. Maxwell is attempting to shield herself from the materials that will be released pursuant to the president’s order regarding the Epstein materials to protect her appellate rights, specifically her anticipated habeas corpus petition,” New Jersey-based criminal defense lawyer James Leonard Jr. explained.

“Habeas motions typically serve as the final step in the appeals process and courts seldom grant them because the burden is extremely high on the defendant. It appears that Ms. Maxwell is taking that step without a lawyer, which makes her attempt even more difficult,” he said.

Keep reading

 Trans-Identified Male Who Strangled His Mother to Death Serving Sentence in Women’s Prison with Mother-Baby Unit

A trans-identified male serving a 22-year sentence for the violent murder of his own mother was quietly transferred into a minimum-security Illinois women’s prison with a mother-baby unit. John Wesley Finnegan began calling himself “Hannah Dagny” in 2014, approximately five years into his prison term, and was transferred to Decatur Correctional Center within the past five years.

Finnegan pleaded guilty but mentally ill to strangling his mother in 2008. After entering his plea to first-degree murder, the then 20-year-old Finnegan was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Prosecutors said 43-year-old Mary Finnegan was found dead at her home on Friday, July 24, 2008. Her other son, David, found her body, which had been stripped naked and wrapped in bed sheets. The murder had occurred sometime the day before when John Finnegan entered his mother’s room, found her sleeping, and “swiftly killed her emotionlessly,” according to Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons. Lyons told the court he was quoting from a statement Finnegan gave to law enforcement.

Lyons noted that Finnegan claimed to have been in a “peculiar” incestuous sexual relationship with his mother that had been ongoing for about four years, and that Finnegan told investigators he had had intercourse with his mother the day before he killed her.

Keep reading

ACLU Files Motion to Have Even More Male Convicts Moved to Women’s Prison After Securing Transfer of 4 Trans-Identified Male Killers and Sex Offenders

At least four trans-identified male convicts were transferred into an Illinois women’s prison after being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Now, the ACLU is requesting that the court issue an order prohibiting those men from being transferred to Menard Correctional Center, the state’s largest maximum security male facility, and demanding that an additional group of men in Menard be offered a transfer to a women’s prison.

For nearly a decade, the Illinois ACLU has acted as legal counsel on behalf of a group of male criminals who claim to be transgender, of whom at least four have been confirmed by Reduxx to be currently housed at Logan Correctional Center – a women’s facility.

In January 2018, the ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit against Department of Corrections (DOC) officials on behalf of six male inmates requesting a transfer to a women’s prison. In legal documents, all of the men were identified by a feminine alias: Andre C. Patterson, or “Janiah Monroe”; Eric D. Padilla, or “Lydia Helena Vision”; Diego R. Melendez, or “Marilyn”; Jordan Kuykendall, or “Sora”; Fadell Reed, or “Sasha”; and Gregory Stamps, or “Ebony.”

The initial suit, Monroe v. Rauner, accused then-mayor Bruce Rauner and DOC Director John Baldwin of “cruel and unusual punishment,” an eighth amendment violation, for not providing the convicted criminals with feminizing hormones.

The complaint argues that “the IDOC systematically fails to provide necessary medical treatment for gender dysphoria… Among other common and medically necessary treatments, IDOC routinely fails to provide adequate hormone therapy and to accommodate social transition so that a prisoner can live consistently with his or her gender identity.”

It continues: “And while gender affirming [genital] surgery also is medically necessary for some patients with gender dysphoria, IDOC has adopted a policy that such surgery can be approved only in ‘extraordinary circumstances,’ which in practice means that IDOC never has approved any prisoner for surgical gender dysphoria treatment.”

The suit has been ongoing for the past eight years. Earlier this year, the ACLU filed a preliminary injunction seeking to prevent the DOC from ever transferring Padilla, Patterson, Kuykendall, Melendez, or Reed from being transferred to male prison Menard.

Keep reading

‘More Horrific Than Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo’: The Unsalvageable Depravity of Israel’s Prisons for Palestinians

On June 19, 2024, Khaled Mahajneh, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, became the first lawyer to visit a notorious detention facility for Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, located inside the Sde Teiman military base in the Negev Desert, one of several detention facilities established after October 7, 2023 to hold Palestinians seized in Gaza.

Speaking to +972 Magazine a week after his visit, Mahanjeh drew a pertinent comparison with the treatment of Muslim prisoners in the US’s post-9/11 “war on terror”, but concluded that Israel’s behavior was even worse.

“The situation there is more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo”, he said, adding, “I have been visiting political and security detainees and prisoners in Israeli jails for years, including since October 7. I know that the conditions of detention have become much harsher, and that the prisoners are abused on a daily basis. But Sde Teiman was unlike anything I’ve seen or heard before.”

Mahajneh “was initially approached by Al Araby TV, which was seeking information about Muhammad Arab”, also identified as Mohammed Saber Arab, “a reporter for the network who was arrested in March while covering the Israeli siege of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.”

Keep reading

Prison Staffers FIRED After Illegally Breaking Into Maxwell’s Attorney-Client Emails and Handing Them to Rep. Raskin — Who Then Leaked the Stolen Material to Media Under a Fake ‘Whistleblower’ Label

Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney, Leah Saffian, has confirmed that multiple federal prison staffers have been FIRED for illegally breaking into Maxwell’s privileged attorney-client emails, emails that were then leaked straight to Democrat Congressman Jamie Raskin, who blasted them to the media like political propaganda.

Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, apparently believes his lofty position as a former law professor grants him the license to trample on the Bill of Rights.

By leaking Maxwell’s privileged correspondence to the media, he’s not just undermining the legal process, he’s trampling her constitutional rights, including the First Amendment’s protection of confidential communications, the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of effective counsel, and the Fourteenth Amendment’s promise of due process that applies to every American, inmate or not.

According to Saffian:

  • Prison employees at FPC Bryan broke into Maxwell’s email system
  • They stole confidential attorney communications
  • They passed them to a federal official—Raskin
  • Raskin then leaked them to the press under the fake label of ‘whistleblower’

According to the press release:

“The release to the media by Congressman Raskin (Dem., Maryland), of Ms. Maxwell’s privileged client-attorney email correspondence with me is as improper as it is a denial of justice.

Congressman Raskin is a Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, an attorney and law professor. He must be aware that his conduct undermines the whole legal process. His action should be a matter for professional disciplinary action.

There have been appropriate consequences already for employees at Federal Prison Camp Bryan. They have been terminated for improper, unauthorized access to the email system used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to allow inmates to communicate with the outside world.

The provision of those emails to a federal official who then caused them to be shared with the media is a breach of constitutional protections including the First, Sixth and Fourteenth amendments afforded to all prisoners.

Dressing the improper action up as ‘Whistleblower Information’ does not mitigate the fact that the mails were both illegally obtained and put to unconstitutional purpose. It is clear that no effort to fact check the credibility or veracity of the so called “whistleblower” was made by the Representative or his offices. For Rep. Raskin to seek to make political capital from such publication and from the content of personal emails between Ms. Maxwell and a family member is both shocking and reprehensible.”

Maxwell’s attorney directly called out Raskin for falsely implying Maxwell was angling for a pardon.
That was a lie.

Saffian said Maxwell has never sought a pardon. She has not asked Trump or anyone else to intervene. Her petition is about exposing misconduct, not seeking clemency.

Keep reading

Unmasked, the most prolific sex offender in British history who raped HUNDREDS of boys in paedophile ring ‘involving a magistrate and police officer’- at borstal where abuse of 2,000 victims was covered up

Britain’s most prolific sex offender was able to rape and torture boys at a borstal where abuse was ‘ignored and dismissed’ by the prison service, police and the Home Office. 

Neville Husband led a reign of terror where he and other staff systematically raped and abused hundreds of young men and boys who they were supposed to be helping.

A damning report released today lays bare the horrors which took place at Medomsley Detention Centre – where Husband worked as a caterer – in County Durham between 1961 and 1987.

The report today brands Husband – who died in 2010 – ‘possibly the most prolific sex offender in British criminal history’. 

The scale of offending would surpass even the likes of Jimmy Savile, with the prison ombudsman’s investigation revealing that the ‘voracious’ sexual predator would often target two or three young men every day during his 16 years at Medomsley. 

More than 2,000 young men and boys say they were sexually and physically abused at the former Victorian orphanage over nearly three decades. 

And the appalling crimes were covered up to such an extent that Husband was even given the Imperial Service Medal for his role in prison services and was welcomed into a church as a minister.

Victims also claimed they were taken to a ‘posh house’ to be abused by Husband and several other men. One claimant said the magistrate who sent him to Medomsley was present at the house. It is alleged a local serving prison officer was also involved in the abuse. 

The scathing report from the Prisons Ombudsman, Operation Deerness, unearthed the ‘widespread physical and sexual abuse’ at the facility, which was fuelled by ‘a familiarity with violence’ towards young offenders.  

From the moment detainees arrived at the centre, they were physically abused and introduced to the ‘short, sharp, shock’ punishment that became embedded as practice at the facility.

Keep reading

China Tops US With The World’s Biggest Prison Population

America has one of the world’s largest prison populations, with an estimated 1.7 million people in confinement.

Going further, America’s incarceration rate is the fourth-highest in the world. Despite being a developed economy, its prison population is more than double that of Russia, India, and Brazil combined.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the countries with the most prisoners, based on data from the Prison Policy Initiative.

Keep reading

Ex-French President Nicolas Sarkozy to be released from prison less than 3 weeks into 5-year sentence

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will be released from prison and placed under judicial supervision, a Paris appeals court ruled Monday, less than three weeks after he began serving a five-year sentence over a scheme to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya.

Sarkozy, 70, was expected to leave Paris’ La Santé prison in the afternoon.

He will be banned from leaving the French territory and from being in touch with key people including co-defendants and witnesses in the case, the court said. An appeals trial is expected to take place later, possibly in the spring.

Sarkozy became the first former French head of state in modern times to be sent behind bars after his conviction on Sept. 25. He denies wrongdoing. He was jailed on Oct. 21 pending appeal but immediately filed for early release.

Keep reading

Judge Orders Bureau of Prisons to Provide Sex Change Surgery to Transgender Pedophile Inmate

A federal judge has ruled that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) must provide sex change procedures to a convicted pedophile who recently began identifying as transgender.

Brian Buckingham, 47, is serving more than 21 years in prison for sexually abusing his 10-year-old son and producing child sex abuse images. Shortly before sentencing, Buckingham began identifying as “Nani Love” and claimed to be female, Reduxx reported. 

In court filings, Buckingham claimed that being unable to access previously provided “gender-affirming” treatments, like hormone therapy, had worsened his depression and suicidal thoughts, The Post Millennial reported. Attorneys for Buckingham argued the sex change procedures were “medically necessary” to treat gender dysphoria and that denying Buckingham access to them is a violation of his Eighth Amendment rights.

Magistrate Judge David Christel ruled in September that Buckingham is “likely to succeed” on his claim that the BOP’s denial of sex change procedures is cruel and unusual punishment. In his ruling, Christel cited evidence that the BOP first acknowledged Buckingham’s requests for sex change procedures but then “discontinued them without reason.” 

Christel’s recommendation was ultimately adopted by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez who ordered the BOP to provide consultations to Buckingham within 30 days for laser hair removal, facial feminization surgery, and voice therapy. 

Keep reading