Tag: prison

Human Rights Watch says Israeli airstrike on Iranian prison was an ‘apparent war crime’

Human Rights Watch alleged Thursday that an Israeli airstrike on a notorious Iranian prison was “an apparent war crime”, while also accusing Tehran of harming and disappearing prisoners after the attack.

Israel struck Evin Prison in Tehran, one of Iran’s most notorious detention facilities for political activists and dissidents, on June 23, during its 12-day war with the Islamic Republic.

The strikes during visiting hours hit Evin Prison’s main southern entrance, another northern entrance and other areas of the complex, destroying buildings that had medical facilities and prison wards.

The Iranian authorities initially said at least 71 people were killed during the airstrike, among them civilians including inmates, visiting relatives, and prison staff. Iranian media later raised that number to 80. It was unclear why Israel targeted the prison.

Human Rights Watch said the attack was “unlawfully indiscriminate” and that there was no evidence of an advance warning or a military target before striking the prison complex, which it estimates holds over 1,500 prisoners.

“To make matters worse, Israeli forces put at grave risk prisoners who were already victims of Iranian authorities’ brutal repression,” said Michael Page, the rights group’s deputy Middle East director.

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Counterterrorism and Special Ops Forces Deployed to Protect Ghislaine Maxwell’s Life in Texas Prison

Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and accomplice to Jeffrey Epstein, should be safe from any potential threats against her life.

The New York Sun has revealed that special ops and counterterrorism forces have been deployed to her prison facility in Texas after she received a barrage of death threats.

Their report states:

Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime paramour and closest associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, has received death threats since her surprise transfer to a minimum-security prison camp at Bryan, Texas, prompting federal corrections officials to call in the Bureau of Prisons’ Counter Terrorism and Special Operations units to considerably beef up its security at the facility, The New York Sun has learned.

“There have been death threats received,” a source close to the investigation tells the Sun. “They are focused on the outside looking in, as opposed to the happenings inside the camp.”

Members of the BOP’s Special Operations Response Team have been working around the Federal Prison Camp Bryan’s entrance and perimeter to monitor outside threats against Maxwell. The French and British socialite is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and is trying to negotiate a commutation of her sentence amid enormous, renewed public interest in the Epstein case that has put pressure on President Trump.

The BOP has also deployed its Counter Terrorism Unit, typically used to monitor the communications and activities for “terrorist offenders” incarcerated in its system, to monitor threats inside Camp Bryan. Both teams have been working inside Camp Bryan since Maxwell’s transfer there last week.

A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons refused to confirm the operation, saying they do not comment on specific cases.

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Jeffrey Epstein’s Longtime Butler Says There is ‘No Way’ He Killed Himself — Was Confident of Securing Bail Before His Death

Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime butler has said there is “no way” the pedophile financier killed himself in prison.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Epstien’s butler of 18 years, Valdson Vieira Cotrin, said that Epstein “loved life too much” and was confident of securing bail before his apparent suicide.

“I am like his brother, “ he explained. “I don’t believe this was suicide. He loved life too much.”

However, Cotrin also appeared to be in denial about Epstein’s litany of sexual crimes.

“I was his chauffeur, his cook, his housekeeper,” he continued. “I did everything in Paris, I was his only full-time, paid-up employee and worked for him from 2001 until his death.”

“If someone could have seen something, it’s Valdson, there’s no one else.”

Cotrin’s partner Maria Gomes de Melo, who also knew Epstein personally, shares her husband’s view that there was foul play at hand.

“On the Saturday late, we got the news that he had hanged himself, and honestly, he loved life too much to float away like that,” she said.

FBI Director Kash Patel recently insisted during an interview on Joe Rogan that he accepted the official report that Epstein had indeed commited suicide, although this detail remains highly disputed.

“We’ve reviewed all the information, and the American public is going to get as much as we can release,” Patel said at the time. “He killed himself,”

“I’m working my ass off along with the leadership at the Bureau and DOJ to get you what we’re allowed to give you.”

”And you’re gonna get the video of the cell, and you’re gonna see for yourself, and we will never be able to convince everyone.”

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Ghislaine Maxwell is quietly moved to cushy new ‘Club Fed’ prison as she pushes for deal to tell all on Epstein, his associates

Notorious sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has quietly been moved to a cushy prison camp known as a “Club Fed” as she tries to hash out a deal to divulge her sordid secrets about late pedophile ex Jeffrey Epstein.

The 63-year-old convicted child sex pest was transferred from a lockup in Florida to the minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) confirmed to The Post on Friday.

No reason was given for the move, but it comes days after she met Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche twice while trying to seek immunity and a deal to spill her secrets about Epstein.

The notorious madam — who is serving 20 years for helping Epstein groom and abuse underage girls — is now in a prison for nonviolent inmates who are allowed to roam the grounds with “limited or no perimeter fencing,” according to the BOP’s website.

She will be neighbors with well-known white-collar criminals, including Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced fraudster convicted of ripping off investors in her now-defunct blood-testing company Theranos, as well as Real Housewives of Salt Lake star and convicted scammer Jen Shah.

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Exonerated Missouri woman sues police for conspiracy and coverup that put her in prison for 43 years

Sandra Hemme’s federal lawsuit accuses St. Joseph Police of suppressing and destroying evidence that pointed to a fellow officer who was guilty of the 1980 murder. Before being freed last year, Hemme served the longest sentence of any wrongly convicted woman in American history.

Sandra Hemme, the Missouri woman who spent 43 years in prison for a murder she did not commit, has sued the city of St. Joseph and eight police officers in a 10-count federal lawsuit alleging malicious prosecution, a coerced confession and conspiracy.

“There was never any objective evidence tying Plaintiff (Hemme) to the crime,” the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit also points the finger at a former police officer, Michael Holman, as the killer of librarian Patricia Jeschke in 1980.

“To protect Holman, the Defendants concealed evidence of his guilt and chose not to follow the evidence leading to Holman,” according to the lawsuit. Holman died in 2015.

Hemme served the longest sentence of any wrongly convicted woman in American history, her lawyers have said. She was finally exonerated and freed last year after a lengthy legal battle that saw the Missouri Attorney General fighting to overturn her innocence ruling.

A year ago, in July 2024, Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Ryan Horsman overturned Hemme’s conviction — writing that she was “the victim of a manifest injustice.”

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey battled all the way to the state Supreme Court to keep Hemme in prison. She won her final freedom after the Missouri Court of Appeals rejected all of Bailey’s arguments, and in March the Buchanan County prosecutor declined to refile charges.

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New Epstein Prison Video Investigation Uncovers Irregularities: Cursor Activity and Orange Object Detected

A new investigation into the Epstein prison video released by the Department of Justice reveals several discrepancies.

Recall that it was Jason Sullivan at The Gateway Pundit who first reported on the missing minute in the video that was released to the public.

CBS News’ investigative report revealed that video forensic analysis revealed several major irregularities in the DOJ’s 10-hour and 52-minute Epstein prison video.

One irregularity that has debunked the DOJ claims was that a cursor was spotted moving around in the video around 11:24 p.m.

Previously, the DOJ stated they released “raw footage” of inside the cell block where Epstein was jailed, but video forensic experts claim the cursor’s appearance shows signs the video was a screen recording rather than a raw upload from a DVR system.

Another irregularity pointed out by CBS revealed that around 10:40 p.m., a person wearing what appears to be an orange shirt was seen moving toward Epstein’s cell.

The DOJ previously claimed the person in the orange shirt was a corrections officer, but the person in the orange shirt is more likely an inmate, considering prisoners at the special housing unit at the Metropolitan Correctional Center are mandated to wear orange jumpsuits.

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The Democratic Candidate for Mayor of NYC Zohran Mamdani, on prisons and jails

Zohran Mamdani, Democratic Candidate for NYC Mayor, Questions the Purpose of Prisons: The Progressive Experiment Endangering Public Safety

In yet another example of how far the modern left has gone, Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York City, publicly questioned the very existence of the prison system. At a recent event —which felt more like a college book club than a serious policy proposal— Mamdani not only revealed his lack of grasp on the issue but also implicitly mocked crime victims with a flippant, condescending tone. “What are prisons for, really?” he asked out loud, while name-dropping authors and book titles that supposedly support his abolitionist stance. Still, he admitted he hasn’t actually read some of those books.

These kinds of statements are not harmless. They reflect the dangerous trend among some Democrats to prioritize ideology over reality. New York is already reeling from “reform” policies that have weakened the justice system, enabled the early release of repeat offenders, and downplayed the need to protect law-abiding citizens. Mamdani’s rhetoric doesn’t just advocate closing prisons; it seeks to delegitimize the very concept of punitive justice—based on emotional and intellectual narratives that ignore the communities most affected by violence.

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The Rise Of The Prison State: Trump’s Push For Megaprisons Could Lock Us All Up

“You think we’re arresting people now? You wait till we get the funding to do what we got to do.”—Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar

America is rapidly becoming a nation of prisons.

Having figured out how to parlay presidential authority in foreign affairs in order to sidestep the Constitution, President Trump is using his immigration enforcement powers to lock up—and lock down—the nation.

After all, a police state requires a prison state. And no one is cheering louder than the private prison corporations making money hand over fist from Trump’s expansion of federal detention.

Under the guise of national security and public safety, the Trump administration is engineering the largest federal expansion of incarceration and detention powers in U.S. history.

At the center of this campaign is Alligator Alcatraz, a federal detention facility built in the Florida Everglades and hailed by the White House as a model for the future of federal incarceration. But this is more than a new prison—it is the architectural symbol of a carceral state being quietly constructed in plain sight.

With over $170 billion allocated through Trump’s megabill, we are witnessing the creation of a vast, permanent enforcement infrastructure aimed at turning the American police state into a prison state.

The scope of this expansion is staggering.

The bill allocates $45 billion just to expand immigrant detention—a move that will make ICE the best-funded federal law enforcement agency in American history, with more money than the FBI, the DEA, and the Bureau of Prisons combined.

Yet be warned: what begins with ICE rarely ends with ICE.

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Paedophile jailed for 25 years complains prison guards have lost his teddy bear

A convicted paedophile has complained from behind bars that prison guards have ‘lost’ his teddy bear.

Shane Medhurst was jailed for 25 years last June after being found guilty of 14 counts of child sex abuse.

Among the charges included two counts of sexually assaulting a child under the age of 13.

Medhurst, 58, was jailed at Reading Crown Court, and is currently serving his sentence at the 1,100-capacity HMP High Down jail in Surrey.

The jail has two dedicated wings sex offenders, with around 400 inmates convicted of sex offences.

Writing in the latest edition of prisoner publication Inside Time, Medhurst said he was really ‘into arts and crafts’ and had started making his own teddy bears.

One in particular, which he called Mr Bear – a bright yellow bear with a blue and white striped outfit and a hat – was his ‘favourite’ and had taken him three weeks to make.

He said other teddies that he made had been sent to family and friends, and had loaned Mr Bear to the library inside the prison – but three weeks later he’d vanished.

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Minnesota Lawmaker Killer Suspect Asks for Special Accommodations

The ambiance of his prison cell leaves something to be desired, alleged killer Vance Luther Boelter told a court on Thursday.

Boelter is accused of killing former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, on June 14. He is also charged with having shot Minnesota State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, about 90 minutes before the second crime, according to Fox News.

The shooter was allegedly dressed as a police officer and drove a car that was made to look like a law enforcement vehicle.

During Thursday’s hearing, Judge Douglas Micko set bail for the suspect at $5 million, according to the St. Cloud Times.

Boelter said he could not make that high of an amount.

“I’m looking forward to court and I’m looking forward to the truth and facts of the 14th to come before you,” he said.

“I think Minnesotans want to know what’s going on,” he added.

That drew a response from U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson: “As I said a couple weeks ago, this isn’t just a murder case, it’s a political assassination.”

Since he appears to be going back to jail, Boelter asked for a cell where the lights are not on all 24 hours per day, according to Fox News.

Boelter also asked for a pencil with which to take notes.

Micko said the prisoner’s accommodations are up to the jail, not the court.

His attorney, public defender Manny Atwal, has said Boelter’s cell at the Sherburne County Jail was lit 24 hours a day because Boelter was on a suicide watch.

Boelter has complained that his cell smells of feces from another cell, causing him to lose sleep, according to Atwal.

Sherburne County Sheriff Joel Brott called the claim “offensive and disgusting.”

“He is not in a hotel,” Brott replied, according to The New York Times.

“He’s in a jail, where a person belongs when they commit the heinous crimes he is accused of committing,” he said.

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