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From the Author

Destitution: Photographer David Rochkind has captured a  series of poignant images of Mexico’s devastating drug culture; here, a young  girl walks by a caravan of police vehicles during a security sweep looking for  criminals and drug dealers

By  Daily Mail Reporter

It  is a place at once thought of for its destitution, crime, and poverty  – where a  bitter conflict has claimed the lives of more than 35,000 Mexicans.

Photographer David Rochkind captures  Mexico’s seedy drug trade in a brutally humanistic light in a series of images  collected in his book, ‘Heavy Hand, Sunken  Spirit.’

His  photographs capture a rugged landscape thrown into a vicious war on the trade,  and the people who have been affected by or succumbed to the overwhelming  influence of the drug trade.

Mr  Rochkind, who graduated from the University of Michigan and is currently based  out of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, traveled to Mexico beginning in 2007 to photograph  the series, shooting cartel members, addicts, inmates, and communities torn  apart by the drug war.

These images are  only a small  sampling of the collection or reportage appearing in his book.

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Belly of the beast: Ciudad Juraez is at the center of  Mexico’s violence, with more than 5,000 drug related murders over the past two  years. President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of soldiers to the city to  try to stem the violence, though after a short decrease in murders the violence  blossomed once again. Here, soldiers search young men for drugs, weapons or  signs of drug use

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Telling the story: Members of a Norteño band sit in  their tour bus after giving a show in Mexico City. Many Norteño groups sing  corridos, or ballads, that tell a story

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Long day’s journey into night: Central American migrants  ride atop a freight train carrying cement as they head north in an attempt to  enter the US. Traveling by train has become more dangerous as kidnappings and  robberies have risen in recent years with increased drug cartel  activity

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-23089
17/Mexicos-drug-war-David-Rochkind-captures-images-carte
l-controlled-communities.html#ixzz2QSyns7h2

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” Months of increased tension at the Guantanamo Bay prison boiled over into a clash between guards and detainees Saturday as the military closed a communal section of the facility and moved its inmates into single cells.

Prisoners fought guards with makeshift weapons that included broomsticks and mop handles when troops arrived to move them out of a communal wing of the section of the prison known as Camp 6, said Navy Capt. Robert Durand, a military spokesman. Guards responded by firing four “less-than-lethal rounds,” he said.

There were no serious injuries from the rounds, which included a modified shotgun shell that fires small rubber pellets as well as a type of bean-bag projectile, said Army Col. Greg Julian, a spokesman for Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the prison at the U.S. base in Cuba.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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An inmate dances his heart out during a public performance at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center.

It saddens me that we allow our anger and self-righteousness to get the better of us and use it to justify incredible acts of hatred.  I’m tempted to say senseless hatred, because although I share that anger and disgust at some actions, it’s understandable, yet not useful, to act on our hate.  Our anger comes from a feeling of powerlessness and outrage – our inability to understand how someone could do something so terrible.  I feel it too, I feel outraged, but to abuse any human being until they believe they have no value at all is to make them believe a terrible lie.  I can’t see how one abusive action justifies another.  I can understand the craving for it, I can see how you could say they don’t deserve anything other than pain, but I know that comes from somewhere hateful in me and not somewhere truthful.  In reality they did something wrong because they already felt awful about themselves and this world.

The truth is we’re fucked up.  A lot of that is to do with how we treat each other; how we interact as a community.  People do “bad” things because they’re sick and they’re sick because society is sick.  We know it’s sick because people crack and do these awful things.  I want to take this somewhere slightly more positive now, so don’t jump out the window just yet.

Society isn’t going to stay any one way – it never has.  It’s always changing and we have a hand in which way it goes.  I mention this horrific subject because prior to hearing Facu’s story today, I would have reacted differently, because it’s easy to do that from a distance.  When we feel that the person we are dealing with is a monster, we feel perfectly justified in doing unspeakable things to them.  I think it’s important that I changed my mind today and I’m glad.  I’m not saying people should be rewarded for their awful crimes, but I don’t think I will ever agree to torture beyond that of a prison sentence, because I don’t think it helps.  I just think we’ve got the focus all wrong.

We need to be looking at why people do these things, instead of just being disgusted and angrily saying “How could anyone do something like that????”  Just because we can’t get our heads around that question, doesn’t mean there isn’t a reasonable answer.  Not a nice answer, not a happy one, but a reasonable one – one based on causality.

I’m going to make a big bold statement now and it’s one I really believe in.  If we don’t want our children to be raped, we need to change society.  If we don’t change society, we can expect to see continuing symptoms of our society’s sickness, such as children being raped.  That is terrifying and I believe it’s true.  Aside from that I would like to say that raping anyone is an awful thing to do.  It saddens me that people go insane over children but don’t feel nearly as moved by adults raping other adults.  Nobody should have to suffer that feeling of utter powerlessness and worthlessness.  Those things feel awful because they are untrue.  I hope we learn to treat each other better in future and not use hatred as an excuse for abuse.

The governor’s administration said it will appeal the decision issued Thursday by a three-judge panel, which denied Brown’s request to lift the population cap. The judges also threatened to hold him and other state officials in contempt if they failed to comply with the earlier court rulings to reduce the prison population.

The state has said it will remain 9,000 prisoners over the court-mandated cap by the end-of-year deadline, and Brown has said releasing any more inmates would jeopardize public safety.

“If they feel bad now, wait till another 10,000 hit the streets under the orders of the federal courts,” Brown told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times who is traveling with him in China. “That’s not going to happen, though, until we appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

The Supreme Court already ruled in favor of the prison population cap, in 2011, so the federal appeals court may not be welcoming of another challenge by the state, said Mary-Beth Moylan, a professor at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento.

Only in rare instances, such as the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that led to desegregation fights in the South, have state officials openly defied federal court rulings, she said.

“It is rare to threaten a governor with contempt, but it’s really rare for governors to defy orders of federal courts,” Moylan said.

Thursday’s ruling came more than three years after the state was ordered to reduce its inmate population to improve medical and mental health care.

It said state officials must take whatever steps are necessary to comply or face the consequences. Otherwise, “they will without further delay be subject to findings of contempt, individually and collectively,” it said.

Don Specter, who is suing the state over prison crowding, said the judges have shown extraordinary patience with Brown but signaled in the ruling that they are willing to force him to comply.

“They made clear in yesterday’s order that they’ve just had it,” he said in an interview Friday. “It’s clear from the court’s opinion they view the governor as the main person who’s involved in setting the strategy for the state.”

Specter said the federal panel could fine the governor or issue an order taking control of prisons from him, but Moylan said the contempt threat may be little more than a gesture to get the state to take further action.

The governor told a reporter for The Sacramento Bee who was covering his visit to China that California has improved its inmate medical and mental health treatment to such a degree that the care is “the best health care in America and probably in the world.

“Now the judge sees it differently, and all I can say is I respect his differences, but we will take our case to the higher courts,” he said.

In an emailed statement, corrections department spokeswoman Deborah Hoffman said the administration will appeal because the quality of medical care delivered to California’s prison inmates “far exceeds” the requirements of the Constitution.

“The court’s population cap is based on an outdated one person per cell concept of design capacity that does not accurately reflect the prison system’s true capacity,” she said. “No other prison system in the country uses this one-inmate-per-cell measurement to determine capacity. With all of the additional treatment space California has added, coupled with the dramatic reduction in the inmate population, California’s prison system is no longer overcrowded.”

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

John Wilson of Yale was supposed to get his sentence this week in Detroit’s federal court, but it was delayed while a judge reviews fresh filings from attorneys.

Wilson, 58, pleaded guilty to fraud and a tax crime in December, admitting he duped 2,100 prisoners or family members across the country by offering to get them released through research and a successful appeal. The scam went on for a decade.

“They’re not going to get out early,” Wilson said when confronted by investigators in 2009.

Wilson said he expected to face a possible maximum sentence of 17 years in prison, based on guidelines calculated by prosecutors before the guilty plea. But he now fears the minimum punishment could be 30 years in prison after the guidelines were reviewed by the U.S. Probation Department.

In a recent filing, defense attorney Douglas Mullkoff acknowledged that Wilson was told the guidelines are advisory and the judge could set his own.

“Still, there is a marked difference between being close to accurate and being not even half right,” Mullkoff said.

Wilson could face a stiff sentence even if U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland throws out the guilty plea and orders a trial. But prosecutors, of course, would first have to prove their case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Resnick Cohen said the guilty plea should stand.

“Hundreds of potential witnesses and 2,100 victims have been notified that this case has come to a conclusion and that their testimony and documentation are no longer required,” she said in a filing Tuesday. “They have all emotionally and mentally prepared for closure, not trial preparation and the reopening of old wounds.”

According to the indictment, Wilson’s three businesses sent direct mailings to inmates offering to provide legal and appellate court work. When a family member or friend contacted Wilson or co-defendant Lari Zeka, they explained that payment was required for two phases: legal research and attorney retainer.

Prosecutors say people across the U.S. mailed large amounts of money to Wilson’s businesses, purportedly for appellate research and appellate representation when, in fact, any research provided would not assist the inmate and no attorney would ever be provided to work on the inmate’s appeal.

According to the indictment, Wilson and Zeka frequently used fictitious names in correspondence with the victims and both repeatedly represented themselves as attorneys or represented that attorneys were on the staff. Neither Wilson nor Zeka is licensed to practice law and no attorneys were on staff at any of the companies.

Zeka, of Macomb County’s Macomb Township, pleaded guilty in January and is awaiting sentencing.

MORE: Man Pleads Guilty In $2.6M Prison Legal Aid Scam

TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The state has had two decades to tell its side of the story and the inmates known as the Lucasville Five should have their chance, Siddique Abdullah Hasan said in an exclusive telephone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“We have been suffering very torturous conditions for two decades,” said Hasan, formerly Carlos Sanders. “We have never been given the opportunity completely to speak about our cases, to speak to the media — because the media has an enormous amount of power. They can get our message out to the court of public opinion.”

Twelve staff members were taken hostage on April 11, 1993, Easter Sunday, when inmates overtook the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. Hasan was convicted for helping plan the murder of Corrections Officer Robert Vallandingham, among 10 who died during the 11-day uprising, the longest deadly prison riot in U.S. history. Hasan denies he was involved in planning or carrying out the killing.

Hasan, Keith LaMar and Jason Robb, all sentenced to death after the uprising, will take their last meals Wednesday evening ahead of their protest at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, Hasan said. Also participating will be Gregory Curry, a participant in the rebellion sentenced to life in prison.

James Were, another of the Lucasville Five, is diabetic and will not take part. The fifth man sentenced to death after the riot, George Skatzes, is at a different prison in Chillicothe.

Hunger strikes have been periodic among high-security prisoners in recent years. Some 12,000 prisoners in California went without food for about three weeks twice in 2011, winning a new process for leaving indefinite solitary confinement.

Hasan, LaMar and Robb staged a short hunger protest in 2011 that resulted in access to full contact visits with their families. Hour-long phone calls, like Wednesday’s with the AP, were also permitted after that protest, Hasan said. LaMar used that access to speak about the riot to a recent gathering at Youngstown State University.

Factors considered when deciding whether an inmate can be interviewed include the nature of the case, his behavior while in prison, the safety of the facility, and potential impact on staff and victims, said JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

The department denied an AP request for sit-down interviews ahead of Thursday’s anniversary.

Among the department’s concerns have been that the five would bring up prison conditions such as overcrowding that led to the 1993 riot or try to elicit sympathy for being held in super-maximum security, Hasan said.

“I’m not concerned about overcrowdedness. It doesn’t affect me because I’m always going to be isolated,” Hasan said. “They said they didn’t want us to talk about indefinite confinement in a super-max prison. I could care less about that. I’m not trying to make prison a paradise for myself. I’m trying to get the hell out of prison.”

Hasan, now 50, was 10 months from his parole hearing at the time of the riot.

He was among Muslim inmates in Lucasville who objected on religious grounds to a mandatory test for tuberculosis containing phenol alcohol. Hasan said they never envisioned their protest would reach such proportions.

“We didn’t ever have an intention to have a full-scale rebellion, just barricade ourselves inside a pod, get the attention of Central Office to hope that we could resolve the situation amicably,” he said.

Instead, the violent uprising involving more than 450 inmates ultimately prompted then-Gov. George Voinovich to call in the National Guard. Vallandingham was murdered on the fourth day of the standoff after inmates’ threats they would kill a hostage if certain demands weren’t met.

Hasan said he became involved in negotiations after Vallandingham’s death, in his role as prayer leader for the Muslim inmates, after several representatives were appointed and talks faltered.

In contradiction to accounts provided by the state, Hasan claims that inmates never got together and decided a guard should be murdered.

“Prior to the guard’s murder, there was not any discussion for a guard to be killed. There was never a vote,” he said. “The prosecutor sold that line to the jury and they swallowed the hook, the line and the sink.”

He said the Lucasville Five are uniquely classified to deny them in-person media interviews and other privileges that fellow death row inmates earn through good behavior.

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

The harrowing stories of women and children locked up for so-called ‘moral crimes’ in Afghanistan’s notorious female prison have been revealed after cameras were allowed inside.

Mariam has been in Badam Bagh prison for three months after she shot a man who just raped her at gunpoint and then turned the weapon on herself – but she has yet to been charged.

Nuria has eight months left to serve of her sentence for trying to divorce her husband.

She gave birth in prison to her son and they share a cell together.

Nuria was jailed for trying to divorce her husband. Her son is one of 62 children living at Badam Bagh prison

Mariam shot her a man who raped her at gunpoint and then shot herself. She is locked up but has not been charged with a crime

He is one of 62 children trapped in prison because of their mother’s sentences for ‘crimes’ such as refusing an arranged marriage or being with a man of their choice.

Some women are serving up to seven years for leaving their husband.

Six people often share a cell and inmates attend a variety of classes during the week, ranging from basic literacy, to crafts and sewing, with the intention of giving the women a skill once they leave the prison.

Despite some new laws being introduced when the Taliban were ousted 12 years ago, activists say very little has changed for women in Afghanistan in the past decade.

Mariam fled to Kabul, the country’s capital, from her home in the northern Kunduz province after the increasingly vicious beatings from her husband became too much to bear.

Alone in a strange city, she called the only person she knew, her husband’s cousin.

He surprised her by saying that he would help her but was too busy to pick her up so sent a friend.

That friend took Mariam to ‘some house’ and raped her.

She shot him after he left the gun on a table and casually turned to watch TV. She then shot herself in the head and woke up three days later in hospital.

The authorities moved her to Badam Bagh within days.

Adia, 27, is serving a seven year sentence but is seven months pregnant and will have her baby in jail

Cells at the prison are full and six people often share a room and sleep on bunk beds pushed against the wall

Nuria went to court to demand a divorce from a husband she was forced by her parents to marry.

She said: ‘I wanted to get a divorce but he wouldn’t let me go. I never wanted to marry him. I loved someone else but my father made me. He threatened to kill me if I didn’t.’

Nuria said she pleaded with her father before her marriage but he would not relent.

‘When I went to court for the divorce, instead of giving me a divorce, they charged me with running away,’she said.

The man she wanted to marry was also charged and is now serving time in Afghanistan’s notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison, one of the country’s largest prisons that has a reputation for the maltreatment of inmates.

The baby she gave birth to is her husbands and he has even offered to have the courts set her free if she returns, but Nuria has refused.

‘He wants me to come home now because I have his son but I said no. I will wait until my sentence is up’, she said.

Adia is seven-months pregnant and will have her baby in prison after she left her drug addict husband.

She returned to her parents’ home but they wanted her to return to him. Instead she escaped with another man.

Sixty-two children live in the prison in Kabul that houses 202 women

Activists say that 12 years after the Taliban were ousted from the country, very little has changed for women

Adia, 20, said: ‘It wasn’t a romance. I was desperate to get away and he said he would help me but he didn’t he just left me. I went to the court. I was angry. I wanted him charged and my husband charged but instead they charged me and sentenced me to six years.

‘I went back to court to appeal the conviction and this time I was sentenced to seven and a half years.’

The Taliban’s ousting in 2001 ended five years of rule and regressive laws.

But despite some new laws and schools opening for girls, activists say life for women is almost the same.

Even President Hamid Karzai began making statements that harkened back to the Taliban rule saying women really should be accompanied by a man while outside their home.

A new law was enacted called the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW), but its implementation is erratic and rare, says the United Nations Assistance Mission on Afghanistan.

Most of the women inmates are serving time for ‘moral crimes’ such as leaving their husbands

The prisoners are given daily lessons as the authorities want them to have a skill when they leave

While it might not be against the law to run away or escape a forced marriage, the courts routinely convict women fleeing abusive homes with ‘the intent to commit zina (or adultery)’ which are most often simply referred to as ‘moral crimes,’ says a UNAMA report.

“Perceptions toward women are still the same in most places, tribal laws are the only laws followed and in most places nothing has changed in the basics of women’s lives.

‘There are policies and papers and even laws but nothing has changed,’ said Zubaida Akbar whose volunteer Haider organization fights for women’s rights and sends lawyers and aid workers to the women’s prison to defend the inmates in court.

Zubeida, the women’s activist, said despite what she calls a veneer of change, little is different for most Afghan women.

‘We have the appearance of everything, but when you dig in deep down below the surface nothing fundamentally has changed. It has been tough. It has been really tough,’ she said.

- dailymail.co.uk

This picture taken March 28, 2013 shows an Afghan female guard peering through the main gate at Badam Bagh, Afghanistan’s central women’s prison, in Kabul, Afghanistan. 202 women living in the six- year- old jail, the majority of the women are serving sentences of up to seven years for leaving their husbands, refusing to accept a marriage arranged by their parents, or choosing to leave their parent’s home with a man of their choice, all so-called “moral” crimes. — AP Photo

KABUL: The 21-year-old Afghan woman said she fled her abusive husband only to be raped at gunpoint by a stranger who was supposed to help her.   

The man then settled in front of a TV set, putting the gun on a table by his side. Choosing her moment, Mariam grabbed it and shot her assailant in the head, then turned the gun on herself.

”Three days later I woke up in the hospital,” said Mariam, shyly removing a scarf from her head to reveal a partially shaved head and a long jagged scar that ran almost the length of her head where the bullet grazed her scalp. From the hospital, Mariam was sent to a police station and from there to Afghanistan’s main women’s prison, Badam Bagh, which in Pashto means Almond Garden. She is one of 202 inmates in a jail mostly filled with women serving time for so-called ”moral” crimes.

Many had sought justice for domestic violence or tried to run away from an abusive situation. Under international pressure, Afghanistan has made some progress in advancing women’s rights after years of repressive Taliban rule that banned girls from going to school and forced women to wear all-encompassing burqas and leave their homes only when accompanied by a male relative. But the country remains a deeply conservative society run by men who most often turn to tribal jirgas that routinely hand down rulings offering up girls and women to settle debts and disputes.

Nowhere is this more evident than at the Badam Bagh prison, built by the Italian government six years ago to house female inmates from the Kabul area. The Associated Press recently was given rare access to the facility. More than two-thirds of the 202 inmates are serving sentences of up to seven years for leaving their husbands, refusing to accept an arranged marriage, or leaving their parents’ home with a man of their choice, according to the prison’s director, Zaref Jan Naebi. The rest face theft, assault or narcotics charges. Two women are in jail on murder.

Some of the women were jailed while pregnant, others with their small children. Naebi said 62 children are living with their imprisoned mothers, sharing the same gray, steel bunk beds and napping in the afternoon behind a sheet draped from the upper bunk, oblivious to the chatter and the crackling noises from the small TV sets shoved off to one side of the rooms.

Before the two-story prison, named for the sprawling almond orchard across the street, was built, female prisoners were held in rundown cement cellblocks in the center of Kabul in a jail that predated the Taliban. Others were locked up in the notorious Pul-e-Charkhi jail, which also houses 1,300 male inmates.

At Badam Bagh, six inmates live in cells originally intended to house four. Mariam has spent the past three months in one of them, without any idea of why she was imprisoned, what charges she faces or when she can leave. ”I haven’t gone to court. I am just waiting,” Mariam told the AP, hugging a ratty brown sweater to protect her from the damp cold of the prison.

While it might not be against the law to run away or escape a forced marriage, the courts routinely convict women fleeing abusive homes with ”the intent to commit adultery,” which are most often simply referred to as ”moral crimes,” says a United Nations report released last month. It also said most cases of abuse go unreported.

The director-general of prisoners, Gen. Amer Mohammad Jamsheed, said about 650 women are jailed nationwide, and ”most are in jail for moral crimes.”       It was not possible to determine whether this represents an increase from previous years, though Georgette Gagnon, director of human rights with the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan, said that more women are now reporting abuses and that many wind up being charged as a result.

Zubaida Akbar, founder of the volunteer Haider organization, which fights for women’s rights and sends lawyers and other representatives to the women’s prison to defend the inmates in court, said women often risk being jailed themselves if they seek justice against the violence.         ”Perceptions toward women are still the same in most places, tribal laws are the only laws followed and in most places nothing has changed in the basics of women’s lives. There are policies and papers and even laws but nothing has changed,” Akbar said.

In the overwhelmingly male-dominated legal system, Akbar said even when a female inmate gets in front of the judge, ”He says ‘it is her husband, she should go back and make it work. It is her fault and not her place to leave him – not in our society.”’

Surrounded by a high fence topped with razor wire, the children being kept with their mothers at the Badam Bagh prison play in a single small open space. Nearby women hang out their laundry. while women sit and smoke on balconies obscured by mesh and steel bars. Naebi, the jail’s director, said inmates attend a variety of classes during the week, ranging from basic literacy, to crafts and sewing, so they will have a skill after they are released.

The women interviewed by AP agreed to tell their story on condition that only their first names were used for fear of being stigmatised after their release from prison.

Nuria, dressed in maroon from head to toe, quieted her infant boy as she told of going to court to demand a divorce from a husband she was forced by her parents to marry. “I wanted to get a divorce but he wouldn’t let me go. I never wanted to marry him. I loved someone else but my father made me. He threatened to kill me if I didn’t,” Nuria said.

“When I went to court for the divorce, instead of giving me a divorce, they charged me with running away,” she said. The man she wanted to marry also was sent to jail.

When she went to court Nuria said she didn’t know she was pregnant. Her son was born in jail. After he learned he had a son, her husband offered to drop the charges if she returned home. Nuria, who has eight months left to serve, refused. “He wants me to come home now because I have his son but I said no,” she said.

Adia, who is now seven months pregnant, said she left her drug-addicted husband, then ran away with another man when her parents insisted she go back — though she insists it was a platonic relationship. “I was desperate to get away and he said he would help me,” said Adia, 27. “But he didn’t, he just left me. I went to the court. I was angry. I wanted him charged and my husband charged, but instead they charged me and sentenced me to six years. I went back to court to appeal the conviction and this time I was sentenced to seven and a half years.”

At 60, Fauzia is the oldest inmate in the facility. She stared out of the prison bars. Already seven years in jail, Fauzia is serving a 17-year sentence for killing her husband and her daughter-in-law. Expressionless as she told her story, she rolled up her sleeve to display a mangled elbow that she said her husband smashed with a stick. She was his fourth wife. “I was in one room. I came into the next room and they were there having sexual relations. I found a big knife and killed them both,” she said in a voice empty of emotion.

Naebi, the prison director, confirmed the charges against the prisoners who spoke with the AP, but she did not provide details.

Zubeida, the women’s activist, said despite what she calls a veneer of progress in Afghanistan, little is different for most Afghan women.

“We have the appearance of everything, but when you dig deep down below the surface nothing fundamentally has changed. It has been tough. It has been really tough,” she said.

I know most people have the same thoughts about inmates – but like I said before I like to see the good in everyone.  I know, no matter what, there is always good in people and finding that when even the person them self doesn’t believe it exists in them is a pretty awesome feeling.  They did commit a crime – they do deserve to pay for the crime they committed  but it doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a friend there for them.  There will always be plenty of people who disagree with what I do, or who think I’m a bad person for wanting to brighten up their day in some way, but I see it as something pure and selfless.  I am able to look past someone’s mistakes, flaws, and just be a friend.  A real, true friend who doesn’t judge and is there for the good and bad without abandoning them like countless people have done to them already.  I went into it with the sole purpose of helping someone else, but I ended up getting as much out of it as my penpal.  Picture having a diary, who writes back. I am able to vent, write my fears, excitements, worries, frustrations and there is someone there reading it and responding who actually cares.  It is definitely not for everyone, but if you can see yourself committing to it, I encourage you to check it out.  You would be surprised at the extremely large community of women AND men who write to inmates and there is a very close support system in place for it.  I don’t even know the purpose to this post.  I have recently had some negative feedback from friends about my choice and I guess this is my way of venting about it  For anyone who actually made it this far and read this, thank you!  

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John Marlin King (L) and Brian Allen Tucker (R) were found hiding in a barn 20 miles from the jail. (credit: Hopkins Co. Sheriff’s Dept.)

HOPKINS COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) – Two men accused of breaking out of an east Texas jail appeared before a judge today.

Brian Allen Tucker and John Marlin King were arraigned on escape charges.

Tucker, a capital murder suspect, and King, who had just been sentenced to 40 years in prison for violating parole and evading arrest, were at the center of a two-day manhunt after escaping from the Hopkins County Jail in Sulphur Springs.

The two were found hiding out in a barn 20 miles away from the jail.

The Hopkins County Sheriff’s Office says both men had previously violated their probation and are not eligible to bond out.

Sgt. Brad Cummings with Hopkins County Sheriff’s office says new initiatives are underway at the jail to prevent future escapes like this one.

Cummings could not disclose specific details on the changes for security reasons, but told CBS 11′s Sharrie Williams that there will be additional supervision on the recreational yard.

Tucker and King were out on the rec yard when they escaped through the fence Tuesday morning.

There was only one deputy assigned to the “guard shack” to keep watch on the rec yard and on other surveillance cameras throughout the jail.

The sheriff’s office has yet to clarify if there is a surveillance camera assigned to the recreational yard or if it is simply watched by the on-duty officer.

No disciplinary action has been taken towards any deputies, and the sheriff’s office says a full investigation is underway to determine how the men escaped and if there was any negligence on any employee’s part.

Tucker and King are both under additional surveillance at the jail and are considered high risk.

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This is the most shocking video to ever come out of a prison. You think that inmates don’t have access to illegal substances? Well check out this video of these inmates shooting heroin, snorting coke, smoking crack, pulling out guns, drinking beer, shooting dice, ALL ON CAMERA!

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This is the most shocking video to ever come out of a prison. You think that inmates don’t have access to illegal substances? Well check out this video of these inmates shooting heroin, snorting coke, smoking crack, pulling out guns, drinking beer, shooting dice, ALL ON CAMERA!

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This is the most shocking video to ever come out of a prison. You think that inmates don’t have access to illegal substances? Well check out this video of these inmates shooting heroin, snorting coke, smoking crack, pulling out guns, drinking beer, shooting dice, ALL ON CAMERA!

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Every semester it’s been something on my ‘To Do’ list that I never got to. I guess now is as good a time as any.

I graduate college in a month, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen after that. It will be the first time in my life where I haven’t had a plan, where there is no predetermined next step. It’s both scary and exhilarating to have that stretch out in front of you.

There are a lot of things I want to talk about. My fear of graduation, but also the excitement it brings. My ever-present dissatisfaction with what I shoot and the breakthroughs I’ve made lately. What it means to me to be a photojournalist, and why I continue in this field despite the challenges it presents.

But these are heavy topics, and they would be best saved for future posts. I’m going to try and follow the model of the blogs I like the most – a few pictures of recent work, with a little bit about what is on my mind.

Tonight I edited a portfolio for a young photographer who will be entering a competition that I won two years ago, and it reminded me of where I used to be. I thought about how far I’ve come since then, and what that competition meant to me.

Winning the Greg Crowder Award at Cronkite was the first time I woke up and thought, ‘I could really do this.’ As I looked over this photographer’s work, I remember my own hesitation when I put together my entry. I remember thinking I would never get it.

That award taught me to sit up and pay attention. Being self-taught, it was an affirmation that I was on the right track and that people appreciated my work.

Unfortunately I think I got a little bit comfortable after that, and I didn’t push my photography as hard as I should have. I’ve learned a lot in the last semester or two about how I want to shoot, but it’s going to take a while to get there.

These things don’t happen overnight, I suppose. I am looking forward to seeing where this blog takes me.

SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — A capital murder suspect and a convicted drug offender who escaped from an East Texas jail were captured Thursday, two days after they slipped past a fence only to be found in a neighboring county to the north.

Brian Allen Tucker and John Marlin King were captured in the town of Cooper, said Hopkins County sheriff’s Deputy Alvin Jordan. They were returned to the Hopkins County Jail in Sulphur Springs.

Sheriff’s officials said the inmates fled the jail Tuesday by scaling a fence or slipping through a gap in a perimeter fence in Sulphur Springs, about 75 miles northeast of Dallas. Officials said a maintenance person noticed a problem with the fence around a recreation yard used by female inmates. Hours later, deputies and other law enforcement were searching the woods and area east and northeast of the jail.

The men were found Thursday just 20 miles north of the jail, holed up in a barn behind a house, said Scott Cass, sheriff from nearby Lamar County, which helped in the capture. The black SUV the men stole in Sulphur Springs on Wednesday was located a couple of blocks away from where the men were found.

Hopkins County Sheriff Butch Adams says a task force of about 30 people surprised the escapees, but no one was hurt as they were taken into custody.

The escapees were staying in an attic behind a house, likely since last night, according to the Delta County Sheriff.

“The first one just walked out and surrendered,” said Delta County Sheriff Ricky Smith.  “The second one hid out in the house.”

It was capital murder suspect Brian Tucker who gave up first.  John King was fished out of the attic.  The suspects were tracked down after selling some jewelry in nearby Commerce, which was taken from inside the stolen SUV.

One man living at the Cooper home was arrested for hindering apprehension. Two others there were questioned and released.

“I’m more relieved in the fact that I don’t have to worry about something else happening to a citizen of my county or any other county,” said Hopkins County Sheriff Butch Adams.

Carmen Crouse, the wife of an unidentified task force member, said she’s happy the capture ended this way. “We were all just very relieved. We can all sleep tonight. My kids can sleep, and it’s been a long journey the last two days,” she said.

Tucker was being held on $1 million bond in the 2011 death of Bobby Riley of Mahoney. Riley was found strangled in his home and some music instruments and firearms had been stolen. Jury selection in his murder trial was set to begin June 3. He previously was convicted of burglary and driving while intoxicated, and has been arrested several times for violating parole.

King was being held on several charges, including evading arrest, burglary and possession of a controlled substance. According to court documents, he pleaded guilty last month to the possession charge as a habitual offender and received a sentence of 40 years in prison.

(©2013 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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Her time at TPW expired in February, but because of a problem with how her sentencing was put on file, she can’t leave until she has the money to hire a lawyer to fix it. She writes letters every week to different attorneys pleading for help with her case.

BJ got to spend the Easter holiday visiting with her daughter. The last time she saw her was nearly 6 months ago. Since gas isn’t cheap and it’s a long drive from where they live, BJ isn’t able to see her family as much as she’d like, but those 2 hours she had on a rainy Sunday were so precious to her; she was still excited about it 3 days later.

Can you imagine only seeing your family through pictures and letters and the occasional visit when they have the money? What about being strip-searched every time they came to see you? That’s what life is like for millions across the world.

To me, it’s not a question of “getting what they deserve” or “living with the consequences”. That’s a hard life for anyone regardless of the mistakes you’ve made. Take the time to be thankful for the access you have to your loved ones; hold them tightly when you can. I know the inmates would tell you the same thing.

Next week, we’re taking a tour of the prison-where they live, work and hang out etc. As much as I want a deeper look into the lives of my friends, I’ve heard the sight has brought even our male professors to tears. We only have 4 meetings left at TPW, and I’m trying to come to terms with knowing I may never see some of these women again. Say a prayer for all of us this week!

-Amanda