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News in Brief

Since June, 1994, 8 prisoners at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center (CBCC) were placed in segregation after they allegedly gave friends and relatives a state toll free number at which to call them. The DOC operates a boiler room operation at CBCC which contracts with other state agencies and private businesses to do phone work. The Department of Ecology operates a toll free phone service at CBCC which employs prisoners to answer basic questions about the states emissions control program. The line receives 10,000 calls a month at 62 cents a call. Prison investigators are trying to determine how many prisoners received calls from friends and relatives and for how long. Given the fact that the Washington DOC charges its captives extortionate phone rates it is hardly surprising that prisoners would seek to cut their families phone bills...

 NY: On November 7, 1994, four prisoners escaped from the Wallkill maximum security prison. One tried to walk out the front door and was caught, three others escaped by climbing over the fence. All three were caught within a matter of hours, barely conscious due to blood loss from razor wire cuts. All four prisoners had been housed in the control unit section of the prison when they escaped.

 MT: State prison chief Mickey Gamble resigned from his post on November 3, 1994, after he took three prisoners to dinner as part of a prison program that rewards good behavior by convicts. Gamble resigned rather than be fired. Word of the dinner was made public after a high school teacher of one of the three female prisoners saw them in a Helena restaurant. Governor Marc Racicot said Gamble s decision to take the prisoners out to dinner "went beyond the bounds of propriety. It ignored the interest of the victims."

GA: On August 5, 1994, FBI agent Danny Scott was charged with vehicular homicide in Atlanta, GA. He was also charged with obstruction of justice and leaving the scene of an accident. Scott was allegedly drunk driving when he killed a pedestrian. Scott has prior drunk driving convictions.

MI: Detroit policeman Ron Davis, a 17 year veteran, was caught robbing bank a few hours before going to work. Using his police issued gun and a ski mask, Davis walked into a bank, gave the teller a note demanding money. The teller gave him $1,000 and he fled with a security guard in pursuit. The guard caught him and held him until non-bank robbing police showed up.  

PR: On November 6, 1994, Puerto Rico voters rejected constitutional amendments to limit the right to bail for criminal suspects and to expand the Puerto Rican supreme court.

 St. Kitts : Protesting the release on bail of two of the prime ministers sons, accused of weapons and drugs charges, all 150 prisoners in this tiny island nation protested and broke out of prison on November 11, 1994. The nations 300 man police force requested help from the armies of neighboring countries to help round up the escaped prisoners. The riot began an hour after the two sons release. Prisoners threw eating utensils, benches, buckets and pans over prison walls onto city streets causing all 12 prison guards on duty to flee the prison. Police fired plastic bullets and tear gas into the prison yard and two hours later the prison was set on fire and prisoners broke out to continue their protest in city streets. Bail on weapons and drug charges are extremely rare in this country and non-prisoners have also protested

Kazakhstan: On September 9, 1994, three prisoners used a paperclip to pick the locks on their handcuffs while being transferred between jails. Once free of their handcuffs the prisoners overpowered their guards, took their assault rifles and shot them, leaving two guards dead and one injured. The prisoners escaped into the wilderness but were caught within a few hours.

Russia: Pretrial detainees in Moscows oldest prison, Butyrka, went on a one week hungerstrike on September 8, 1994, to protest overcrowding, bad food and a lack of mattresses and blankets. Cells designed for 30 prisoners typically hold over 100. Many prisoners are held in these conditions awaiting trial for more than five years.

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