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NEWS AROUND PRISON AND LAW / SOUTH AMERICA17. JUNI 2005MEXICO / USAzum ersten mal seit das oberste gericht 2001 entschied das die lebenslängliche strafe inhuman und grausam ist und mexikanische bürgerinnen nicht in länder ausgeliefert werden in denen ihnen diese strafe droht, wurde jetzt ein mann in die usa ausgeliefert. Mexico extradites man suspected in Inglewood shootingFor the first time since Mexico's highest court ruled it would not extradite its citizens to the United States to face life sentences, authorities in that country have contradicted that ruling and turned over a 26-year-old man accused of shooting at two sheriff's deputies in Inglewood, prosecutors announced Thursday. Ricardo Rodriguez was returned to Los Angeles on Wednesday and appeared in Inglewood Superior Court on Thursday for arraignment on eight felony counts, including two of attempted murder of a peace officer. However, the hearing was postponed until Tuesday. Rodriguez is being held in a downtown Los Angeles jail on $2.78 million bail. If convicted, Rodriguez faces two life terms plus 54 years in prison, according to the District Attorney's Office. He would be eligible for parole after serving 68 years and four months behind bars. Rodriguez is suspected of attacking two deputies on April 9, 2004, after they tried to pull over the blue Honda Civic he allegedly was driving. The deputies saw the car run a red light and then flee when they tried to make a traffic stop. After a quick chase, the car stopped in the 11000 block of South New Hampshire Avenue. The suspect jumped out and fired at the deputies with an assault rifle. The deputies fired back and, after a brief gunbattle, the suspect escaped. No one was hurt during the incident. Rodriguez was identified as a suspect and arrested in Mexico on Oct. 29. Prosecutors filed an extradition request in December, seeking Rodriguez's return to face charges that also include assault on a peace officer with a machine gun, three counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, possession of an assault weapon and evading an officer. District Attorney Steve Cooley said the extradition was a success for the victims in the attack, but added there are hundreds of other cases awaiting justice because suspects have crossed the border. A 1980 extradition treaty with Mexico contains a clause that exempts capital punishment cases because the death penalty is banned in that country. In addition, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that life in prison is cruel and unusual punishment, and any one of its citizens facing an indeterminate time in prison should not be extradited. "The main obstacle is Mexico's failure to fully abide by the treaty and allow fugitives facing life in prison without the possibility of parole to be extradited back to the United States," Cooley said in a statement. "We continue to seek a global solution that better protects and brings justice to those in this country."Mexico has extradited U.S. citizens who face life in prison without parole or the death penalty, including a man suspected of gunning down a Burbank Police Department rookie in 2003. 13. JUNI 2005MEXICOder bürgermeister von mexico city, der einer der kandidaten für die präsidentenwahl 2006 ist, hat angekündigt, islas marias, eine inselgruppe im pazifik (etwa 70 km von der küste entfernt), im falle seiner wahl zu schließen. Etwa 800 gefangene sind z.zt. auf diesen inseln die die letzte noch benutzte "strafkolonie" ist. Mexico Mayor Vows to Close Penal ColonyMEXICO CITY - The front-runner in polls on Mexico's 2006 presidential elections promised Monday to close down the hemisphere's last remaining island penal colony and convert it into a nature reserve. Mexico City's leftist mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said the Islas Marias - four islands now home to some 800 low-level inmates about 70 miles off Mexico's southern Pacific coast - should be made into a protected area for use by children. Mexican authorities had started dismantling the prison, but reversed course last year in the face of overcrowding at mainland facilities. In May, officials announced an additional $9.1 million in investments and plans to further increase the inmate population. But Lopez Obrador, who plans to step down as mayor at the end of July to launch his presidential bid, said the prisoners now on the island should be moved to prisons on the mainland. "The Islas Marias will be converted to an ecotourism center and fundamentally, they will be converted into the Islands of Children," Lopez Obrador said. The penal colony now holds only low-risk criminals; their families can come to live with them on the islands, which have a school, small stores and other amenities. Founded in 1905, Islas Marias was one of many such island penal colonies in the Americas at the time. Unlike American prisons like New York's Riker's Island or the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects in Cuba, where inmates are confined to cells, prisoners at the penal colonies had free run, often growing their own food and building their own houses. They were prevented from leaving mainly by ocean currents and sharks. Intended to be more self-sufficient and escape-proof, the most famous was the French prison on French Guiana's Devil's Island, the subject of the 1973 movie "Papillon." Since then, the others were gradually closed. The only other such penal colony in the Americas, Panama's Coiba Island, was closed and slated for conversion to a nature reserve in late 2004. Environmentalists praised Lopez Obrador's promise and said they were hopeful it would be carried out even if he is not elected. 13. JUNI 2005MEXICObericht über die bedingungen in einem knast in mexico city : "geld bestimmt die qualität des lebens für inhaftierte in mexiko". Money rules quality of life for Mexico's imprisonedMexico City - When Raul Gomez-Garcia passed through the concertina wire of Mexico City's massive South Penitentiary early this month, he entered the bizarre world of a Mexican prison, where money can buy just about anything and those without it can suffer a hell on Earth. Sprawling atop a hillside on the southern edge of the city, the overcrowded, state-run facility is likely to be Gomez-Garcia's home for at least the next year, as he waits for extradition on charges he murdered a Denver policeman and wounded another. But this is like no prison Americans would recognize. For those without money, a bed is a luxury. There are as many as 15 people in a cell built to hold six. And gangs of prisoners run key functions within the facility, extorting money, sex and other services from fellow prisoners. But for drug kingpins and wealthy white-collar criminals, life inside can be one of luxurious ease. They have cells to themselves, chat away on mobile phones and command the services of bodyguards and other servants recruited from among their fellow inmates. "They have cooks, porters, even ball boys to fetch their tennis balls," said Jose Antonio Bernal, an expert on Mexican prisons for the National Human Rights Commission, an independent government panel. "There is extraordinary corruption" inside the system, he said. With little money, Gomez- Garcia is likely to be among the majority of the prison's 6,200 inmates with few earthly pleasures. With a population already more than twice its capacity, the prison sometimes runs out of food, family members say. Medical care is poor, and relatives often have to bring in even basic medicines. "My brother sleeps on cardboard on the floor. Others are forced to sleep in the bathroom area or sitting up," said Angela Aguilar, 23, whose brother is in the prison awaiting trial on drug charges. Visits are allowed three times a week, and on a recent morning, relatives stood in a long line that snaked around the front gate. Relatives are allowed to bring in bundles and bags stuffed with food and provisions: toilet paper, baked chicken, soda, cartons with four-dozen eggs. Adriana Lopez, whose husband is serving six years for attempted robbery, carries two massive bags, but even that will last him only the next few days. She complains about the beatings guards give her husband. Next to her, a woman said she had a cousin who was killed for 50 pesos in a penitentiary on the city's north side. Knowing the dangers, Lopez said, she tells her husband to keep his head down and stay out of trouble. "There's a new dormitory with ping-pong and a tennis court. But they charge 10,000 pesos (about $950) a month to get in," Lopez said. "If you have money, everything is different." Mexican prisons are notorious for the underground economy that functions on money. Investigations by the National Human Rights Commission found that inmates in some of Mexico's largest prisons had access to prostitutes, drugs, alcohol, even satellite phones. They throw wild parties and relax in private saunas. An investigation by the commission specific to the facility where Gomez-Garcia is being held found that a powerful gang of prisoners who extorted money and services from other inmates had free rein in the facility. Among other things, the inmates had to pay the equivalent of 50 cents to guards doing the roll call in order to be counted present. Those without a check by their name were punished. The corruption that riddles the system ultimately weakens security in the entire country, said Bernal, the human rights commission lawyer. In 2001, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the brutal head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, reportedly paid millions in bribes and was sneaked out of a maximum security facility in the back of a laundry truck. And early this year, tanks surrounded the high security La Palma prison after federal authorities discovered that several drug lords planned a sophisticated escape. The warden and several other officials there were fired. Elba Alonso, a prison official and human rights ombudsman, said she believes South Penitentiary is better than many of Mexico City's prisons, but she admits that prisoners with money live well. There are standard-issue prison clothes, but inmates can wear anything as long as it's beige. Some go around in designer shirts, others in rags, Alonso said. Relatives who have heard stories about worse conditions in other prisons concede that the situation in South Penitentiary is better than some. Once a month, Alejandra Flores is able to take a truckload of wood and other materials into South Penitentiary, supplies her husband uses to make picture frames, tables and other items to sell to prison visitors. He's made enough to support her over the past four years, even from behind bars. Once a week, she's allowed a conjugal visit with her husband - a right Gomez-Garcia could also have. In a special dormitory, set up much like a hotel, Flores and her husband spend as long as 18 hours together, using a foam mattress that they rent for the equivalent of $1. "You can bring your pajamas. You can take a shower there. Without it, I don't know what I'd do," Flores said. Flores has a piece of advice for Gomez-Garcia: "How you get treated depends on how you behave," she said. "If you behave well, things can go all right. If you don't, it can get really bad." 25. MAI 2005MEXICOder direktor des knastes in mexicali wurde von unbekannten erschossen. Gunmen kill Mexican jail directorMONTERREY, Mexico - Unknown gunmen killed the director of a jail in the Mexican border city of Mexicali, the latest in a wave of slayings to rock the country, authorities said. Baja California state prosecutors said pistol-toting assailants fired five shots at Eduardo Villalobos as he left his home in the city, which lies south of the border from Calexico, California. Villalobos was formerly the head of the police organised crime task force in Mexicali, a notorious hub in the cross-border trade in cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines. No arrests have been made in the killing. About 500 people have died in gangland shootings across Mexico this year in a surge of violence linked to cartels battling for control of the international drug trade. President Vicente Fox on Monday blamed opposition leaders for the failure to halt the violence after a package of sweeping justice system reforms, including measures to make police more effective, stalled in Congress. 7. april 2005BARBADOSnach dem riot ;letztes woche gab es jetzt gesetzesverschärfungen. so sollen in zukunft polizisten und soldaten in den knästen sein und waffen tragen und diese bei riots oder ausbruchsversuchen einsetzen.außerdem können sie innerhalb und in der zone um einen knast jeden kontrollieren und durchsuchen. außerdem können sie nach absprache mit dem knastleiter gefangenen die haare schneiden.durch die länge der haare könnten diese als verstecke benutzt werden. [ more infos about the riot ]Police and soldiers in Barbados get greater powersBRIDGETOWN, Barbados: Lawmakers in Barbados have given police and soldiers greater temporary powers as they oversee security at detention facilities set up across the island after last week’s uprising at Glendairy Prison. It was during emergency sittings of the House of Assembly and the Senate Monday, that an amendment to the Prisons Act gave the law enforcement officials the authority to carry guns in prison and use them to foil escape bids or put down riotous assemblies if necessary; challenge, guard, transport and search prisoners without the presence of regular prison warders; challenge and arrest people who enter buffer zones around temporary prisons without permission; and cut the hair of any prisoner on the instructions of the Superintendent of Prisons, if he deems it is in the interest of security, maintenance of order or public safety. That latter change came with the recognition that prisoners could hide contraband in their hair and that length of hair and hairstyles presented an even bigger security risk than the hiding of items in body cavities. Attorney-General and Minister of Home Affairs Mia Mottley indicated that previously, under the Prisons Act before the amendment, only prison officers had the right to interact with prisoners. Now, police, soldiers from the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) and personnel from the Regional Security System (RSS) will have the authority to interact with the inmates prisoners in the role of warder. Ms. Mottley also told Parliament about plans that could see a greater movement of police and soldiers between countries that have signed on to the Regional Security System and those that have not. She says a draft agreement is before the Legal Affairs Committee of CARICOM for the approval of the Ministers of National Security which if approved will be incorporated into national legislation in each country. But even as plans continue to ensure security, Leader of the opposition, Democratic Labour Party, Clyde Mascoll has called for an examination of the overall management of Glendairy Prisons. Mr. Mascoll insisted that policymakers could not begin to expect to solve the problems at Glendairy without asking questions of the overall management of its affairs and argued that the amendments to the Prisons Act would not solve the problems at Glendairy. “The question has to be asked, ‘What precipitated the action at Glendairy Prisons?’ In all fairness, an initial comment was that a desired act of buggery could have been responsible for the action that ensued thereafter,” he said. “The truth is buggery was so commonplace at the prison that it constituted a major national debate with respect to whether or not there should be condoms at the prison. It cannot therefore be said that an act of buggery could be responsible for the unrest at the prison.” Meanwhile, Barbadians are still awaiting word from the Attorney General on the location of the detention facilities housing the inmates who were displaced after last week’s uprising. That incident left one inmate dead and major fire damage at the island’s lone adult penal institution. [ caribbeannetnews.com10.märz 2005COLOMBIA /USAomira rojas, die ein führendes mitglied der farc sein soll, wird an die usa ausgeliefert. dort soll sie u.a. wegen drogenhandels vor gericht. [ Colombia Extradites Female Rebel Commander2. märz 2005EL SALVADORda sie oft nur wegen ihrer tattoos verhaftet werden, lassen sich ehemalige gangleute diese wegmachen. [ Crackdowns Force Gangs to Erase Tattoos2. märz 2005VENEZUELAmind. 3 dutzend morde durch eine von der polizei organisierte todesschwadron. [ Vigilante Killings Probed in Venezuela8.märz 2005NETHERLANDS ANTILLESnach einer razzia ,bei der nach illegalen arbeiterinnen gesucht wurde, wurden mehrere personen mißhandelt und trotz papiere für eine nacht inhaftiert. hauptsächlich handelte es sich um menschen aus der dominikanischen republik. [ Immigration control on A.Th. Illidge Road Dominicano13.märz 2005MEXICOeine wütende menschenmenge hat in magdalena tequisislan einen polizisten getötet. der polizist hatte in der freitagnacht nach einem streit in einer bar einen taxifahrer erschossen und war in polizeigewahrsam. [ Angry crowd kills police officer[ Angry Crowd Kills Police Officer in Mexico 27.Februar 2005TRINIDAD AND TOBAGOablehnender artikel zu dem geplanten antiterror - gesetz. [ Reject abominable anti-terrorist law11.februar 2005GUATEMALAnach den neuesten gesetzesvorlage der abgeordneten sollen jugendliche die
mitglieder von „maras“ sind bzw. von denen vermutet wird das sie es sind,
mit bis zu 50 jahren knast bestraft werden. [ zurück ] |