Afghanistan: On May 6, 2007, two US army soldiers were shot and killed outside the Pul-i-Charki prison near Kabul and two others were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire on their vehicle as it was leaving the prison. The dead soldiers were training guards in the puppet Afghan regime to build a new maximum security wing to house political prisoners released from US run concentration camps in Afghanistan and Guantanamo. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The assailant was shot and killed by other Afghan soldiers.

Belgium: On April 15, 2007, two men armed with a pistol and grenades hijacked a helicopter they had hired for a sightseeing trip and forced to pilot to fly them to the Lantin prison near Liege where they landed in the prison yard, as the hijackers threw tear gas canisters into the yard and took off with a French man awaiting trial on fraud and theft charges.

Florida: On May 11, 2006, Emery Lewis, 33, a prisoner in the Escambia county jail was charged with raping two other jail prisoners, including a 15 year old boy who was tried as an adult for arson.

Georgia: On April 16, 2007, Christopher Holcomb, 32, a federal prison guard at the US Penitentiary in Atlanta, was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to accepting a $1,200 bribe to smuggle a cell phone in to a prisoner in 2006.

Hawaii: On March 21, 2007, two prisoners who were part of a work crew at the O?ahu Community Correctional Center removing fencing from around a generator and transformer were electrocuted after one of them stepped on a transformer cover while standing on a metal cover, causing it to explode. Both men, unidentified in media accounts, suffered electrical burns.

Indiana: In a lawsuit filed in April, 2007, in federal court in Hammond, three women undergoing drug addiction treatment at the Southlake Mental Health Center, which they were court ordered to attend as a bond condition in Lake County, alleged they were forced to have sex with Frank McBride, 52, a drug counselor at the facility. If they did not have sex with him, McBride threatened to have them placed in jail for ?failing? their drug treatment. McBride was fired in 2002 after a third complaint was filed against him by a woman patient claiming he extorted sex from her.

Kentucky: On March 14, 2007, Terrance Minter, 47, a guard at the Metro jail in Louisville was arrested and charged with one count of official misconduct and four counts of second degree sexual abuse for allegedly having consensual sex with female prisoners four times while working in the jail work release section.

Maryland: On March 18, 2007, 16 prisoners in the maximum security section of the Cecil County Detention Center rebelled and smashed cameras and windows and refused to return to their cells after guards found one prisoner with stab wounds and discovered a hole in the jail?s fence. Local police, guards and state police from Delaware and Maryland regained control of the jail eventually.

New Hampshire: On April 9, 2007, Christopher Beaudoin, 26, a work release prisoner, was charged with introducing contraband into a prison after he stole tobacco from a construction worker and tried to smuggle it into the prison in Berlin. He was later sentenced to one to three years in prison for the tobacco smuggling charge, on top of the two to five year charge for armed robbery he was serving.

New Jersey: On May 3, 2007, Carneys Point Township jail guards Ida Stewart, 27, Wray Neushafer, 39, and Charles Wilson, 33, were injured in a car crash when the vehicle they were in flipped. The vehicle was driven by Salem City police officer Dawn Chomo, 35, who was drunk. Stewart was critically injured in the wreck.

New York: On May 10, 2006, Paul Mateo, 43, a prisoner at the Clinton Correctional Facility was sentenced to 3 ½ to 7 years in prison and fined $5,000 after being convicted of possessing a home made knife in 2002. Mateo was originally accused of stabbing another prisoner in the face in the recreation yard of the Auburn Correctional Facility but he was never charged with that offense since the victim, Osvaldo Santana, says he does not know who attacked him.

Oklahoma: On March 12, 2007, Tawnya Brewer, a former Mayes county jail guard was fined $200 after pleading no contest to an assault charge for putting an anti depressant into the soft drink of her fellow jail guard Cevin Smallwood.

Oklahoma: On May 1, 2007, Donald Sullivan, a sex offender serving a 600 year sentence, was found dead of multiple wounds in his cell in the Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite.

Oklahoma: On May 9, 2007, Donna Kirby, 47, was sentenced to three years probation for smuggling Valium pills to her husband Charles Kirby Jr., 60, who was imprisoned at the Cimarron Correctional facility on Labor Day in 2006. The facility is run by Corrections Corporation of America.

South Africa: On April 15, 2007, three prisoners in the Krugersdorp Prison were beaten to death by guards. No motive was given for the murders, which occurred after a fight between prison gangs left one prisoner stabbed and wounded. Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said the murders were being investigated and would not be tolerated. The guards were suspended pending the outcome of various investigations and Balfour gave his condolences to the prisoners? families.

Taiwan: On May 4, 2007, the nation?s parliament passed a law that commutes the sentences of 25,000 prisoners and allows for the immediate release of 9,000 prisoners and commutes to life in prison those sentenced to death prior to April 24, 2007. the amnesty was designed by president Chen Shui-Bian to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the lifting of martial law. Political opponents claim he is freeing the prisoners to gain votes in upcoming elections.

Tennessee: On May 9, 2007, the state of Tennessee executed Phillip Workman, 53. For his last meal Workman had requested that a pizza be donated to the homeless of Nashville. The Department of Corrections refused, stating they do not ?donate to charities.? Upon hearing of the DOC?s response, a number of citizens around the city donated hundreds of pizzas to homeless shelters throughout Nashville in Workman?s name.
Workman had been convicted of killing a policeman in 1981 while robbing a Wendy?s to feed his cocaine addiction. He was homeless at the time.

Texas: On May 14, 2007, Mary Christian, 44, a prisoner at the Hobby Unit in Marlin was found dead in her cell with her hands tied behind her back.

Virginia: On May 15, 2007, Alice Foster, 43, a guard at the Red Onion state prison was charged with first degree murder for shooting and killing Roy Gary, 39, a former prisoner at Red Onion and current parolee, in her home. Foster told police she shot Gary after he broke into her home. Police were skeptical and noted the forensic evidence did not support her account and that it appeared they had known each other prior to the incident.

Washington: On April 12, 2007, an unidentified 48 year old man facing a ?three strikes? sentence of life without parole for attacking his girlfriend, hanged himself in the Pierce County jail in Tacoma.

Washington: On May 4, 2007, Larry Corrigan, 54, an official with the King county prosecutor?s office in Seattle, was sentenced to 24 months in prison after pleading guilty to having an online sexual chat with two undercover police officers he believed were in fact 14 year old girls.
The ?girls? agreed to meet with him to have sex when he was arrested.
Corrigan had been the prosecution?s budget officer since 1979 and had worked on the political campaigns of a bevy of ?tough on crime? Washington Republican politicians including Congressman Dave Reichert, Norm Maleng and at least one judge. Corrigan is also being investigated for embezzling $72,000 from Maleng?s election campaign.

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