San Quentin State Prison is home to California's death row. And the condition of the residents of that death row is such that the state is about to open a mental hospital just for them.

What sort of criminal is the target of most federal prosecutions? Mobsters? Bank robbers? No: illegal immigrants. And where do they go? To private prisons, for whom America's immigration system is a giant profit center.

"Boy Sentenced to Jail Because of Large Penis" is your headline of the day.

Los Angeles law enforcement agencies have had more than their share of scandals. Still, testimony coming about about the behavior of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is shocking.

A judge in Brevard County, Fla. allegedly attacked a public defender in a hallway outside a courtroom after threatening him— "I'll beat your ass"—during a hearing.

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed by New York Times reporter James Risen in which he argued that he should not be forced to testify in a case against former C.I.A. operative Jeffrey Sterling, who is suspected of leaking classified information to Risen. It it not yet clear, Risen’s lawyer said, whether federal prosecutors still intend to seek Risen’s testimony.

We periodically run letters from death row inmates. Today we bring you a letter from Willie Tyrone Trottie, who is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on September 10 of this year.

Did you know that using solitary confinement in juvenile incarceration facilities is a terrible idea because it can cause permanent psychological damage? Even if not, good news: today, Ohio and the federal Department of Justice agreed that the state would no longer put kids "in seclusion," as the euphemism goes.

Dinesh D'Souza, onetime conservative phenom and Ann Coulter paramour, has pled guilty to federal charges that he made multiple illegal campaign donations in other people's names, including the mistress that wrecked his marriage and his presidency at a Christian college.

I grew up with a killer. My father. He didn't kill in a way that would ever send him to jail. He wasn't in the military. Instead, he used the death penalty. Sometimes he called and gave the order for inmates to be executed.

We periodically run letters from death row inmates. Today we bring you a letter from Greg Esparza, who is awaiting execution on Ohio's death row.

The dog who mauled a 4-year-old boy's face in February will not be destroyed, but will rather serve an unusual sentence for his crime, a Phoenix judge has ruled.

The Montana Supreme Court has ordered a resentencing for the former high school teacher who served just one month after being convicted of raping a 14-year-old student. The rapist, who has been free since last fall, will receive a new sentence from a different judge in accordance with the state's sentencing guidelines.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences uses statistical techniques to estimate that one in every 25 death row inmates in America would be exonerated, given enough time and attention.

The Center for Public Integrity released a report today showing that in 26 cases since 2010, federal appellate judges had a financial interest in one of the parties before them. As you might imagine, that's a giant no-no under federal law. Judges are supposed to keep an eye on what their investments are and recuse themselves from cases accordingly.

The state of Texas has strict rules about how to handle dangerous heat on pig farms; not so in their non-air-conditioned prisons, where 14 inmates have reportedly died of heat exposure since 2007. A new report says the state is doing nothing to address the issue.

Last January, Kentucky State Penitentiary inmate James Embry died, following "weeks of erratic behavior" and a hunger strike. A new AP investigation shows that lax and incompetent prison officials stood by and let it happen.

The prison telephone industry is right up there with... well, the private prison industry, when it comes to the most repugnant manifestations of capitalism. The good news is, the industry is currently getting screwed by government regulation. Government regulation works!

Last week, a judge ordered an Ohio man who harassed his neighbor and her disabled children to stand on a street corner for five hours while holding a sign that says "I AM A BULLY!"

Jonathan Fleming, who spent the past 25 years in a New York prison after being convicted of murder, was freed today after prosecutors concluded he was innocent. Exonerations in America are on the rise, which is a mixed blessing.