Israel-Palestine Prisoner Swap: First Interview with Gilad Shalit
In an interview shortly after his release, Gilad Shalit, 25, looked tired and dazed, hesitating as he replied to questions from an Egyptian TV reporter.

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California to Reduce Prison Population
The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that California must drastically reduce its prison population to relieve severe overcrowding that has exposed inmates to increased violence, disease and death.

California is home to the largest prison systems in the US - the country with the world's largest incarceration rates.

The high court's decision calls on the state to cut the population to no more than 110,000 inmates, meaning California will have to shed some 33,000 inmates over the next two years. State officials can accomplish that by transferring inmates to local jails or releasing them.

"Our goal is to not release inmates at all,'' said Matthew Cate, the state corrections secretary. Shorter term inmates will leave prison before the Supreme Court's deadline expires, and newly sentenced lower-level offenders would go to local jails under the plan.

The 5-4 ruling revealed a sharp divide on the court between US Justices Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia.

Kennedy wrote for the majority and described dismal conditions where prisoners are denied minimal care and suicidal inmates are held in `"telephone-booth sized cages without toilets".

"A prison that deprives prisoners of basic sustenance, including adequate medical care, is incompatible with the concept of human dignity and has no place in civilized society,'' Kennedy wrote.

Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett reports.

Prisoners to Get the Vote for the First Time
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Prisoners will be given the vote in general elections for the first time in 140 years after David Cameron conceded there was nothing he could do to halt a European court ruling demanding the change, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

For months, the Government’s lawyers have tried to find a way to avoid allowing 70,000 British inmates the right to take part in ballots.

But tomorrow a representative for the Coalition will tell the Court of Appeal that the law will be changed following legal advice that the taxpayer could have to pay tens of millions of pounds in compensation.

The decision, which brings to an end six years of government attempts to avoid the issue, opens the possibility that even those facing life sentences for very serious crimes could in future shape Britain’s elections. >>> Andrew Porter, Political Editor | Monday, November 01, 2010

Hamas Declines Israeli Offer for Prisoner Swap
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu making a statement regarding captured soldier Gilad Schalit for the press in his office in Jerusalem, 01 Jul 2010. Photograph: Voice Of America
VOA NEWS: Palestinian militants have rejected a new Israeli offer for a prisoner exchange.

The Islamic militant group Hamas has declined Israel's latest offer for a lopsided prisoner swap: 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the offer to mark the fourth anniversary of the soldier's captivity in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

But Mr. Netanyahu ruled out releasing dozens of top militants responsible for the deadliest terrorist attacks, describing them as "mass murderers." He said releasing such prisoners in the past led to new waves of terror.

Hamas responded that there will be no deal until Israel meet its demands and frees all the prisoners on the list. >>> | Friday, July 02, 2010

Lifers Start Requesting Death
THE GUARDIAN: For the growing prison population of lifers trapped in a black hole of hopelessness, even death might seem a better alternative, says Erwin James.

In 1979 the average time a "lifer" spent in prison in the UK was nine years. Now it's around 15 or 16, although minimum terms of 30 years plus are regularly handed down by the courts to those who commit the most serious offences.

As a consequence, "doing life" in a British prison has never been more arduous. Nobody outside is complaining, however, although the lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, did comment a while ago that the increasingly long fixed terms given to those whose crimes merit a life sentence means that we are in danger of creating a whole generation of "geriatric lifers".

Most victims of life-sentenced prisoners would be hard pressed to be concerned, I guess. The idea that people who cause suffering to others deserve all they get is a perfectly reasonable one, and there is a still a significant number of the law-abiding majority who believe that life should mean life. Journey to nowhere (more)

Mark Alexander