Criminal Sentencing and Punishment

Report Slams Bureau of Prisons For Denying Compassionate Release to Sick or Dying Inmates Like Keskea Hernandez

In January, Keskea Hernandez was whisked from her cell at the Federal Detention Center downtown to Larkin hospital in South Miami. The pretty 42-year-old real estate agent had pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud a year earlier. Ever since her incarceration, however, her health had been in free fall. Sh ... More >>

Chad Johnson Ordered Back To Jail for Probation Violation

After a warrant was issued for his arrest last week, a judge has ordered that troubled former NFL player Chad Johnson head back to jail for violating the terms of his probation. After domestic violence charges ended his marriage to reality TV star Evelyn Lozada, Johnson was sentenced to a year of ... More >>

Tax Refund Scams Plagued Miami-Dade In 2012

With another tax season descending on us, you might want to secure your W-2 or 1099 a little tighter. Over the past 12 months, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami has uncovered more than a dozen rackets involved in stealing tax refund checks using stolen identities of social security applicants, eld ... More >>

Florida Led The Country In Death Sentences This Year

Nationwide, the use of the death penalty is in steep decline, with only nine states carrying out any executions at all last year. But in the Sunshine State, sentencing prisoners to die is as in vogue as ever.>In fact, Florida led the country in new death sentences handed down in 2012, with 21 new ... More >>

Florida Man Gets Eight Years in Prison for Snorting Cremated Human and Dog Remains

In one of the stupidest Florida crime stories in recent memory (which is really saying something), three teens broke into a Silver Spring Shores home and found the cremated remains of the owner's father and two pet Great Danes. Thinking they were some sort of drug, the teens decided to snort ashes.N ... More >>

Robert Platshorn, Former Smuggler Turned Medical Marijuana Activist, Faces Return to Prison

Robert Platshorn served thirty years in prison for smuggling pot into Florida. That's more than any other person has served for a marijuana offense in the United States. He'll turn 70 years old in November. But it now appears clear that he will never be free from the federal government. Platshorn ... More >>

Top Ten Rap Felons: Shoot Outs, Beat Downs, and Face Eating

In the gritty rap game, honor is everything. And honor usually means a bag full of automatic weapons at an airport. Alright, not every rapper's got a rap sheet. But if you talk the talk, you're expected to do the time. A mean MC with a big mouth is just a poser without a felony charge. And getting ... More >>

Porn Model Pleads Guilty to Florida Sex Party Murder, Gets 40 Years

Amanda Kaye Logue pleaded guilty Monday to her part in a bizarre 2010 Florida murder, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Logue, who had worked as a porn actress, had been hired as a prostitute to attend a sex party thrown by Dennis "Scooter" Abrahamsen. Though beforehand she conspired with her boyfri ... More >>

Prison Legal News Sues Florida Department of Corrections for Banning Its Publication

PLN Associate Editor Alex Friedmann​A national legal magazine for prisoners has filed suit against the Florida Department of Corrections, claiming it's been censored from distributing in Florida prisons due to a vendetta by the state agency. According to a complaint filed today, the DOC has reje ... More >>

Execution by Firing Squad Could Be Coming Back to Florida

​A conversation in a Panhandle Waffle House may lead to a barbaric change in Florida's death penalty policy. After meeting with constituents, Rep. Brad Drake, a Republican from Eucheeanna, has introduced a bill that would do away with using lethal injections for the death penalty. Instead he'd lik ... More >>

Kids claim abuse and violence at juvenile lockup Thompson Academy

Babies left in hot cars: Accident or crime?

Some parents are never prosecuted. Antonio Balta got 20 years.

Mafia-Connected Haitian Ponzi Schemer Michael J. Muzio Sentenced to 13.5 Years

​Michael J. Muzio, one of four co-conspirators in a Ponzi scheme that targeted South Florida Haitian-Americans, has been sentenced to 163 months in federal prison. In April, New Times told you about the $14.3 million dollar scheme, which offered to double investors' cash in 90 days. Two of Muzio's ... More >>

Dead Men Talking

For dozens of inmates, Miami-Dade County jail has become a permanent home

Jailhouse Knocks: Violence at Miami-Dade Pretrial Detention Center Leads to Jailers

Christopher Herwig via Flicker CC.​The photo of Calvin Kingcade, inmate 09-9975, shows a fit 25-year-old with a black eye, a broken jaw, and a mouth fastened shut with silver wires. He drools while he talks to his mom at Ward D of Jackson Memorial Hospital. After getting jumped at Miami-Dade Pretr ... More >>

Top Ten Thursdays: Top 10 Musicians Who Have Served Time in Prison

Many famous musicians have spent a day or three in jail for driving drunk, holding drugs, or something really stupid. But only the select few have spent a serious stretch of time in prison, which brings us to David Allan Coe. The original country outlaw performs Friday at the Culture Room in Fort La ... More >>

Jailhouse Blues

Arrested for nothing, Amanda Jessup spiraled out of control in county lockup.

Prison Guard Gets Caught Trying to Smuggle Cocaine Into Everglades Correctional Institute

Everglades Correctional Officer Shamel Watson thought he was negotiating with an inmate's family member to smuggle in 1 lb of marijuana, 4 ounce of cocaine, and two cellphones to the inmate. Everglades Correctional Officer Shamel Watson is apparently stupid. When he went to go collect the contr ... More >>

Miami Scammer's Possible 400-Year Sentence Makes Madoff's Seem Light

via Taunton GazetteOkun and Bolani in happier timesBernie Madoff is facing 150 years in prison, but that's nothing compared to the 400-year sentence that could await former Miami businessman Edward Hugh Okun.Not much ink has been spilled locally about Okun, but we'll bring you up to speed. At s ... More >>

Hope For Florida Inmates With Mental Illness

It could be the most important legislation for Floridians with mental illness since the Baker Act in the 1970s. But you wouldn't know it from the amount of press it's getting. A House panel approved a measure yesterday that would divert some of the state's most mentally ill to treatment centers inst ... More >>

Unequal Justice

At federal prisons across the country, guards are preying on inmates. FDC Miami is no different.

Budget Cuts at the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office

Bad guys, party on! Three of Miami's best prosecutors are getting the boot.

Federal Lockup is No Picnic, Either

Feds Investigate Miami-Dade Jails

Dead Man Talking

Kenny Carnes ponders life, mortality, and transformation on death row.

Fun Times in State Prison

Family Files Lawsuit Against County for Inmate Death

Julia Tuttle Bridge-Dweller Goes Home

Sex Offenders Set Up Camp

The Julia Tuttle becomes a colony. Politicians pass the buck.

Women Send Words from Prison

Eve Ensler’s Broadway smash hits the Gusman

British Ex-Millionaire Fights for Freedom

Krishna Maharaj went from the high life to a life sentence — for a crime he might not have committed

117 Dead

Since 2000, dozens have died in county jails. Poor medical care has contributed to the problem.

Jah Cure Released from Prison Today

Feds Crack Down on Kiddie Porn in SoFla

Swept Under the Bridge

Sex offenders are ordered to sleep near a center for abused kids

Letters from the Issue of December 28, 2006

"I think he deserved to be executed"

Executing Angel

A bad man, a flawed trial, and a needle

Terminal Incarceration

The short, sad lives of some detainees facing relatively minor charges end in jail. Here are three such cases.

Contraband Combat

Cell phones, pot, and knives are found by county jail shakedown teams

Patient at Risk

The medical association examines the county's jail system and finds trouble behind bars

Is There a Doctor in the House?

At Miami-Dade County's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the answer would be No

An Ounce of Prevention -- At Last

County jail officials finally decide to get serious about a highly contagious disease

Contagious Outbreak Untreated

A rash of grotesque and dangerous staph infections among inmates gets no action from jail officials

Run-On Sentence

Critics say draconian drug laws held over from the Eighties pack prisons, force plea deals, and hit one errant lawyer harder than the dealers he defended

Cellblock Salsa

Obie Bermudez, Jerry Rivera, and Vico C bring prison consciousness back to Puerto Rican pop

This Week's Day by Day Picks

It's Broken, So Fix It

Corrections department investigators want an investigation -- of their department

Barred for Life

The process for restoring the civil rights of felons in Florida works perfectly -- if not restoring their rights is the goal

Always Unprepared

At MetroWest Detention Center one bad fire deserves another -- and another?