By Writer Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press
Sun Aug 29, 1:21 pm ET

SCRANTON, Pa. – If his diary and witness accounts are to be believed, Nicholas Pinto endured months of physical, sexual and mental abuse in prison. Guards roughed him up, made him stand naked in a cold cell for hours at a time, and taunted him relentlessly. A fellow inmate raped him night after night, beat him when he resisted, and stole his possessions.

And no one, he claimed, did a thing about it.

Full Story Here

Robert King
The Guardian, Saturday 28 August 2010

'I talk about my years in solitary as if it was the past, but the truth is it never leaves you. In some ways I am still there'

I first entered Louisiana State Penitentiary in the early 60s, at the age of 18. I was in and out of that place for the rest of the decade. Back then, if you were young, black and had a record, police in New Orleans would come looking for you when they had a backlog of unsolved cases: it was called cleaning the books.

Published: Wednesday, August 25, 2010, 1:00 AM
Updated: Friday, August 27, 2010, 2:37 PM

In the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, an order circulated among New Orleans police authorizing officers to shoot looters, according to present and former members of the New Orleans Police Department.

It's not clear how broadly the order was communicated. Some officers who heard it say they refused to carry it out. Others say they understood it as a fundamental change in the standards on deadly force, which allow police to fire only to protect themselves or others from what appears to be an imminent physical threat.

The accounts of orders to "shoot looters," "take back the city" or "do what you have to do" are fragmentary.

By William Lee, Tribune reporter
7:26 p.m. CDT, August 25, 2010

Chicago police Lt. John Andrews knew that he was nudging a hornet's nest when he posted an essay on his personal blog criticizing the Police Department as beleaguered by a manpower shortage, low morale and public perceptions of rising crime.

Last week, he finally got stung.

The 25-year police veteran, who works as a watch commander at the West Side Harrison District, was notified that he was being investigated by the Internal Affairs Division for bringing "discredit" to the department for comments in his 3,072-word essay, decrying everything from internal cronyism and public apathy to emboldened criminals and pay disparities.

Jennie Runevitch/Eyewitness News

Indianapolis - The Indianapolis Metro Police chief plans to investigate allegations of police brutality involving one of his officers.

An Indianapolis woman is suing the city in federal court. LaDonna Dixon claims the officer beat her so severely during an arrest that she had a miscarriage.

"[He was] punching me, kicking me, after he maced me," Dixon said.

"This person was angry, was enraged and just beat her," said Dixon's attorney, Everett Powell. "I would say it's a crime."

LaDonna Dixon is suing the city over what she claims happened in her yard last June. She says she was helping a friend who collapsed from a seizure and needed medicine.

Pain Ray, Rejected by the Military, Ready to Blast L.A. Prisoners
By Noah Shachtman Email Author
August 24, 2010 3:02 pm

Inmates of the Pitchess Detention Center, watch your step. If you get out of line, you may get blasted with an invisible heat ray.

The jail’s energy weapon is a small-scale version of the Active Denial System, the experimental crowd control device that the U.S. military brought to Afghanistan — and then quickly shipped back home, after questions mounted about the wisdom of blasting locals with a beam that momentarily puts them in agony. The pain weapon seemed at odds with the military’s efforts to appear more humane and measured in the eyes of Afghan populace.

"Assault Intervention Device" comes to Pitchess Detention Center
By JOHN ADAMS
Updated 7:17 AM PDT, Mon, Aug 23, 2010

Guards at the Los Angeles County jail complex in Castaic will start using a newfangled weapon that produces a deep burning sensation -- which is not to be confused with a “warm fuzzy feeling” -- in whomever it is aimed at.

The 7 1/2-foot-tall “Assault Intervention Device,” which sheriff's deputies demonstrated Friday at the Pitchess Detention Center, emits an invisible beam that causes an unbearable sensation, reported the Daily News.

The device, developed by Raytheon, is controlled by a joystick and computer monitor and emits a beam about the size of a CD up to distances of about 100 feet.