Criminal Sentencing and Punishment

Premature Burner Paul Addis May Have Been Granted Parole, But Don't Expect Him at This Year's Burn

Paul Addis' entry in the Best Mug Shot Ever competition​ Starting August 31, a sizable portion of San Francisco will dust off their faux-fur legwarmers, bloomers, and stale MDMA to spend a week on the playa exchanging bodily fluids and other things at this year's Burning Man festivities. The osten ... More >>

Schwarzenegger Proposal Could Burden Underfunded S.F. Jails

Be sure to wear a flower in your hairThis week has seen California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger scrounging for a few billion dollars beneath the sofa cushions after his stop-gap measures for narrowing the state's budget shortfall went down to defeat in Tuesday's special election. Among the consequence ... More >>

Gangs of Marin

Buddha Behind Bars

Wear Orange

1 in 100 Behind Bars: California is Doing its Part!

"Criminal: Art and Criminal Justice in America" at SFSU - Today's Calendar Pick

Incarceration Nation

Dance Theater Jail piece '51802' Makes Audience Its Bitch

Barred for Life

Desperate prison lifers turn to Charles Carbone when trying to navigate the unfair process of parole denials

Make Your Mama Cry

Tupac's Fam to Broke Death Row: Get Off My Nuts!

News of the Hour -- The Lethal Injection Cocktail, Mike Webb Found Dead, Ted Nugent Found Irritating

Breaking Down Walls

A liberal intellectual and a right-winger on Death Row discover they have much in common

Unchained Melody

Music and poetry, not plot, create A Place to Stand's emotional impact

Speaking of Phones...

Cell Phoney

Making phone calls from jail, Harley Mike allegedly helped three prisoners escape and conned parole agents, sheriff's deputies, and judges.

Suspended Sentence

After Innocence probes life after a wrongful conviction

Baring Equality

The cases of a young defendant and a repeat offender attorney show power and privilege tip the scales

Bullshitting the Lie Detector

Infiltrator cooks up a criminal past. A PAX TV show absolves him of it. Ain't it a great country?

Not About Nightingales

This Tennessee Williams production packs a punch, but it's too loud

Lucifer, Arisen

A quintessential San Francisco story, starring charismatic musician/murderer Bobby BeauSoleil*

*with underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger, cult leader Charles Manson, Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, and the Straight Satans motorcycle gang in suppo

The Unlikely Lambs

Carandiru reveals the human side of Brazilian prisoners, then leads us to their slaughter

Live to Tell

Even big-name stars can't overpower the stories of exonerated death row inmates

Innocence Arrested

Albert Johnson was exonerated for a crime he didn't commit, but not before spending over a decade in prison. Why guiltless people get jailed -- and how to stop it.

Habitat for Inhumanity

The "asylums" depicted in The Magdalene Sisters undermine both the Catholic Church and the popular image of Ireland

Hidden Treasure

Half a century ago, ex-heroin dealer Alfredo Santos created an epic work of art inside San Quentin. Now, he's coming back to be honored for it.

San Quentin Blues

The prison guards' union angrily ripped the rug from under the governor in February

The Russian Card Game

A peek inside a new form of Russian organized crime and an ingenious method of turning credit card mailings into large amounts of cash

Throwing Away the Key

Why Gov. Davis' just-say-no parole policy is wrong, Exhibit No. 1: Eddy Zheng has earned a college degree in prison, sings in a church choir, works with at-risk youth, has the support of clergymen, college professors, his prison counselor, and the

Rockin' Through the Night

The Alcatraz Night Tour is fascinating and beautiful. Then it's cold and eerie. And then it's -- let's get outta here!

The Last Hope

A new law gives one more chance at freedom to abused women sent to prison for killing their batterers

Transcendental Incarceration

The first San Bruno Jail inmates to take part in an experimental meditation program say it has helped to free their minds, if nothing else

A Sentence Without an Ending

The "used-car rabbi" gets probation instead of jail, but the question of what he did with millions of dollars in donations remains unanswered

Hard Labor

County Jail No. 3 is a hellhole. Can an ancient, intense form of meditation improve life for the inmates?

A Walk in the Dark

The rest of the country is re-appraising the death penalty; California sues to keep a minister from comforting those facing execution

Girl Problems

The juvenile justice system is ignoring delinquent girls -- and creating a social time bomb

Record Caper

Long-missing Alcatraz files make their way back to the Bay Area

South to the Future

New Way to Ease New Economy's Inflation Threat: Release Nonviolent Inmates

Dead Head

Mr. Death

South to the Future

Mumia Abu-Jamal Changes Name, Urges Supporters to Expand Campaign

Cothran

The Mission District Squeeze

When can a repeat felon manipulate the police and fire departments to crush a law-abiding bar and restaurant? When the felon's a San Francisco pol, and the bar's on Mission Street.

Dead Man Not Praying

The state wants to deny religious counsel immediately before executions. But why?

The Housing Authority's Dirty Dozen

Twelve convicted drug dealers and other major felons have recently been employed by the San Francisco Housing Authority. But are there even more criminals on the public payroll?

Zoom Lens

Perverted Justice?

Or is a new law that puts sexual predators in long-term psychiatric lock-up really -- and finally -- justice for perverts?

Night Crawler

The Black Hole of San Francisco

This jail is a filthy, unhealthy, decrepit, barbaric nightmare. This jail will probably collapse and kill hundreds if there is a significant earthquake. The city of San Francisco keeps using this unconstitutional hellhole because people who call themselve

Unspun