Inmates in Riverside County could soon find themselves having to pony up cash for their "stay" in jail. Today the Board of Supervisors "tentatively approved an ordinance to require inmates in county detention facilities to reimburse the county for the cost of their incarceration." more ›

Things are not looking good for the reputation of L.A. County's jails: a new report shows that at least 30 jail employees were disciplined for attacking inmates or covering up attacks in the past two years. The news comes on the heels of an FBI investigation into the prison system, and the revelation from a rookie jailer that he was forced to beat a mentally ill inmate. more ›

Local inmates are doing Ghandi proud. The group of prisoners in an estimated 12 California facilities participating in a hunger strike has grown to nearly 12,000, reports L.A. Now, possibly the largest inmate hunger strike in recent U.S. history. The prisoners are protesting a number of regulations, most prominently those surrounding solitary confinement. more ›

A recent inmate who fell ill at the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles and was taken to County-USC Medical Center, has died. An autopsy is pending, according to the LA Times. more ›

Claiming religious affiliation with fictional Seinfeld holiday "Festivus," 38-year-old inmate Malcolm Alarmo King, a convicted drug dealer, got a judge to grant him high-protein, kosher meals because he didn't want to eat salami. "It's not uncommon for folks in custody to try to get something than what other people have, and this was a pretty good attempt to do that," said Cmdr. Dave Wilson of the Orange County Sheriff's Department reports ABC Local. more ›

One of the state's most notorious criminals, Charles Manson is making headlines again from behind bars. The mastermind of multiple slayings in the 1960s, Manson has been keeping in touch with the outside world with a modern device: A cellphone. more ›

Antonio Rodriguez said he felt "he had to" attack Lonnie D. Franklin Jr., as the pair were in custody together Friday at Men's Central Jail, reports the Daily News. Rodriguez, 29, had just been "convicted of sexually assaulting and killing a 5-year-old girl." Franklin, 57, is the man believed to be the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer, who "is suspected of raping and killing at least 10 people over the last 30 years." more ›

Today Orange County becomes the 120th county in the nation to join the Secure Communities program, which is "a national effort to identify and deport people who are in the country illegally and suspected of or convicted of committing crimes," according to the OC Register. more ›

Sex in jail is illegal, but if it's going to happen, it had better be safe. At least that's the wisdom behind the eight-year-old program that "makes condoms available once a week to 300 inmates within the segregated unit" at the Men's Central Jail in Downtown Los Angeles, explains the Daily News. more ›

Calculating prison terms and release dates may more easily lead to errors in numbers, but when it comes to who has the honor of being California's longest-incarcerated woman, that distinction does indeed belong to Susan Atkins, the former Manson family member who is currently asking for a compassionate release from her life sentence. more ›

Three Los Angeles Sheriff Department (LASD) deputies assigned to the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown are suspended (or, paid leave, that is) as a criminal investigation is opened into accusations from an inmate saying that he was isolated by them, punched and pepper-sprayed in the anus and scrotum area. It all started when inmate Alejandro Franco, 23, who is there for "allegedly violating terms of his probation for a domestic violence conviction," swore at a deputy when he requested a clean shirt and was refused.

About 45 minutes after the argument, three deputies removed him from his cell, handcuffed him and took him to a recreation area away from other inmates, Franco said. more ›