If there’s one thing we’ve learned from movies and TV shows about prison, it’s that cigarettes are a popular currency behind bars, and apparently the same holds true for e-cigarettes. But if you’re a sheriff caught running a lucrative e-cig business for prisoners, you could end up one yourself.
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Sheriff Gets 4 Years In Prison For Running E-Cigarette Business Behind Bars
By 5.9.17
New Chairman Orders FCC To Abandon Court Defense Of Rule Limiting Prison Phone Rates
By 2.2.17
Most of us stopped paying by-the-minute for phone calls years ago; a luxury that’s not available to the men and women in prison, where the few providers of phone service charge as much as $14/minute. The FCC’s efforts to cap these rates are currently being held up in court, and with a new business-friendly Chairman at the helm, the FCC has opted to not defend the very rules it came up with only 15 months ago. [More]
Man Who Punched Nutella-Loving Elderly Man Sentenced To Two Years In Jail, Released
By 9.21.16
Is an extra sample of Nutella worth going to jail for? A Burbank man who spent a year locked up for punching a 78-year-old man in the face over free samples of the chocolate hazelnut spread at Costco might be able to answer that question. [More]
FCC Adjusts, But Still Can’t Implement, Caps On Sky-High Rates Prisoners Pay To Call Home
By 8.4.16
We’re used to saying that someone is a “captive audience” for a major monopoly, but for the millions of Americans living behind bars, that phrase becomes painfully literal. Phone companies that connect inmates to their loved ones on the outside have for years taken advantage of their position with sky-high rates and fees, but the FCC is once again stepping in to help mitigate the problem. [More]
FCC Puts Caps On The Sky-High Rates Prisoners Pay To Call Home
By 10.22.15
Long-distance and collect calling aren’t something most of us have to think about all that often, anymore. But for the families of the 2.2 million Americans living behind bars, the monopoly contracts that exist on phone companies behind bars, and the exorbitant, sky-high rates that spring from them, are a huge problem — one that the FCC has just taken action to mitigate. [More]
Couple Used Stolen Identities To Obtain $270,000 In Federal Student Loan Funds
By 1.23.15
There’s no doubt that student loans are a big business. While that business is meant to assist students in attending college, two con artists used the system to line their own pockets, all at the expense of unknowing consumers and the federal government. [More]
Prisoners Have Opinions Too, Turn To Yelp To Review Jail Conditions
By 5.1.13
Just because you’re locked up for dealing blue meth cooked up by a mysterious chemist in a pork-pie hat doesn’t mean you don’t have an opinion on the quality of your current accommodations. And where else better to share these sentiments than on Yelp? [More]
FTC To Take A Closer Look At Debtors Being Thrown In Jail
By 7.16.10
It’s not a crime to owe money, and debtors prisons have been abolished — but that doesn’t mean that people are not being routinely arrested and put in jail for failing to pay debts. A few weeks ago the Minneapolis Star-Tribune published an investigative piece about arrest warrants being issued for people with less than $100 in debt, many of whom didn’t even know that a collector had taken legal action against them. Now, following a letter by Sen. Al Franken (noted hater of the Comcast, NBC merger), the FTC has agreed to look into the issue. [More]
At Least The Prison Economy Is Flourishing
By 11.21.09
We might be dealing with low inflation and even a falling cost of living, but not everyone in the United States is dealing with the same economic woes. Americans who are in prison have their own economy—one with rampant inflation, alleged price-fixing, and a fish packet-based economy.
Yes Men Try To Mess With U.N., One Gets Arrested And Jailed
By 9.25.09
Those wily Yes Men, pranksters of the business and political worlds and comedy documentarians who masquerade as big business honchos to create “gotcha!” moments, were gotten themselves by the cops when they tried to disrupt the U.N. Security Council Summit.
Cash4Gold Threatened Jail If Negative Comments Weren't Removed
By 9.18.09
Ex-Cash4Gold employee Vielka Nephew filed a motion to vacate the default in the company’s lawsuit against her this week, a lawsuit we’re a party to. By getting rid of the default she would then be able to defend herself in the lawsuit and to seek to undo the default injunction which Cash4Gold had obtained against her. One highlight of Nephew’s legal papers is the declaration attached as Exhibit C, in which she says Cash4Gold’s lawyers told her the company would seek jail time for her and Michele Liberis if the statements Liberis posted on the internet about the company — which Cash4Gold alleged to be false and defamatory – were not removed. Here’s what Vielka declared:
NY Lawmaker Wants Rich Convicts To Pay For Their Own Incarceration
By 7.21.09
New York State Assemblyman Jim Tedicsco sees an injustice. The upstate Republican saw wealthy scammer Bernie Madoff convicted and sent to federal prison for 150 years the rest of his life at taxpayer expense. How fair is that? Why can’t rich criminals pay their own way?
Tell Your Great-Grandchildren To Protect Their Money In 2139
By 7.3.09
When Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, they weren’t kidding around. Here’s a screencap of his profile in the U.S. federal prison system database. He’s in the system as scheduled for release in 2139.
Wendy's Employee Gets Prison Time For Putting Hair In Burger
By 6.2.09
Remember Thomas Bender? He was the Wendy’s employee in West Virginia who garnished a police officer’s sandwich with a ball of pubic hair earlier this year. He’s just been sentenced to 6 months in prison and 2 years probation.
Slate Investigates If It's Really Illegal To Fart On A Sandwich
By 4.19.09
Nina Rastogi decided to look into food tampering laws in the wake of our Domino’s Pizza story last week. It turns out you can spit in food in Ohio without fear of jail time so long as you don’t have a communicable disease. Ohio is clearly the place to work if you are an angry restaurant employee, and the place to avoid if you’re a diner who easily angers waitstaff.
Judge To Madoff: Hope You Like The Look Of Cinder Blocks, Douchebag
By 3.13.09
No more $7 million penthouse. Today was Madoff’s first full day at the Metropolitan Correction Center, where he’ll be spending some quality time while awaiting sentencing. ABCNews has some insights about the facility and its amenities.
Who's Smiling Now? Enzyte Scammer Gets 25 Years In Prison
By 8.28.08
Steve Warshak, founder of the company responsible for “Enzyte,” has been sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $93,000, says the AP. U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel also ordered the company, along with other defendants, to forfeit more than $500 million that it bilked from consumers.
Consumer Alert: Fortune Tellers Cannot Curse You, Do Not Give Them Your Money
By 3.19.08
Two fortune-tellers in Chicago are in being held in jail in lieu of $750,000 bail each for defrauding customers by convincing them they were cursed, then selling them expensive curse-removal/protection services. Remember, folks, fortune tellers cannot curse you, see your future, turn you into a werewolf, or make you lose horrific amounts of weight. They can, however, take your money.
