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Time and time again, we hear about celebrities getting arrested for bad behavior. DUIs and drug charges are quite the norm in Hollywood. One proof that fame and fortune just doesn’t sit well with everybody. But for some celebrities, being wealthy and famous have got nothing to do with their jail stint. In fact, they probably never thought they’d one day be famous while slugging it out inside. Through luck and determination, they managed to turn their lives around. Now, they are some of the biggest names in the industry walking on red carpets around the world. Let’s look back at what these celebs did that landed them behind bars before they even set foot in Hollywood: Mark Wahlberg Now a successful actor, songwriter and businessman, Wahlberg had a troublesome teenage years. At 17, he was arrested for assaulting two Vietnamese men in his hometown in Boston. Wahlberg reportedly beat up the first Vietnamese man with a large wooden stick till he fell unconscious. On the same day, he punched another Vietnamese man in the eye which almost made him blind. He was also heard to have called them “Vietnam fucking shits” and other unsolicited racist remarks. He pleaded guilty […]

Seeing a loved one in handcuffs and carted off behind bars is very tragic. It’s even more so for the one facing incarceration. The threat of losing your freedom and everything that comes with it is enough to send someone into a deep abyss. Figuratively and, sometimes, literally. The American Psychological Association reports that around 10% to 25% of prisoners in 2014 suffer from serious mental illnesses. Some even endure major disorders such as schizophrenia. Alcohol and drug dependence is also very high among inmates. A lot of prison support groups are available for those who have to cope with a loved one or family member being incarcerated. Yet, not so much for those who are in jail. Inside the thick walls of penitentiary, inmates often rely on outside emotional support. Every month, each prisoner gets only a total of 300 minutes talk time. Divide that by thirty days and they only get an average of less than two hours each day to talk to friends and family. A single call can last no more than 15 minutes and they have to wait for another 45 minutes before their next call. It’s not much but it will have to do. […]

If you think you already know there is anything to know about inmate calls, you better think again. The prison calling system in the US is a web of complicated policies. Each state makes their own rules which accounts for most of the confusion. What may be applicable in Florida might be frowned upon in Washington. Yet there are also regulations that holds true for the whole country. Here are five things you probably didn’t know about our country’s inmate telephone system. You Can’t Call an Inmate You read it right. You cannot initiate a call with an inmate. Rather, it’s only them who can call you. This makes a lot of sense when you look at it from a security officer’s point of view. We all know that prisoners are kept in their prison cells away from the telephone booths. In some cases, the phone is in the warden’s office. Now, imagine if family members would just simply call prisoners whenever they please. Jail guards would have to escort the inmates from their cells to the phone booths from time to time. That is a security risk that most jail administrators are not prepared to take. Also, the facility […]

The Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee recently made headlines for executing another death row inmate – its third this year. David Earl Miller holds the record for the longest-serving prisoner on Tennessee’s death row. He was executed on December 6, 2018, almost 37 years after he was arrested for the murder of Lee Standifer. He was 22, she was 23 and they were dating at the time of the incident. The murder was brutal. Miller was convicted and sentenced to death a year after his arrest. He also admitted responsibility for Standifer’s death. With Miller’s death, maybe you can say that justice is finally served. But, is it? Or is there more to this than what the records say? Who is Lee Standifer? Court documents revealed that Standifer was born with a “diffused brain damage” and “mildly retarded”. Family members, particularly her mother, remembers her as a positive and happy person. She was good with certain things like reading but other tasks remain a challenge for her. Despite her condition, she was able to finish high school in 1976. She soon found a job at a chicken packaging place and moved to her own place in downtown Knoxville. […]

Marrying the love of your life is everyone’s dream. But what if the love of your life is set to spend the next few years (or their entire lifetime) behind the cold bars of jail? Will you still marry them? This was the dilemma faced by the brave souls who have shown the world that love knows no bounds. They married inmates and proved that not a thousand mile distance, handcuffs, nor society’s disapproval can hinder love. Incarceration in the US Prison is often described as a cold and depressing place. A seemingly apt punishment for people who have broken our laws. A place where we banish people we don’t want to live among us. Yet, not all prisoners are guilty of the crimes they are imprisoned for. In fact, the US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. It houses only 4.4% of the world’s population yet it’s prisoners account for around 22% of the world’s total number of inmates. As of May 2018, the country has 655 prisoners for every 100,000 residents. Canada, it’s neighbor, has more than five times lower incarceration rate. Prison Pen Pal System With these statistics, several initiatives have been made to […]

In the Netherlands prisoners are given keys to their cells as crime rates fall, prisons close, and inmate populations dwindle. This is all part of a rehabilitation scheme that aims to treat prisoners better and with more humanity. In Dordrecht, Heerhugowaard, Zaandam, and Arnhem inmates have keys to their cells where they can come and go as they please so long as they are back by 9:30pm. Additionally, they have a digital computer that lets them order things like groceries and make appointments with other prisoners and staff. Prison guards are no too keen on the move as they complain that there is too little supervision for the inmates. They also claim that the move fails to vindicate the victims of the crimes these inmates have committed. They are afraid that prisoners are using their newfound freedom to run criminal enterprises outside of prison. These complaints have found a home at the Dutch Department of Justice. It is not hard to imagine that criminal businesses are being run with the freedom these prisoners are afforded. Long periods of the day are spent in places other than their cell meaning criminal meetings and drug trades could be taking place regularly. The […]

Life inside a North Korean prison is far from ordinary and verges on barbarian. A former guard describes what life is like for the inmates of North Korea with grueling detail. They face beatings, starvation, rape, and summary executions for dissenting from the government or trying to escape. Lim Hye-jin has seen people set on fire, beheaded, and mass shootings in a group punishment after foiled escape attempts. There is no easy way to deal with the dissenters of the North Korean government as they sit on par with some of the most disturbing prison systems of all time. The prison guard Lim was herself imprisoned before she escaped after she was caught illegally training. She now lives in South Korea safe and home free. She escaped 15 years ago but the images of the treatment and punishments still make her uneasy. She claims she was manipulated to not feel any sympathy for the prisoners as they had committed great crimes against the government. She now says that they were in fact just normal people and she feels terrible and very guilty. In one extreme case a pair of brothers successfully bid for their freedom temporarily. Seven members of their […]

After a federal court overturned a national limit on the price of the calls, activists turn to state and local governments. Five years ago, when her nephew was sentenced to a second stint in prison in Arizona, Blu Dux began a twice-a-week ritual of talking to him on the phone. To make it work, Dux had to set up a landline to accept collect calls and pay an average of $5 per call — the expense totals nearly $100 a month. “I’m trying to create a bond with him, and it gets broken any time we don’t have communication,” said Dux, who lives on Kauai. “I know it helps his sense of support — being anchored by having somebody on the outside who is concerned for his welfare.” In Hawaii, the cost of a 15-minute call from prison can now be as much as $9.10, including the fees. Read more

Jeremy Barrett remembers very little of the assault that would change his life. He was at the end of a three-year sentence in a Florida state prison when he was caught stealing potatoes from the prison kitchen. As punishment, he was sent to confinement with a cellmate who, according to court filings, was “severely mentally ill.” The man attacked Barrett in a violent rage, ultimately gouging out one of his eyes. “I went into shock,” Barrett said.  When he got out of prison one month later, Barrett, 36, sued the Florida Department of Corrections for negligence. The department responded with a counterclaim or a “cost of incarceration lien” of $54,750 — the total cost of Barrett’s 1,095 day stay in the prison at $50 a day. “They charged me for me being in prison,” Barrett said. “Yeah I was surprised.” Read more here: