Documentary: Professional prisoners learning skills

In this eye-opening 25-minute documentary, we visit a prison in Russia that educates its prisoners, pays them well for their work and gives them skills for a chance of a better life on release.

RT has produced this interesting documentary about a penal colony in Russia.

While most people get their education or learn a trade at college or university, in this penal colony you can get an education totally free.

Some prisoners have learned to cook, grow vegetables and flowers. Others care for livestock, sell milk, raise pigs. There is a shop at the colony selling their produce, both to prisoners and also to people in the village nearby.... read more and watch video.

US student forgotten in prison drinks urine to survive

Daniel Chong was arrested at a party with 9 other suspects on April 21 during a drug raid. While no charge was laid against him he was put into a prison cell and quite literally forgotten.

24-year old Chong, an engineering student at the University of California, states that he was arrested on April 21, 2012 in a drug raid. Of the group arrested, one was released and the rest were booked into county jail.

The agents allegedly seized "18,000 ecstasy pills, marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms, a Russian rifle, two handguns and thousands of rounds of ammunition," at the party.

Chong says that he was questioned by the agents and then told that he could go home. No charges were made against him and an agent even offered him a ride home.... read full article and view video.

Video: Mumia Abu-Jamal speaks from prison — life after death row

Democracy Now recently had an exclusive interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of the killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.

Abu-Jamal has been in jail for decades and last year the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set aside his death sentence. They found that jurors in the trial were given confusing instructions that encouraged them to choose the death penalty rather than a life sentence. Digital Journal reported on the change of sentence in December 2011.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is still fighting to win his release from prison. There are allegations of judicial misconduct and racial bias in his court case.

A movement called "We want freedom" has for a long time argued racism by the prosecutors and trial judge in the court case that led to Abu-Jamal's conviction.

During the trial a court reporter overheard Judge Albert F.Sabo say in chambers: "I’m going to help them fry the nigger." ... read full article and view video interview.

Video: Children in jail - lost childhood in the U.S.A.

These days in the U.S.A., often children as young as 7 years old can be tried as adults and incarcerated in an adult prison. Even though these children are still not old enough to drink, vote or drive, they can still be tried and convicted as adults.

In the video, LaShon Beamon of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services says: “When you hold a youth accountable in the same manner and fashion in which you hold an adult, it's just not right and it's not fair.”

A further interview is with Michael Kemp, who was jailed for the first time at 12-years-old. He was incarcerated in Oak Hill Juvenile Correctional Faciity outside Washington D.C.

“Oak Hill it wasn't designed to rehabilitate you, it was designed for punishment. You know having barbed wires around the gate and it's just preparing you for more criminal-type lifestyle,” he says.... read full article.