Recession to Unlock Wave of Ex-Cons

(NEWSER) - The collective freak-out over closing Guantanamo proves that Americans do care about prisons and prisoners, but Gitmo “is a mere speck in the eye of America’s larger prison program,” writes Dahlia Lithwick in Newsweek. That’s why Sen. Jim Webb of the “lock ‘em up” state of Virginia is launching a campaign to overhaul the entire system. To see the problem, Lithwick writes, “Americans need only know how to count.” More»

But most remain upbeat about their future: Pew survey

(NEWSER) - The economy is doing a number on those aged 18 to 34, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center :

• Half say they have taken a job they didn't want.
• More than a third have gone back to school because of the job market.
• Nearly a quarter have taken unpaid work to gain experience.
• About a quarter have moved back in with the folks.
• More than 1 in 5 have postponed having a baby, and about the same number have put off getting married.

Increasingly, 20somethings wait for their 'real' career

(NEWSER) - Stephanie Kelly graduated in 2009 with a degree in advertising; instead she works as a part-time secretary and writes freelance for an online “Secret Santa Organizer.” Amy Klein has a degree in English lit from Harvard, but the 2007 grad has been touring the country in a minivan as part of a punk rock band. Stephanie Morales graduated from Dartmouth and ended up waiting tables for $2.17 per hour. They’re part of the group of highly-educated 20-somethings with dead-end jobs that the New York Times calls “Generation Limbo,” and not all of them are unhappy with where they are in life: “I can cook and write at my own pace,” says Kelly. “I’m fulfilling my artistic goals,” says Klein. More»

High error rate found in unsupervised parole system

(NEWSER) - California has been ordered to release tens of thousands of prisoners over the next two years to relieve overcrowding, but it's already failing to release inmates safely, according to the state's inspector general. Some 450 inmates "with a high risk of violence" were mistakenly released on unsupervised parole under a program that started early last year, reports the Los Angeles Times . More»

Ponzi schemer serving 150-year sentence becomes celeb in prison

(NEWSER) - Bernie Madoff isn't wasting time fretting over the lives he ruined and the fortunes he destroyed. Shortly after he arrived at a federal prison in North Carolina last summer, another inmate was pestering him about the people he had duped, and the Ponzi schemer lost his patience. "Fuck my victims,” he said, according to a New York magazine account based on interviews with two dozen other prisoners. "I carried them for twenty years, and now I’m doing 150 years." More»