It's happening with bus seats and airplanes, and inmate attire is no different: America must adapt to suit its most corpulent citizens. But 55-year-old Elias Diaz tells the Post that Rikers Island lacks uniforms big enough to contain his 400-pound frame and he's suing the Department of Corrections for $1 million for having to wash his same outfit every day in the shower. How much does the DOC regret rejecting that contract with Jnco? more ›

Police in Queens arrested off-duty corrections officer James Robinson today and charged him with rape, assault and wrongful imprisonment. Details on the charges are still scant but a source tells us the charges are "domestic." more ›

Things just refuse to go well for Lamont Pride, the 27-year-old man accused of killing NYPD Officer Peter Figoski. Even locked up he is getting into trouble. Yesterday, while an estimated 10,000-20,000 people attended Figoski's funeral in Long Island. Pride went and got in a scuffle with a pair of Corrections officers on Rikers Island. And his face got scratched! more ›

In yet anther example of why we don't drive, a retired corrections officer opened fire on a man after a road rage-induced scuffle near JFK. The Daily News reports that 66-year-old Jose Aponte had been arguing with a man in a "green Toyota camera" when the two pulled over on South Conduit Avenue and 155th street. After "the man slugged the former officer and signaled that he had a gun in his pants," Aponte pulled out his own gun and opened fire. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] The state Department of Correctional Services has recently changed its regulations to allow conjugal visits for homosexual inmates who have entered into a same-sex marriage or a civil union. The regulation is a formalization of a policy initiated in 2008 by Governor Paterson, which required New York State agencies to recognize same-sex marriages and civil unions performed out of state. Peter Cutler, spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services, told the Daily News, "If they seek a furlough based on the partner, it's likely it would be granted." Please save all "drop the soap" jokes for the end of the post. more ›

Poster Boy (aka Henry Macyjewicz) has been back in the headlines lately after being sentenced to 11 months behind bars—a sentence that came from a judge some call vindictive. Yesterday it was being reported (by the publishing house putting out his book next month) that Macyjewicz was going to be out on bail soon—a claim that the NY Law Journal confirms. According to the Law Journal's article (subscription only), after just one week on Rikers Island, the street artist was set free after an appellate judge granted his motion for bail pending appeal. more ›

The Department of Correctional Services has turned down former Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress' request to take part in a work release program that would have allowed him to spend some nights at home, according to 1010WINS. Burress — who was sentenced to two-years in prison after shooting himself in the leg in a Manhattan nightclub — asked for the furlough just two months into his sentence. more ›

Just two months into his two-year prison sentence, former Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress is eyeing a work furlough that could let him spend anywhere from one to seven nights per week at home, the Post reports. Burress has requested to take part in a work release program that might let him spend time out of jail with his wife and children and negotiate with representatives from new teams in person, "rather than via prison phone calls or visits." more ›

Plaxico Burress is getting ready to for his two-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to gun charges by hiring a consultant to help him maximize his time while under medium-security supervision. His lawyer Benjamin Brafman yesterday told the Post, "We are consulting with an expert in the field who will address and advise us, Mr. Burress and his family, on what to expect while incarcerated, and how to use his period of confinement as productively as possible." Michael Vick recently said he was in "the best shape of my life" after being released from two years behind bars and signing with the Eagles. A Corrections spokeswoman said, "Due to his notoriety, there is a potential that he would be placed in protective custody. And those guys are held in single cells, with the exception of a shower, a visit, a medical visit. You're only out of your cell for eight hours a day." Corrections officials will likely be reminding their guards (and chaplains) to avoid any "Foxy Brown-style" celebrity treatment for Plax. Yesterday on his radio show, Mayor Bloomberg said he was satisfied to hear that the football star will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. more ›

Apparently Orthodox Jews weren't the only ones getting preferential treatment while inside the city's prison walls. It appears that the Department of Corrections might have a systematic breakdown going on according to reports in today's Post about the way that various prison officials pampered rap star Foxy Brown while she was doing time at Riker's Island until her release last April. more ›

Actually, the Tombs—aka the Manhattan Detention Complex— doesn't really allow bar (or bat) mitzvahs to be thrown there, which is why Corrections Department officials, including a rabbi and imam, were disciplined for allowing one inmate to throw his son's bash there. The Post reports that Tuvia Stern, a "financial scam artist," got the okay to "use his own caterer, who supplied kosher food, china, forks -- and knives -- for about 60 guests who partied and danced the hora for six hours in the jailhouse gym. Stern's family and friends were allowed to keep their cellphones -- normally a huge security no-no. And Stern was given the OK to dress in clothing appropriate for the occasion." Corrections Commissioner Martin Horn was reportedly "livid"—guess finding out that the department paid for the overtime of guards who were staffed at the event wasn't fun. more ›

The Department of Corrections spoke with us today to clarify that "there is no timetable" for the reopening and expansion of the "House of D" in Downtown Brooklyn reported on yesterday. The original assertion that it would reopen shortly came from a Daily News claim that a letter to the state from the DOC stated the jail would reopen in a few months. more ›

Even though the area once home to the House of D is now better known as the House of TJ's, City Councilman David Yassky and Controller William Thompson are still trying to block the city from the reopening and expansion of a jail in Downtown Brooklyn that has been closed since 2003. The two filed a lawsuit against the city trying to stop $430 million deal planned by the Bloomberg administration to add 720 beds to the the Brooklyn House of Detention in a move they say is a "waste of taxpayer money and would have a destructive effect on the local economy.". The suit claims that the city "secretively and illegally" re-populated the jail when it sent 31 prisoners there over the weekend in order to claim that it never closed. The Dept. of Corrections says it would like to have the jail reopened by early next year. more ›