Rapper Ja Rule is serving a two-year sentence for attempted criminal possession of a firearm (a loaded .40 was found in his car in 2007)—plus another four months for tax evasion—and he seems pretty upbeat. At least, that what this exclusive interview and video from the Daily News suggest: "The Queens-raised rap star says disgraced pol Alan Hevesi and corporate greed poster-boy Dennis Kozlowski took him under their wings. From Kozlowski, he got stock tips. From Hevesi, he heard about the perennial impasse in Albany. They watched Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert together." Ja Rule said, "Outside, you don’t meet guys like this every day. This place is amazing." more ›

A New York inmate will spend more time in prison after filing tax returns claiming he was owed a $890 million refund. The AP reports that the forms were submitted to the IRS from 2006 to 2010 while he was incarcerated, and at one point the inmate was mailed a $327,000 check from the government, but prison officials confiscated it. In other blatant examples of why our tax law needs to be reformed, Mitt Romney paid $44,000 more in taxes than he actually owed. more ›

The political consultant who was convicted of stealing $1.1 million from Mayor Bloomberg's mayoral campaign was sentenced to one to four years in prison today. While probation was an option for John Haggerty, Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zweibel said he opted to send Haggerty to prison "in order to restore the public confidence in the electoral process and to serve as a deterent.” more ›

Peter Braunstein has been notorious as the media writer who apparently went crazy and tortured and assaulted a former co-worker for 13 hours in her Chelsea apartment in 2005, gaining access to her home by setting a small fire in her building and posing as a firefighter. While serving a 20-year-sentence for the attack, Braunstein has been interviewed, offered his thoughts on current TV, and become friends with other notorious criminals. Now, Aaron Gell has published an e-book about Braunstein, featuring new insights, like how he has a young female friend who "wanted to impress me in a Manson Girl kind of way. She tried to come off as more fucked up than she actually was" and runs errands for him, like sending letters to magazine editors offering his criticisms which is a violation of his sentence. more ›

According to the NYTimes, there were 393,394 visits to Rikers Island to see inmates last year. It seems that many of those visitors are trying their darndest to pass contraband along—and the NYPD finds a cornucopia of valuable goods as a result: “We find a whole host of stuff,” said the New York City Department of Corrections’ chief deputy, Carmine LaBruzzo. “Live ammunition. Cellphones, beepers, iPads, iPods.” more ›

Two men who spent years in jail for a Bronx murder they didn't commit were put there because of the false testimony of 60-year-old Penny Cameron. Cameron claims she was coerced into giving false information by a threatening detective and is now coming forward because she has terminal breast cancer. "Every day of my life, I thought about them. I was serving time with them," she tells the Post. Given the choice between being held in a prison of lies and an actual prison, we're going to go with the metaphysical one. more ›

On the heels of his daughter-in-law's damning memoir and his wife's interview with 60 Minutes, Bernard Madoff is effectively in the midst of a PR blitz, since he's granted an exclusive interview with Barbara Walters. ABC News reports, "He said he is relieved to be free from years of fear he'd be discovered as a fraud and finally has overcome thoughts of suicide. Repeatedly throughout the interview he told Walters that he was guilty of the crimes that put him in prison, saying 'I deserved to be punished. I deserved to go to jail.'" more ›

The cost of peddling pills out of an ice cream truck? Three and a half years. That's how long Staten Islander Louis Scala, Jr., was sentenced to today for his role in drug dealership that operated out of a Lickety Split truck in Richmond County. more ›

A man who escaped prison and hijacked a plane in 1971 and has been a fugitive from New Jersey ever since has been caught in Lisbon, Portugal. "The FBI's determination in pursuing subjects will not diminish over time or distance," a FBI spokesman says in a release. The AP reports that Wright intends on fighting the extradition, and has requested that he be released prior to the hearings. more ›

Forty years ago today, a four-day uprising at the Attica state prison ended in a bloodshed when "tear gas was dropped into the yard and New York State Police troopers opened fire non-stop for two minutes into the smoke." Ten hostages were killed and 29 inmates were killed in what was the prisoners' quest for better living conditions, such as "Apply the New York State minimum wage law to all state institutions. STOP SLAVE LABOR," "When an inmate reaches conditional release date, give him a full release without parole," "Educate all correctional officers to the needs of the inmates, i.e., understanding rather than punishment," and "Give us a healthy diet, stop feeding us so much pork, and give us some fresh fruit daily." more ›

After being sentenced to three years in jail for selling narcotics, Jerry Herrington spent the bulk of his time behind bars telling anyone who'd listen that the judge had said "two" years, not "three" when she handed down the sentence in court. Unsurprisingly, nobody really took Herrington seriously, and his quest to prove that he was the victim of a clerical error twisted around in Kafkaesque circles, with prison officials repeatedly telling him the transcript was not in his file, and court officials insisting "should" be in his prison file. The Times reports it wasn't until he was released that Herrington finally cut through the red tape and scored a copy of the transcript—and lo and behold, it proved him right! more ›

Two years ago, a prisoner managed to stroll out of the Criminal Court Building in Manhattan because he was wearing a business suit and convinced a guard that he was a lawyer. After a day on the lam, police caught Ronald Tackman—wearing jeans and a t-shirt—in Washington Heights with a fake passport, wigs, phony beards, and four gun-shaped cigarette lighters. Now, a judge has sentenced him to a maximum of life in prison, even though Tackman argued he needed the NY Attorney General to certify the constitutionality of the laws sending him to the pokey, "If I bought a painting from Sotheby’s, it would be certified authentic by three experts. If you buy a Ford, it’s certified. If you buy a diamond ring, it’s certified. The laws of America must be certified. They are much more valuable than a painting. How come I can’t see proof of this?" more ›

Perhaps taking a cue from Lil Wayne, Lillo Brancato Jr.—an actor who you might remember from such works as The Sopranos, A Bronx Tale and that time he and a friend broke into a Bronx house and killed an off-duty police officer in a robbery gone very wrong—has started to #tweetfromjail. Twitter is so hot right now, Twitter. more ›

There are plenty of things to be upset about if a family member is in jail—knowing that the person caused suffering in some way, the horrible color schemes of prison jump suits, etc. Marie Domond isn't upset about any of that, or the fact that her brother Gerard Domond is serving 25 years to life for murdering someone. She's mad that her brother is sometimes referred to as an "inmate." So she's suing. more ›

Tomorrow Ja Rule will begin his two year prison sentence, but before that happens, he took a moment to discuss his thoughts on "Good Day New York" with co-hosts Rosanna Scotto and Greg Kelly. more ›

"The only demonic presence this child had to worry about was her mother." Those chilling words were said by a Queens judge as he sentenced Marie Lauradin, a 29 year-old Queens resident, to 17 years in prison for setting her six-year-old daughter on fire in 2009. more ›

A Brooklyn man whose assault charges were dismissed remains in prison after already serving five years. ABC7 reports that Oswind David was sentenced to 23 years in Sing Sing because a jury was not aware that a judge has tossed out David's indictments due to a prosecutorial error. "They have a Judge, a DA, a defense counsel, and everybody miss this?" David asks. more ›

Former State Comptroller Alan Hevesi was just sentenced to one to four years in prison for his role in the state pension fund pay-to-play scandal on Friday and, now, it's reported that 71-year-old inmate 11-R-1334 at Ulster Correctional is in the hospital infirmary. Prison officials won't disclose why he's there. more ›

In 2009, Kisha Jones attempted to kill her husband's lovechild by trying to trick his pregnant mistress, Monique Hunter, into taking an abortion-inducing medicine. Then, when Hunter gave birth, Jones attempted to take the baby of a respirator and get it to drink tainted milk. This all led to her pleading guilty to second-degree assault, which she blames on the hormones of also being pregnant at the time. Today, she was sentenced to four years in prison. But the good news is she gets to keep her man! more ›

Just because New York State is set to have its first on-time budget in six years doesn't mean that much of the state isn't still desperate to make ends meet. And so we guess we have to give the Erie County Holding Center upstate some credit, they've come up with a means to make more money that we really weren't expecting: advertising. more ›

The 70-year-old bank robber who was shot in the leg by police while trying to rob a Chase bank the day after he was released from prison is going back to jail. John Daniel Stolarz, aka Johnny Shades, pleaded guilty to the top count of bank robbery for the botched robbery yesterday. He should have stuck to a criminal professional more suitable for an elderly man. more ›

A career grifter who pulled a carpet knife on a Swedish naval official and his father in Midtown was sentenced to 20 years in prison yesterday. Louis Parson has a long history of violent crimes, and a prosecutor said, "Mr. Parson is a dinosaur. He's still living in the '70s and '80s when scam artists and people of his ilk wandered around New York City scamming and robbing tourists and citizens." more ›

Former Giants star receiver Plaxico Burress has been lifting weights and getting existential in prison ever since he mistakenly shot himself in the thigh at a nightclub in Nov. 2008. But finally, he can see the light at the end of the tunnel: Burress is due to be released from prison three months early, in June. And just in time for the NFL lockout! more ›

Note to graffiti vandals: if you make your mark with acid (or onto sacred MTA territory) it's going to add some years to your jail time. According to the Daily News, 19-year-old Brooklynite Alexander Thompson etched his tags (GEAR and G7) into a Queens bus shelter with acid and got a 42-count indictment. Yesterday—when it was reported that vandalism was up last year in Queens—he was told he faces four years in prison for damaging 21 glass bus shelters in 2009 (racking up $5,100 in damages during that time). more ›

It's good to know that our plans to relax and watch the Super Bowl tomorrow evening aren't really any different than Plaxico Burress's plans at his upstate prison. According to a Public Information Officer for the New York State Department of Correctional Services, Burress has full TV privileges and will be able to watch the game with other inmates. Par-taaay! He also thinks he's in better shape than when he arrived in prison. Can we join him? Because this whole paying for rent and food racket isn't all it's cracked up to be. [Via TMZ] more ›

Over a year after emergency responders found an unconscious 4-year-old boy in a Crown Heights apartment, his mother has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his death. Myrna Chenphang, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter last fall, appeared in court today and when she asked to speak to her mother, her mother responded, "You hurt all of us. For what you did there is no forgiveness... Jayden was a joy for me and for all of us." more ›