"But in our conversations, he would return again and again to the electric chair, still an object of primal, almost talismanic fear all of this time later."

"'It cooks you,' he would repeat, folding into himself. 'It cooks you.' While the time of his trial is always within reach for Smith, the intervening decades are somewhere else, behind a curtain he won’t or can’t push aside. Smith isn’t in the habit of personal disclosure, in any case. He does not have friends in the nursing home. 'I keep to myself,' he says often. He doesn’t want to know what people were convicted of, and doesn’t ask. He says he didn’t have friends in prison either, and he isn’t exaggerating: 'Minds his own business and has no associates,' reads one behavioral report from 1964. Smith waves every question about those decades away with an impatient, 'It was prison' or 'I don’t think about that.'... Smith now spends most of his time in his room, watching TV. In conversations over the course of a year, the only person I hear him express something like friendship for is Tucker Carlson.... 'He’s my type of guy. We’re the same type,' he says, though he won’t say more.I could see it, somehow. The grievance, the paranoia, the sense that things are stacked against you."

Wrote Annalisa Quinn, in 2022 in the Boston Globe, "Frank Smith was locked up for eight decades. At 98, what would it mean to be free? Likely the longest-serving prisoner in America, he’s been paroled into a Connecticut nursing home. But he’s still not out."

That article is linked in this NYT obituary from a few days ago, "Frank Smith, Who Served 70 Years for Murder, Dies at 101/One of the longest-serving prisoners in American history, he was sent to death row in 1950 before his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment."

The Times obit doesn't mention Smith's affinity for Tucker Carlson... perhaps to maintain the Times reader's empathy for the ancient convict.

"[C]ritics of the state of the discipline say sociologists who aim to change the conditions they study can no longer claim to be rigorous scientists."

"A report released over the weekend about the state of scholarly standards in the field said it had been compromised by politics that influenced the discipline’s values and priorities. The report was produced by a commission led by Vanderbilt University and Washington University in St. Louis, where leaders have argued that higher education is in need of reforms. The commission found that scholarship in the humanities and social sciences was sometimes in the service of political goals. 'Some topics cannot be studied or cannot be studied in an honest way,' said Jukka Savolainen, a Wayne State University criminologist and sociologist who is not part of the commission. For scholars studying incarceration, he said, 'the only research that’s rewarded and allowed and encouraged is to find the umpteenth way in which incarceration is harmful.'"

From "Conservatives Don’t Like Sociology. Some Sociologists Don’t Either. A group of sociologists broke away in protest from their colleagues over disagreements about Israel. Some worry the political stances are harming the field" (NYT gift link).

"Supreme Court says Rastafarian can’t sue prison officials over shorn dreadlocks."

WaPo reports. 

This is a complicated case, written by Justice Gorsuch, for a 6-person majority, in Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety. It's about limits on Congress's power to impose conditions as it exercises its Spending Power. The statute is the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, and I assume most of us feel empathy for a Rastafarian prisoner who experiences a routine prison haircutting. The federal statute is designed to relieve prisoners of substantial burdens on their religion (unless the strict scrutiny standard is met). The problem is the scope of Congress's power.

Let's look at the Gorsuch opinion:

This reminds me of the way her husband, Gavin Newsom, told black people "I’m like you. I’m no better than you. You know, I’m a 960 SAT guy."

Holy shit. Gavin Newsom’s Wife Jennifer ran over and killed her own sister with a golf cart…then tells San Quentin Prisoners for Life, “Yours were probably accidents too…”

What TF is wrong with her? pic.twitter.com/rbOk6gcYMu

— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) April 7, 2026

"And yet the grammar of institutions is that of the subjunctive, the 'as if': as if arresting and incarcerating someone could change them..."

"... as if arresting and incarcerating someone could change what they did to you. Without such fantasies, we are left with stark reality, with the realization that this did happen to you, hurt you, and change you irreparably. That means that to counter such insidious, impossible fantasies, I’ve found my only refuge is to return relentlessly to the reality of what happened to me and to accept the daily heartbreak that there is no form of repair, institutional or otherwise, that exists that will ever change what happened, as much as I might wish otherwise...."

Writes Anna Krauthamer, in "Why I Didn’t Report My Rape/In 2021, six men sexually assaulted me in a Las Vegas hotel room. Something more than abolitionism prevented me from reporting the crime" (The Nation).

"Abolitionism" refers to "the complete dismantling (not reform) of the prison system."

Elon Musk laughs at a prison rape joke.

Shameful.

Ankle monitors in the news.

1. "How a Sabotaged Ankle Monitor Ended Bolsonaro’s House Arrest/Shortly before he was expected to start serving a 27-year sentence, Brazil’s former president took a soldering iron to his tracking device" (NYT): "Mr. Bolsonaro, 70, wasn’t trying to flee, his sons, allies and lawyers said. Rather, he felt unwell because of his medications." This happened "days before he was expected to begin a 27-year prison sentence for trying to stage a coup." "A day before the ankle monitor episode, his lawyers had asked the court to let Mr. Bolsonaro serve his sentence at home because of health problems, which he attributes to complications from a stabbing attack in 2018. His poor health, which includes frequent attacks of hiccups and vomiting, 'makes his safe stay in a prison environment impossible,' his defense said on social media.... At a hearing on Sunday, Mr. Bolsonaro told the court he had burned the ankle monitor because his medications had caused 'hallucinations' and 'paranoia' that the device might be used to eavesdrop."

2. "'Slender Man' attacker Morgan Geyser found a day after cutting off monitoring bracelet" (CNN): "A woman who stabbed her sixth-grade classmate to win favor with a fictional internet character named 'Slender Man' more than a decade ago has been taken into custody, a day after cutting off her monitoring bracelet and leaving a group home where she’d been living, police said.... At age 15, Geyser pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted first-degree murder in a deal with prosecutors to be placed in a mental institution instead of serving jail time.... In January, a judge ordered she could be released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, where she spent nearly seven years.... Geyser is currently living at a group home in Madison, [Wisconsin] on the same street where she was last seen...."

3. "Innocent woman, 26, set alight on Chicago subway 'by serial criminal, 50' freed on ankle monitor by soft touch judge in horrific echo of Iryna Zarutska murder" (Daily Mail): "Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez (pictured) allowed Lawrence Reed, 50, to be released on an ankle monitor after he assaulted a social worker in August.... Reed is accused of setting fire to [Bethany MaGee, 26] around 9.24pm on Monday, which is outside of the hours he was allowed out of the house while on the ankle monitor."

4. "Charge against Melodee Buzzard’s mom dismissed, ankle monitor removed as FBI hunts for missing 9-year-old/Ashlee Buzzard no longer faces false imprisonment charge as FBI searches for 9-year-old Melodee" (Fox News): "... Brewer said Buzzard locked multiple deadbolts after he entered and appeared 'agitated and tense.' He testified that she sat across from him with a box cutter visible on a nearby tray. When he said he was uncomfortable and wanted to leave, he claimed she blocked the doorway and locked the front door.... The court... dismissed the felony charge for insufficient evidence and ended Buzzard’s pretrial supervision.... She is also no longer required to wear an ankle monitor."

"The deference and servility to [Ghislaine] Maxwell have reached such preposterous levels that one of the top officials at the facility has complained that he is 'sick of having to be Maxwell’s bitch.'"

Says a letter to Trump from Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, quoted in "Democrats reveal whistleblower details of Ghislaine Maxwell prison 'luxuries'/In a letter to the president, House Democrats say Maxwell’s treatment as she prepares a clemency request makes the convicted sex offender look like a 'guest at a Trump hotel'" (MSNBC).

What are these luxuries? We're told there are "customized meals personally delivered to her cell, after-hours time in a private exercise area and access to a service puppy.... private meetings with visitors arranged by the warden, complete with snacks...." 

"I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as..."

"... me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I should hold these days. Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn't want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them. However, Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right — nay, obligation — to critique me and my views in public. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created."

Writes JK Rowling, on X, responding to a video you can see at the link.

Rowling has kept a silence as long as her antagonists were children, but now she's decided to speak — to write — and no one can out-write her. She continues:

"We have to be vicious just like they are. It's the only thing they understand."

Said President Trump, about the murder of Iryna Zarutska on the train in Charlotte. Trump presents the problem of violence as straightforward, easy to solve quickly if we simply have the will to go hardcore into law and order, with none of the liberal complexity.

Meanwhile, over at The Washington Post, there's "Trump blames Democrats for Charlotte stabbing. Records complicate the story. The case has sharpened partisan divisions about an intractable root of crime: how to treat the seriously mentally ill who pose risks of violence."

Is it really so complicated and intractable? WaPo urges readers to see "nuances" — basically the failure to deal with mental illness.

"Liebich has vigorously resisted suggestions of taking this step to satirise the authorities, rather than out of a wish to live as a woman."

Link to the London Times.

It should be noted that "Alexander Dobrindt, the interior minister, said Liebich had 'abused' the new gender self-identification law and it needed to be tightened up."

"I sincerely apologise for causing trouble despite being a person of no importance."

Said Kim Keon-hee, quoted in "The fall of a first lady: limos and luxury to a cell with no bed/Kim Keon-hee — the dog-loving wife of Yoon Suk-yeol, the impeached ex-president of South Korea — is in prison on suspicion of corruption and election meddling" (London Times).

Critics have compared Kim to Lady Macbeth, Marie Antoinette and, for her extensive cosmetic surgery, Michael Jackson. She lent an aura of glamour to Yoon, 64, a solemn former prosecutor.... There are 16 criminal allegations against her including suspicions that an expressway road project was changed to end in an area where her family owns land in Yangpyeong, east of Seoul.... Her one-person cell has a small table that can be used as a desk and for eating meals and a floor mattress to sleep on, said one source.... She can be held for up to 20 days while an indictment is prepared, but is unlikely to be granted bail according to legal analysts....

"Those are crimes against the vulnerable, and you’re putting them with a puppy who is vulnerable."

"We do not allow anyone whose crime involves abuse towards minors or animals — including any crime of a sexual nature. That’s a hard policy we have, so she will not be able to.”

Said Paige Mazzoni, head of Canine Companions, quoted in "Ghislaine Maxwell barred from service dog training at cushy prison camp." (NBC News).

"To easy LoL."

From "10 New Orleans Inmates Escape Jail Through Cell Wall Where Toilet Was Removed/Three escapees had been captured by Friday night. The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said the inmates might have had help from jail workers" (NYT): "A civilian employee of the sheriff’s office who was the only person monitoring security systems in the part of the jail where the escape occurred had left his station at the time to get food...."

"Everybody, don't worry about it. Don't panic. You're gonna be on that island as a tourist for decades and decades to come."

"I mean, you gotta be kidding me. This is going nowhere. This is distraction day in the United States of America."

Says Gavin Newsom — yes, he still has a podcast — addressing Trump's plan/"plan" to turn Alcatraz back into a prison, in "And, This is Escape From Alcatraz" (Podscribe, transcript + audio).

"A million plus people, I think it's 1.2 million last year came to Alcatraz and the island. I think the Park service that runs it generates $60 million a year in revenue. Back to my Doge point, this would cost tens of millions of dollars. You have to bring people onto the island, the workforce and everything else. [Trump] specifically directed his Department of Justice and, and he directed Secretary Burgum to start to put together a plan of action on this. I mean, I pray that they're focused on other things and not focused on the folly of this latest distraction...."

"Migrants deported from the US, and even 'dangerous' American citizens convicted of heinous crimes could be headed to a notorious hellhole prison in El Salvador..."

"After a meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in San Salvador on Monday, Rubio announced that the [Terrorism Confinement Center] could begin accepting inmates from the US.... The inmates are... crammed into their cells for 23.5 hours a day, with each cell holding 65 to 70 prisoners. Rival gang members are often kept in the same cells.... The mega-prison is capable of holding 40,000 people, with Bukele offering to fill some of the vacancies with criminal migrants and convicted US citizens, for a fee...."

From "Inside El Salvador’s mega-prison where president has offered to hold ‘dangerous’ US citizens and criminal migrants" (NY Post).

Here's some video of Rubio:

"That's an offer President Bukele made. Obviously, we'll have to study at our end. There are obviously legalities involved. We have a Constitution. We have all sorts of things. But it's a very generous offer. No one's ever made an offer like that, and to outsource at a fraction of the cost, at least some of the most dangerous and violent criminals that we have in the United States...."

"The Executive Order establishes Government-wide the biological reality of two sexes and clearly defines male and female."

"All radical gender ideology guidance, communication, policies, and forms are removed. Agencies will cease pretending that men can be women and women can be men when enforcing laws that protect against sex discrimination. 'Woman' means an 'adult human female.' The Executive Order directs that Government identification like passports and personnel records will reflect biological reality and not self-assessed gender identity. The Executive Order ends the practice of housing men in women’s prisons and taxpayer funded 'transition' for male prisoners. The Executive Order ends the forced recitation of 'preferred pronouns' and protects Americans’ First Amendment and statutory rights to recognize the biological and binary nature of sex. This includes protection in the workplace and in federal funded entities like schools.... This order is one of nearly 200 executive actions the White House is rolling out today. Among them: orders to declare a national emergency at the border; end all DEI programs across the federal government; withdrawal from the Paris climate accord; and a return-to-office directive for federal workers."

From "EXCLUSIVE: Trump’s Day One Executive Order on ‘Male and Female’/The White House strikes out at gender ideology and pronouns. Also: ends housing of biological men in women’s prisons; self-ID on passports; and more" (Free Press).

"Timmerman said he had sneaked into Syria from Lebanon on a 'religious pilgrimage' to Damascus. 'I heard the word of God,' he explained."

"He ended up in a prison in the Syrian capital known as the 'Palestinian Division,' and was held in a separate ward until Monday morning, a day after rebels took over the capital and freed thousands of inmates. 'It was a chaotic scene. I had my prison clothes on, and another prisoner was with me. I was walking to Jordan,' he said, stopping to rest every night in a farm. A local guard in Zahayabeh said he came across him in the morning. 'He didn’t speak much Arabic, so I took him home. He told me he wanted to go to bed. When he woke up, he asked for a fried egg and a boiled egg. I gave him both and some pickled eggplant too, and then I called you,' he said, turning to a member of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist rebel group that has taken over Damascus. 'And then, the media attacked.'"

From "US ‘pilgrim’ Travis Timmerman found after seven months in Syrian jail/The discovery of the American in Damascus raises hopes for the family of Austin Tice, the journalist who was kidnapped by Assad’s regime in Syria in 2012" (London Times).

"A federal judge overseeing New York City’s violent jails, including Rikers Island... found the city in contempt for failing to stem violence and excessive force at the facilities..."

"... and said she was learning [sic] toward taking control of them. The judge, Laura Taylor Swain, said in a 65-page opinion that the city and its Department of Correction had violated the constitutional rights of prisoners and staff members alike by exposing them to danger, and had intentionally ignored her orders....Judge Swain’s ruling came nearly a decade after the city’s jails fell under federal oversight in a settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought by prisoners and the Legal Aid Society.... In the past two years, at least 33 people have died in the jails or shortly after being released...."

The NYT reports.

"There are grates in one of the rooms of 4 North. They have little holes. If you lay down, you can look through the holes and talk to the women one floor down and see them."

Said Gene Borrello, "a former mob enforcer who spent time in the unit," quoted in "Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs housed in low-security jail dorm alongside Sam Bankman-Fried — where inmates can spy on female convicts: sources" (NY Post).