Latest news with #incarcerated
Yahoo
04-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Dear Abby: My girlfriend cheated on me with my brother — right before I went to prison
DEAR ABBY: I have been incarcerated for 21 months. I stay in contact with my immediate family, except for my brother. I suspect that he slept with my girlfriend a couple of weeks before I came to prison, although I'm not 100% sure. He tells our family members that it isn't true and that he wants me to reach out. But I don't know if I can until I'm completely sure he didn't do it. Do you have any advice? — LOCKED UP IN DELAWARE DEAR LOCKED UP: You are locked away with little but your suspicions to keep you company. Under these circumstances, I can see how they might grow. Why do you think your brother did this? What 'vibes' did you pick up on before you left? If you really think your girlfriend would do something like this, why do you still consider her your girlfriend? If she was unfaithful before you were incarcerated, what makes you think she is any different now? You have no proof that either of them did anything. You should definitely talk to your brother and your girlfriend about your suspicions. If you do, perhaps they can put them to rest. DEAR ABBY: I enjoy keeping up with family and friends on Facebook, but I have two uncles whose political posts have become increasingly extreme. Their messages are filled with anger and hate. I hoped things would calm down after the election, but their rhetoric has intensified. I have unfriended others who shared similar views, but I am hesitant to do the same with family. I've tried 'snoozing' them for 30 days at a time, but when they return, the posts are even more upsetting. I'm deeply offended by some of what they write. Is it OK to unfriend family? And, if they notice and confront me, how should I respond? — DIFFERENT IN TEXAS DEAR DIFFERENT: You are not obligated to read anything that upsets you. This includes items posted by relatives. You can simply unfollow them without unfriending them. But Facebook does not notify anyone that they have been unfriended, so feel free to eliminate them from your feed if you'd like. If, by chance, they should confront you about it, be honest about your reason without being combative. DEAR ABBY: I am getting married in six months and hosting a relatively small wedding (80 guests). My fiance and I recently received a save-the-date for a college friend's wedding. It's set to take place two weeks after ours. We will be on our honeymoon at that time and unable to attend. We were not originally planning to invite this couple to our wedding but now feel that we must invite them in order to explain that we'll be on our honeymoon during theirs. We did not send them a save-the-date card. What is the best way to approach this? We have limited space and budget, so adding two people is not easy. — OTHERWISE ENGAGED IN NEW YORK DEAR OTHERWISE ENGAGED: You are not obligated to invite this couple to your wedding. Write them a sweet note explaining that you are sorry you won't be able to attend because you will be on your honeymoon at that time. That's all you have to do. However, it would be nice if you sent them a small gift to be delivered at the time of their wedding along with warm wishes that they enjoy a lifetime of happiness together. Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dwyane Wade Calls Letters From Incarcerated Mom ‘Greatest Pen Pal'
Dwyane Wade Calls Letters From Incarcerated Mom 'Greatest Pen Pal' originally appeared on Parade. Former NBA starDwyane Wade, who recently co-hosted the Today Show with Jenna & Friends, is opening up about the sweet way he connected with his incarcerated mom. Wade, a three-time NBA champion, got real about his mom's stint in prison during a sidewalk interview courtesy of TMZ Sports. On the Today Show, former Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade's mom, Jolinda Wade, joined him for a segment in which she reflected on exchanging letters with her son while she was in jail and on the special bond they share.A fan caught up with D-Wade the following day, explaining she has an incarcerated parent with whom she also exchanges letters. Wade was candid about what that correspondence meant to him—and to his mom—during her time in jail. He said, 'It was the greatest pen pal that I've ever had. To be able to, like you know, have a connection still to my mind, you know, even though she wasn't there in the physical, we still had a connection. We still shared things, right, and so she was still there for me. And I knew that she was going to get out, and so I just wanted to be there for her as much as I could.' The Cube host also shared that he still reflects on those letters from his mom, stating, 'I still have the letters, so I go back and I read them sometimes, you know, to see like no matter where you go in life, you always gotta go back. You got to take a look you know and appreciate it right now.' Fans were touched by Wade's humble take, with one writing, 'How can you not love this guy?' while another shared, 'This is making my heart melt with joy.'Jolinda Wade, was arrested in 1994 for possession of crack cocaine. She is thought to have served anywhere from nine to fourteen months before entering a work-release program. While there, Jolinda fled and lived as a fugitive for several years before eventually turning herself in and completing her sentence. 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 Dwyane Wade Calls Letters From Incarcerated Mom 'Greatest Pen Pal' first appeared on Parade on Jul 17, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 17, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
TechCrunch
24-07-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Preston Thorpe is a software engineer at a San Fransisco startup. He's also serving his eleventh year in prison.
If you omit some key details, all Preston Thorpe has to do to become a senior software engineer at a promising tech company is walk through the door. For about six months, Thorpe was a prolific volunteer contributor to an open-source project led by database company Turso. His work was impressive enough that Turso's CEO, Glauber Costa, quickly offered him a job. That was also when Costa realized that Thorpe is anything but an ordinary programmer. 'I checked his GitHub profile, and he mentions the fact that he is incarcerated,' Costa told TechCrunch. 'It's a story I've never seen before.' It's true: Thorpe is serving his 11th year in prison for drug-related crimes. Still, he has worked full-time from his cell at a venture-funded, San Fransisco-based startup since May. 'I reached out to him in January, just to understand and get to know him,' Costa said. 'Since then, I've had deep conversations with him about his change of heart that led him to be in the position where he is today […] Knowing his story increased our respect for him personally.' Thorpe is part of an experimental program in the Maine state prison system that allows incarcerated people to work remote jobs from custody. Though unconventional, these opportunities have proven immensely rehabilitative. Kicked out of his home as a teenager, Thorpe resorted to selling drugs that he bought from the dark web, and ended up in prison by the time he was 20. He got out a few years later, but with no money to his name and nowhere safe to live, he was arrested again 14 months later. 'I was a complete idiot,' Thorpe told TechCrunch over a video call from prison. 'I had given up on my life, completely written it off, and just accepted that this was my life and just had no hope.' Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW Second chances Thorpe had given up, but chance had different plans. He was transferred from a prison in New Hampshire to the Mountain View Correctional Facility in Maine just before the pandemic struck, allowing him to rekindle hope anew. 'When I came to Maine, it was completely different,' he reminisced. 'COVID happened right after I came up here, and it just gave me a chance — there was no one around that I felt like I had to act or prove myself to. It was just me. I actually felt like maybe it's not over; maybe I could actually end up having a normal life. I had this kind of epiphany: 'I'm going to make something of myself.'' At the Mountain View prison, Thorpe earned his degree remotely from the University of Maine at Augusta. Around the same time, Colby College wanted to hire one of its incarcerated graduate students to be an adjunct professor. It was an unconventional proposal, but the Maine Department of Corrections Commissioner, Randall Liberty, felt like taking a risk. 'After consideration, I allowed that to happen, and over time, it's been very successful,' Commissioner Liberty told TechCrunch. 'His students are able to come visit him at the prison, and he can tour them around. It provides for a real diversity of opinions, thoughts, and backgrounds. It makes for a rich environment to learn.' Preston Thorpe Image Credits:Preston Thorpe Now, about 30 inmates, counting Thorpe, are employed while living in the Earned Living Unit, a less restrictive prison facility for inmates who have exhibited a long track record of good behavior. All inmates with remote jobs surrender 10% of their pay to the state, plus any other payments that may be required for restitution, legal fees, or child support. 'Maine has been a real groundbreaker in this area,' Haley Shoaf, co-executive director of Unlocked Labs, told TechCrunch. Unlocked Labs, where Thorpe worked prior to Turso, hires incarcerated and formerly incarcerated engineers to make educational software for use in prisons. '[Maine] put all this infrastructure in place during COVID to allow for remote education, and then once that infrastructure was in place, all of a sudden, it expanded the amount of opportunities people could take advantage of,' Shoaf said. Rehabilitation done right Commissioner Liberty has worked in law enforcement for 43 years, but it was only after he served in Iraq that his approach to rehabilitation began to shift. 'When I came back, it gave me a heightened sense of understanding post-traumatic stress and trauma, and all of that plays into corrections,' Commissioner Liberty told TechCrunch. 'I began to see the detrimental effects of just the trauma of incarceration, of segregation.' While he was the warden of the Maine State Prison – the same prison where he visited his father when he was a child – Commissioner Liberty began implementing programs that address the root causes of crime: substance use disorders, untreated mental health issues, educational deficits, and the like. 'I have to be able to explain this to people on the right and the left,' Commissioner Liberty said. 'When they hear that Preston is making the kind of money he makes, their jaw drops. And I say to them, 'If you truly care about making the community safer, if you care about being fiscally responsible, if you care about victims and survivors in the community, this is the way to make them whole.'' The United States criminal justice system is plagued by recidivism, or former prisoners' return to custody after they have been released. Repeat offending creates a financial burden on the state and its taxpayers. But Commissioner Liberty has the data to show it's well worth the effort and investment to expand access to education and addiction treatment. 'It's very short-sighted, ridiculous to lock them up and release them more traumatized than when they arrived, right?' Commissioner Liberty said. 'Many states have 60% return to custody rates. In Maine, we hover between 21% to 23% for males; women return at a rate of 9%. And if you attend college classes in Maine, you come back at a rate of 0.05% – you don't come back at all.' Commissioner Liberty has also found that under his purview, Maine prisons have become less violent. Last year, a maximum security prison in Maine saw only 7 assaults on prison staff, a dramatic improvement from 87 assaults in 2017. 'When you treat people like people, they become the best version of themselves,' Shoaf said. Thorpe himself is evidence that Commissioner Liberty's toils are proving successful. The software engineer takes full responsibility for his criminal history, but he feels like a changed man. 'It's like waking up from a dream, me from five years ago,' Thorpe said. 'All the memories I have of the streets and why I came to prison, it doesn't even feel like it happened to me. It feels like it happened to someone else.' Over the last three years, Thorpe says he has spent most of his waking hours online, learning everything he can about programming. 'He was doing this partially because he likes it, but also because he saw in this an opportunity to be seen. And he was right,' Costa said. In the open source community, where developers often can't put a face to a Discord or GitHub profile, Thorpe was treated like any other contributor. It was the first time in over a decade that he was able to strike a first impression as himself – a Linux-obsessed engineer who's interested in relational databases – and not as a criminal. 'The worst part about prison is that you assume this identity [of a criminal],' Thorpe said. 'Letting someone have a career gives you purpose.'
New York Times
22-07-2025
- New York Times
Prisoners' Phone Calls Will Soon Be Free in New York State
New York will make phone calls free for incarcerated people starting next month, lifting a financial burden for the loved ones of the state's more than 30,000 prisoners. It will join five other states and New York City, all of which have moved in recent years to adopt similar policies. But the change by New York State is not being accomplished legislatively; instead, it is a result of negotiations between the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and its telecom provider. Beginning August 1, the department will pay the provider, Securus Technologies, 1.5 cents per minute for the calls, which the agency described as one of the lowest rates in the country, and spend $9 million on the initiative this year. Currently, the state's prisoners receive up to three free calls per week, each lasting up to 15 minutes. Calls beyond that cost 2.4 cents per minute plus service fees, which the state does not now cover. Daniel F. Martuscello III, the agency's commissioner, said phone calls created a safer environment in prisons and prepared incarcerated people for life on the outside. 'We have to provide them with services that return them to society as productive members, as mothers, fathers, husbands, wives,' he said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Washington Post
26-06-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
New Mexico announces measles outbreak in a county detention facility
Five people who are incarcerated at a New Mexico county detention facility have measles, the state health department said Thursday. The Luna County Detention Center, located in the southwest New Mexico city of Deming, houses about 400 incarcerated people and has 100 staff members. State health officials say they are determining the vaccination status of people being held at the facility and are providing testing kits and equipment.
