BOISE, IDAHO - The American Civil Liberties Union sued state prison officials and a private company Thursday, claiming violence is so rampant at the Idaho Correctional Center that it's known as "gladiator school" among inmates.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit against Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America in U.S. District Court in Boise.

The lawsuit says Idaho's only private prison is extraordinarily violent, with guards deliberately exposing inmates to brutal beatings from other prisoners as a management tool.

DALLAS - Megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes says it's cheaper to rehabilitate criminals than to incarcerate them, and wants to see a shift in where state and national resources are allocated.

"I'd like to see us stop the propensity that we have today to make a big business out of incarceration," Jakes said Sunday. "I'm trying to show the benefits of rehabilitation."

He spoke moments after 150 former inmates graduated from a program designed to increase their odds of succeeding after prison. They commenced to thunderous applause at Jakes' packed 9,000-seat Dallas church, The Potter's House.

MADRID - Spain took in an inmate from Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday, the first of up to five the government is willing to host as it tries to help President Barack Obama's flagging effort to close the U.S. prison for terror suspects.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told reporters the man is Palestinian, but would not give his name or any other information, citing privacy concerns. He reiterated that Spain will take in as many as five inmates from Guantanamo, the largest commitment yet from a European country.

Prisoners will soon be bigger players in those high-stakes congressional redistricting fights, even if unwittingly, thanks to a change in federal policy governing how they are to be counted in the 2010 census.

Prison populations have historically been included in national head counts, but now census officials will make data on inmate populations available to states earlier than in the past.

This change will allow states to decide whether to count inmates for purposes of redistricting. If a state makes that choice, it would have.

london -- facebook has deleted the pages of 30 u.k. prisoners at the request of the british government, the justice minister announced thursday, after several incidents in which inmates reportedly used the internet to plot with criminals

in which british criminals have reportedly used the social networking site to communicate with conspirators and act against victims. outrage over inmates' online activities prompted justice minister jack straw to contact facebook, he told the bbc

The US has just missed a deadline to close the prison camp

A task force on the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay has advised that 47 inmates should be held indefinitely without trial, officials say.

It is thought to be the first time that officials have given a figure for those who might be held without charge.

Some 35 prisoners have been recommended for prosecution through trials or military commissions.

The convicted rapist whose Cleveland home was found littered with 10 bodies and a decomposed skull appeared in court this morning where a judge ordered him held without bond on five counts of aggravated murder.

Anthony Sowell, 50, stared straight ahead as a prosecutor deemed him an "incredibly dangerous threat to the public."

If convicted, Sowell, who appeared in court with his wrists and ankles shackled and clad in the blue paper jumpsuit worn by suicide-risk inmates, could face the death penalty.

Associated Press Writer= BURGIN, Ky. (AP) â?" Four prisoners remained hospitalized and hundreds of others had to be relocated Saturday after rioting inmates set their central Kentucky prison on fire.

Flames shot into the air during the melee Friday night, seriously damaging several buildings, and parts of the medium-security Northpoint Training Center continued to smolder nearly 24 hours later.

The 500 inmates who remained at the prison 30 miles south of Lexington were being compliant, said Jennifer Brislin, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.

BURGIN, Ky. (Aug. 22) - Four prisoners remained hospitalized and hundreds of others had to be relocated Saturday after rioting inmates set their central Kentucky prison on fire.

Flames shot into the air during the melee Friday night, seriously damaging several buildings, and parts of the medium-security Northpoint Training Center continued to smolder nearly 24 hours later.

The 500 inmates who remained at the prison 30 miles south of Lexington were being compliant, said Jennifer Brislin, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.

BURGIN, Ky. | Rioting inmates set fire to trash cans and other items inside a Central Kentucky prison, and damage to some buildings was so extensive that officials were busing many of the facility's 1,200 prisoners elsewhere, police said Saturday.

By early morning, firefighters had extinguished the fires at the medium-security Northpoint Training Center in a rural area 30 miles south of Lexington, state police Lt. David Jude said.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- The California Senate, after a highly charged debate, approved a plan Thursday to trim the state's prison population by 27,000 inmates, acting over the objections of Republican lawmakers and law enforcement groups.

The proposal is supported by the Legislature's Democratic majority and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It would let thousands of inmates be released early from state prison or avoid prison time altogether, and is intended to cut $1.2 billion from corrections spending.

CHINO, Calif. (AP) — A California state prison near Los Angeles remained on lockdown Sunday after a riot sent 55 prisoners to hospitals and injured more than 250 inmates in all, prison officials said.

As many as 80 officers responded to the riot Saturday night, which involved some 1,300 inmates in seven dormitory-style barracks at the California Institution for Men in Chino, prison spokesman Lt. Mark Hargrove said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Forty prisoners were sent to hospitals after a riot broke out at the California Institution for Men in Chino.

Prison spokesman Lt. Mark Hargrove told KTLA-TV the riot started about 8:30 p.m. Saturday. He said the situation was under control as of Sunday morning. About 80 officers responded to the riot.

Hargrove says the inmates' injuries range from stab wounds and slashes to head trauma. Some injuries were considered life-threatening.

GRAND BEACH, Mich. — One of three inmates who escaped from the Indiana State Prison has been caught in a nearby southwestern Michigan town.

Grand Beach, Mich., Police Chief Dan Schroeder tells The Associated Press that two of the inmates were spotted in the town and one of them was caught and is in custody. Schroeder did not immediately know which one was captured.

He said local and state police were searching for the other inmate spotted. He was not sure whether the third escapee was in the area, which is about eight miles from the prison.

The Filipino inmates who shot to global fame with a YouTube video of their "Thriller" dance swayed and stomped again on Saturday in a behind-bars tribute to Michael Jackson.

After being told of Jackson's death, the 1,500 inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center hit the exercise yard, practicing for nine hours Friday night — and into the wee hours of Saturday morning — for the show. They took breaks only to eat or when it rained, said professional choreographer Gwendolyn Lador, hired by the prison to teach the inmates the dance.

As fans around the world continued to mourn the death of pop icon Michael Jackson, and musicians at the Glastonbury music festival in England covered his songs in tribute, a group or prisoners in the Philippines have re-enacted their own special dance to honour the memory of their musical king.

Inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation centre in the Philippines have performed their famous version of the dance featured in Jackson’s groundbreaking Thriller film clip.

CEBU, Philippines (AP) - The Filipino inmates who shot to global fame with a Youtube video recreating the "Thriller" dance swayed and stomped again Saturday in a behind-bars tribute to their idol, Michael Jackson.

After being told of Jackson's death Thursday in Los Angeles, the 1,500 inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center hit the exercise yard, practicing for nine hours Friday night - and into the wee hours of Saturday morning - for the show. They took breaks only to eat or when it rained, said professional choreographer Gwendolyn Lador, hired by the prison to teach the inmates the dance.