Prison, Corruption | featured news

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is spending his time in federal prison teaching Civil War history and learning to play the guitar, while his attorneys work on an appeal, his wife said on Friday, the one-year anniversary of the beginning of his 14-year term for corruption....

The former city leader is given a 1-year sentence, plus probation, community service and must pay $17,000 in restitution... A former Cudahy mayor was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison for his part in taking $17,000 in bribes from a man who wanted to open a medical marijuana dispensary in the city in southeast Los Angeles County.

Former Argentine finance minister Felisa Miceli is sentenced to four years in jail for corruption after about $52,000 was found in her office bathroom. A court found her guilty of covering up an allegedly illegal financial operation and of obstructing justice.

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich embraced the public spotlight one last time Wednesday, claiming on the day before he reports to prison that he always believed what he did was legal and expressing faith that an appeal of his corruption convictions will succeed....

Inmates pay to get narcotics and other contraband through deputies. Baca says guards' financial hardships are usually involved. Los Angeles County jail inmates have used corrupt guards to penetrate tight security at lockups, helping fuel a lucrative drug trade behind bars, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Times.

The mayor of Alabama's largest city is facing a federal bribery trial that could drive him from office and send him to prison if he's convicted.

R. Allen Stanford, the Texas financier accused of directing a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, complained that his jail cell often lacks light and air conditioning.

For the past week, Stanford, who's in a cell in Conroe, Texas, with from eight to 10 other men, has endured heat and intermittent lack of power when outside temperatures reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) or more, his lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said yesterday in a motion asking that his client be transferred to a downtown Houston jail.