Pretty people are nice; unattractive people are bad. At least, that‘s what our fairy tales signal, and what our secret lizard brains have always thought. A prime example of pretty=good; ugly=bad is “Cinderella.” Our contemporary Walt Disney version of Cinderella portrays the stepmother and stepsisters as ugly, as grotesque. And they are mean indeed. Our pink-cheeked heroine is beautiful inside and out.

Lucasville, Ohio, is 'celebrating' its infamous riot of 20 years ago. Now, guard union leader says, history might indeed repeat itself. Budget cuts and privatizing prisons are returning prisons to the dismal conditions of the 80s, say union leaders. They are worried about staff safety if things get ugly again. Human rights observers are also worried about possible violence.

Gov. Brown has decided it's the prisons that need less money. (really?) He's prepared to go to the wall to end federal oversight and stop money going into repairing prison conditions. Apparently, the federal courts are willing to meet him at that wall with an injunction.

After a state investigation, Corrections Corporation of America admitted that employees had overcharged Idaho for man hours. CCA operates Idaho's largest prison; CCA officials acknowledged Thursday that its employees falsified nearly 4,800 hours of staffing records over seven months last year in violation of its contract with the state.

Fov. Brown stands behind legal definition of prison cruelty and inhumane conditions, saying, "the constitutional standard is deliberate indifference and as far as I know there is nobody deliberately indifferent to the health needs of the California prisoners."

Someone got hold of Corrections Corporation of America's newsletters to stockholders, and created a slide show of information/advice to the shareholders. This business is growing and expects to grow even more. In these slides, you'll see how they are paying for influence in high places, how they have stock-piled beds etc for the future expansions.

"The neglect here is almost unimaginable—and it’s not just neglect from the Beckley staff but from the world itself—the world that has carried on with its daily business while keeping all these men invisibly deposited elsewhere, in a slew of the nation’s most obscure corners. On the outside, you can think about prison for a moment and then you can think about something else. Inside, it’s every moment. It’s impossible to ignore