(Reuters) – The United Nations has transferred 17 convicted Somali pirates to a jail in the breakaway enclave of Somaliland, the first transfers of their kind that could help resolve a dilemma over where to hold criminals seized in international waters.

International navies have been fighting a surge of pirate attacks that have disrupted a vital shipping route off the coast of lawless Somalia and deep into the Indian ocean.

But it has long been unclear where pirates captured on the high seas should be imprisoned, particularly while Somalia itself remains locked in chaotic conflict.

The first batch of nine pirates were transferred by the United Nations from a prison in the Seychelles to Somaliland on Wednesday and another eight on Thursday following a deal signed in London last month between the leaders of the two territories.

“This prisoner transfer represents an important step forward in ensuring pirates are brought to justice,” said Britain’s Africa minister, Henry Bellingham.

Somaliland, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991, enjoys relative peace and stability, and analysts hope it might be a good site for more incarcerations in the future.

In a dusty airfield surrounded by abandoned planes and dotted with soldiers, officials from the government and the U.N. Office for Drugs and Crime watched as the nine stepped out of a plane to serve the remainder of their prison sentences.

Another flight, chartered by the United Nations with eight more convicted pirates, landed on Thursday morning.

“We sent three officers to the Seychelles to check if the pirates are who they claim. We checked through dialect and clan ties,” said Mohamed Osman, head of Somaliland’s Anti-Piracy Taskforce.

“There have been a number of assessment missions by the UK and the EU at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. We are expecting something to come of this,” Osman said.

Funding from United Nations Development Programme helped to build a prison in Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa, where the pirates are allocated a separate block away from other prisoners.

Osman said the funding, and Somaliland’s increasing usefulness in the fight against piracy, would help the enclave’s bid for international recognition of its independence.

“As long as states are reaching agreements and signing memorandums of understandings with us, that’s a clear sign of de-facto recognition,” Osman said.

Somaliland is also hoping for more funding for its own maritime police, to let it patrol its shores, particularly near Puntland, a suspected pirate haunt.

“We need nine or 10 boats so we can put three boats in each of our three sectors,” said Admiral Ahmed Osman Abdi, Commander of Somaliland Coast Guard. (Editing by Duncan Miriri and Karolina Tagaris)

 Family members and activists are seeking answers in a homeless woman’s death in a jail cell last September, after she was arrested for refusing to leave a St. Louis hospital where she had sought treatment for a sprained ankle.
An autopsy of Anna Brown revealed she had blood clots that migrated from her legs to her lungs, eventually killing her, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. There were no drugs found in her system.

Brown’s family has hired a lawyer, and Brown’s mother, Dorothy Davis, said she wants answers.

If the police killed my daughter, I want to know,” she said. “If the hospital is at fault, I want to know. I want to be able to tell her children why their mother isn’t here.”

A week before Brown’s death, she went to three hospitals complaining of leg pain. The 29-year-old, who had lost custody of her two children, refused to leave the third hospital, St. Mary’s Health Center. On Sept. 21, 2011, she was arrested for trespassing and wheeled out in handcuffs after a doctor said she was healthy enough to be locked up, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Fifteen minutes after Brown was placed in a cell, a jail worked found her dead.

Hospital officials say they did all they were supposed to do for Brown. “Our records show that, in this case, everything that should have been done medically was done properly,” according to a statement.

Acting Police Chief Maj. Roy Wright said his officers had no way of knowing Brown’s dire condition when they arrested her and removed her from the hospital.

“A lot of times people don’t want to stay in jail and will claim to be sick,” he said. “We depend on medical officials to tell us they’re OK.”

State inspectors working for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – a federal agency that regulates hospitals – interviewed St. Mary’s staff and reviewed medical records after the newspaper asked about Brown’s case.

They found that when Brown arrived at St. Mary’s around 11:45 a.m. on Sept. 20, her left ankle was swollen. She was there for about seven hours, during which ultrasounds on both of her legs were negative for blood clots.

Investigators said she returned eight hours later and was discharged at 7 a.m. the next day. Three hours later, she was still there and refusing to leave. After obtaining a “Fit for Confinement” report from a doctor at 12:30 p.m., officers took her to jail.

“My sister is not here today because people passed judgment,” said one of her siblings, Krystle Brown.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/

Anders Behring Breivik, the Norway twin attacks lunatic, may be spending his time at the worlds most luxurious modern prison. This “prison” may be considered fine living to the rest of us, complete with a recording studio, grand pianos, 54″ LCD tvs, jogging trails, and 15,000 square foot sports room.

Check out the full story by Time Magazine: Full Story

Casey Anthony’s attorney (Baez) wanted to use her parents as media decoy at the jailhouse in Orlando where she was released on Sunday. Mark Lippman, the person that represented Casey’s parents, George and Cindy Anthony, told HLN’s Jane Velez-Mitchell that he refused the request from attorney Jose Baez, on Sunday. Mark Lippman thought it was not a good idea because it would be risky and believed it would not benefit anyone.

The Examiner reported in the interview, Lippmann indicated that there has still been no further contact between Casey Anthony and her mother because of Casey’s Anthony’s attorney blocking this. Lippman did say that Casey Anthony’s mother, Cindy Anthony did want to have contact with Casey. Lippman added that he did find out from Baez that Casey Anthony is safe at an undisclosed location. She was reported to have a boarded a plane around 3 a.m. Sunday upon her release after about three years in prison.

Casey Anthony was 25 when she was sentenced to four years for lying to investigators about her 2-year-old daughter’s, Caylee, disappearance and death in 2008. Her attorneys said while in jail she had received several serious death threats and including one email that was Photoshopped of a bullet through her head. The sheriff’s department says the threats are not credible and when released she would be on her own. Since she was credited for good behavior and had already served 3 years she was released early and fined $4000. While incarcerated she obtained a few hundred dollars in donations and had no family support. After her defense, she made her mother look like a liar and made her father and brother look like abusers. After all of this, Casey Anthony whereabouts is a mystery.

For 3 years Casey claimed that Caylee was kidnapped by a nanny named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez. Caylee’s body was found six months later in a swampy area near the Anthony home. After being released Casey Anthony has to face several lawsuits, including one filed by Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, who claims Anthony cost her a house and a job and put her in the way of death threats when Casey claimed that a babysitter of the same name stole Caylee.