Jail

Lenny Dykstra, the troubled ex-Phillies star, is expected to be released from a California prison Sunday, 15 months into his three-year term, according to sources. Dykstra, 50, pleaded no contest in October 2011 to three grand theft auto charges and one count of filing a false financial report, the latest in a series of downfalls in a tragic slide. After attending a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, he was sentenced to three years in prison on March 5, 2012. "I was surprised they let him out before the three years, to be quite frank with you," said Christopher Frankie, author of Nailed: The Improbable Rise and Spectacular Fall of Lenny Dykstra . "Because he blatantly disobeyed the court, and a lot of the stuff was very brazen.

A Camden County inmate with a history of incarceration violence was charged yesterday with killing his cell mate. Joel Seidel, 65, of Cherry Hill, was found in his cell in the jail's mental health wing shortly before 8 a.m. Seidel died from multiple blunt trauma injuries to his head and body after allegedly being choked, beaten and stomped by Marvin Lister, 35, one of his two cell mates, according to Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P....

SHE IS: Madeline Arrington SHE DOES: Housing rehab SHE SUCCEEDS: Through determination At first, Madeline Arrington wasn't sure she wanted it mentioned in the newspapers that before taking on her current post as an apartment building manager, she spent time in jail. But, on second thought, Arrington decided she had important messages to get out: About how quickly your life can fall apart. About picking up the pieces of your life and starting again. In 1982, Arrington, then 39 years old, a single mother of two daughters, then aged 18 and 9, made what turned out to be a fateful decision.

TRENTON New Jersey Superior Court's appellate division declined Thursday to order a temporary halt to the closure of the Gloucester County jail, scheduled for July 1. The decision came in response to a May 9 lawsuit filed by New Jersey's public defenders who said that closing the jail and moving inmates to Burlington, Salem, Cumberland, and Essex counties would make it more difficult for them to visit and effectively represent their clients....

Ask historian David Kimball about jails, and he'll be blunt. In 34 years with the National Park Service, most of that time in Philadelphia, he never had much to do with them. And the history of penology - the theory and practice of prison management and criminal rehabilitation - never was and isn't now of much interest to him. Except, of course, if he can get specific about one jail in particular. And Burlington County officials are more than happy to let him do so. That one jail is the Burlington County Prison Museum in Mount Holly, where Kimball, who retired from the Park Service in 1987, has spent the last two years breathing new life into the volunteer organization that keeps the 171- year-old building running.

In the wake of a recent jailhouse suicide in Darby Borough, Police Chief Robert F. Smythe has proposed that a video monitoring system be installed in the cell block at the jail. Smythe last week asked the Borough Council for $1,200 to purchase three cameras, three monitors and lenses. The cameras would be installed above the three cells in the jail. The cameras will give turnkeys on duty the ability to see most of the holding space in the jail at all times. Smythe said that because of the way the jail was constructed, the cameras would provide monitoring for only about 95 percent of the cell space.

RE MICHAEL Harmon's Aug. 25 letter: Paul Nolan's original letter suggested putting the criminals in jail. Michael disagreed, saying jail isn't the answer because if you lock up the fathers, the children won't be able to learn how to be a man. Should criminals be allowed to beat the system and stay home to teach their sons to do the same? If so, where will the crime and violence end? How about this: Stop breaking the law! That would be a step in the right direction. I'm so tired of hearing people cry "racial profiling" and how "it's the black man being arrested.

The Gloucester County Jail in Woodbury has about 230 doors, according to Undersheriff Edwin Erickson. About 60 of them don't work. That is not a serious problem, said Erickson, and it is being worked on now. The problem, according to Erickson, is a crowded field of candidates for sheriff, some of whom have seized on the doors as an issue in the campaign. Erickson, one of four candidates for the June 7 Democratic primary, said, "We have so many people that want to become sheriff and are trying to get attention by finding fault with the conditions here.

The 65-year-old Germantown woman broke up laughing at her manslaughter sentencing yesterday. Dorothy Barbara Muse reacted with joy when she was told she'd have to remain behind bars for only another six or eight months before being released. "Oh, all right," smiled Muse to Common Pleas Judge William J. Mazzola. Mazzola sentenced Muse, formerly of Wakefield Street near Ashmead, to 11/2 to 5 years in jail plus five years' probation for killing her neighbor during a dispute inside their apartment building on Aug. 16, 1998.

Going to jail has been a new experience for most of the protesters. But for Maryann Yorina, a 50-year-old homemaker from West Wyoming, Pa., it was her third trip to prison this year. She had spent six days in an Atlanta prison and four more in a Florida jail after participating in anti-abortion protests this year, she said. On Nov. 30, she added Chester County Prison to the list. Yorina was one of 591 protesters arrested July 5 after they demonstrated, in violation of a 1984 court order, at the Women's Suburban Clinic in Paoli.

TERRELL OWENS visited his old buddy Chad Johnson in Broward County, Fla., jail Saturday and shared the details with his Twitter followers. Owens and Johnson were Cincinnati Bengals teammates in 2010. "Just visited the homie @ochocinco. He's in good spirits, he needs a haircut already tho. Lol. He sends his best regards to everyone," Owens wrote. Johnson's plea deal was first accepted, then rejected last week when Johnson gave his attorney a pat on the backside, resulting in a 30-day jail sentence for violating his probation from his no-contest plea last year to battery on his then-wife, Evelyn Lozada.

TRENTON New Jersey Superior Court's appellate division declined Thursday to order a temporary halt to the closure of the Gloucester County jail, scheduled for July 1. The decision came in response to a May 9 lawsuit filed by New Jersey's public defenders who said that closing the jail and moving inmates to Burlington, Salem, Cumberland, and Essex counties would make it more difficult for them to visit and effectively represent their clients....

Lenny Dykstra, the troubled ex-Phillies star, is expected to be released from a California prison Sunday, 15 months into his three-year term, according to sources. Dykstra, 50, pleaded no contest in October 2011 to three grand theft auto charges and one count of filing a false financial report, the latest in a series of downfalls in a tragic slide. After attending a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, he was sentenced to three years in prison on March 5, 2012. "I was surprised they let him out before the three years, to be quite frank with you," said Christopher Frankie, author of Nailed: The Improbable Rise and Spectacular Fall of Lenny Dykstra . "Because he blatantly disobeyed the court, and a lot of the stuff was very brazen.

Today on PhillyDailyNews.com : Explore an interactive timeline of Richard DeCoatsworth's rise and fall. FORMER "HERO COP" Richard DeCoatsworth has been mistreated by jail guards since being arrested last month on charges of sexually assaulting two women and assaulting a third, his attorney said during a bail hearing yesterday. The lawyer, L. George Parry, alleged that: DeCoatsworth, 27, was not allowed to wear clothing during his first week at the detention center; he's being housed in isolation; a female guard once called him a "dirty rapist" and refused to feed him; other guards have also been "punitive"; and he is not getting his mail.

THE ALABAMA fan who poisoned Auburn's landmark oak trees at Toomer's Corner has been released from jail and cleared to leave the state. Harvey Updyke Jr. , 64, left the Lee County jail in Opelika, Ala., yesterday morning after serving 76 days following his guilty plea. Attorney Andrew Stanley said Updyke was on his way to Louisiana where he will live with his wife, Elva . "He's very sincere. He wants to go back to Louisiana and never wants to be heard from ever again," Stanley said.

Today on PhillyDailyNews.com: Explore an interactive timeline of Richard DeCoatsworth's rise and fall. UPDATE, 3:43 p.m.: Former "hero cop" Richard DeCoatsworth has been mistreated by jail guards since being arrested last month and charged with sexually assaulting two women and assaulting a third, his attorney said during a bail hearing Monday afternoon. DeCoatsworth, 27, was not allowed to wear clothing during his first week at the detention center, he's being housed in isolation, a female guard once called him a "dirty rapist" and refused to feed him, other guards have also been "punitive" and he is not getting his mail, defense attorney L. George Parry said.

If you want to understand why tens of thousands of young urban Turks have been demonstrating against their government, you need look no further than the tragic plight of Kemal Guruz. Guruz, one of Turkey's most distinguished academic reformers and the onetime head of Turkey's Higher Education Council (known as YOK), has been held without charges in a maximum-security prison for nearly a year. An indictment against him was finally issued a couple of weeks ago, but the details have not been made public nor revealed to him or his family.

CAIRO - An Egyptian court Tuesday sentenced 43 nonprofit workers, including the son of the U.S. secretary of transportation and 15 other Americans, to prison in a case against foreign-funded pro-democracy groups. All of the Americans have left the country. The ruling and jail time of up to five years deepen worries over the operations of nongovernmental organizations in Egypt as parliament considers a bill proposed by President Mohammed Morsi that critics warn will profoundly restrict their activities.

Superior Court Judge Ronald E. Bookbinder cleared the way Monday for the Gloucester County jail to be closed and its inmates to be housed as far away as Newark, N.J. The Burlington County judge turned aside a plea from New Jersey's public defenders to temporarily halt the jail's closure. Jail officials plan to start transferring inmates Monday. The jail generally houses 200 to 270 inmates, with the majority awaiting trial or pretrial hearings. The public defenders filed suit May 9 to stop the closure, arguing that they would not be able to effectively represent their clients if the inmates were not housed near the courthouse in Woodbury.

A former Chester County Prison employee who has cared for more than 50 foster children has been charged with molesting two girls in his care, both under age 10. Leroy Mitchell, 60, of West Bradford Township, was being held in prison with bail set at $500,000, the Chester County District Attorney's Office said Tuesday. Mitchell was first arrested Friday in connection with an alleged assault on a 9-year-old, officials said. A follow-up investigation led to a second set of charges involving a girl between 7 and 9, they said.