Jail

DONTA CRADDOCK and Ivan Rodriguez were brought to tears Wednesday afternoon upon hearing that they had been found guilty of four counts of second-degree murder and would spend the rest of their lives in state prison. "Sorry, Mom, for letting you down and everything. Even though I'm going to be in for the rest of my life, I'm sorry," Craddock, 21, softly said from the wheelchair he has been confined to since the fatal car crash he caused while fleeing a robbery scene on June 10, 2009.

A dream had carried the boys so far from home, some 5,000 miles across the ocean to a cramped and dingy apartment in Philadelphia: a hope that ice hockey could change their lives. Ivan Pravilov could fulfill that dream, they were told. He could take them from the daily grind of post-communist Ukraine to the gleaming ice of the NHL. He'd done it before. He'd done if for Andrei Zyuzin, who went on to play for six NHL teams. He'd done it for Konstantin Kalmikov, a third-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1996.

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.

CINCINNATI - An Ohio woman who authorities say burglarized homes while her children waited in her car and used her 5-year-old son to help with break-ins has been sentenced to four years in prison. A Hamilton County Common Pleas judge sentenced Samantha Brewer, 26, yesterday in Cincinnati, saying that she might be allowed early release for drug rehabilitation. Brewer pleaded guilty to burglary, attempted burglary and child endangering. -Associated Press

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.

A Common Pleas judge improperly "constructed a debtor's prison" last month by ordering a Bucks County developer to jail for contempt of court, the developer's attorney argued at an appeal hearing Thursday before Commonwealth Court. The contempt citation and the sentence should be overturned because developer Sunder V. Isaac was cited for failing to do something he was incapable of doing - fixing hundreds of building-code violations in a Northeast subdivision built by his company, Ramex International Inc., attorney Carl Primavera said.

By Lalita Clozel   This week, former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail for using a webcam to spy on an intimate encounter between his roommate, Tyler Clementi, and another man shortly before Clementi committed suicide. Prosecutors, gay-rights advocates, and others have argued that the sentence is lenient given the charges. In fact, it's fairly harsh.   The Clementi case appears to fit a victim-vs.-bully narrative: A young, gay introvert is rudely exposed by his roommate and then jumps off a bridge.

DONTA CRADDOCK and Ivan Rodriguez were brought to tears Wednesday afternoon upon hearing that they had been found guilty of four counts of second-degree murder and would spend the rest of their lives in state prison. "Sorry, Mom, for letting you down and everything. Even though I'm going to be in for the rest of my life, I'm sorry," Craddock, 21, softly said from the wheelchair he has been confined to since the fatal car crash he caused while fleeing a robbery scene on June 10, 2009.

The real Ray-Ray was a true menace to society, a Billy-badass who never left his West Philadelphia home without a knife or a .22 pistol. The world learned about Ray-Ray during a hearing in City Council this month when Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. spoke about the student in his Overbrook High School class whom everyone feared and some reluctantly followed. The Daily News is withholding Ray-Ray's true identity at his request because his teenage son is unaware of his father's gangster past.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - An unexpectedly light 30-day jail sentence handed down Monday to Dharun Ravi, convicted in the Rutgers University webcam spying case, divided legal experts and gay activists and has the prosecution planning an appeal. Ravi, 20, of Plainsboro, N.J., was found guilty by a Middlesex County jury in March of bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, and hindering prosecution for using his laptop to secretly live-stream an intimate encounter between his Rutgers roommate, Tyler Clementi, and another man two years ago. The 18-year-old freshman committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge on Sept.

After spending 10 days in juvenile detention for an incident involving a toy gun, 12-year-old Gerald McNeal's first meal when he was released Friday was shrimp, mac and cheese and spinach. Yes, spinach. Gerald, whose favorite color is peach and whose favorite Phillies player is Vance Worley, isn't a typical 12-year-old. The incident that landed him in juvy on a felony assault charge May 8 isn't typical either. Gerald, a tall, thin, quiet boy with long lashes and even longer limbs, had taken a plastic toy gun away from his little brother Isaac, 9, and put it in his bookbag because their mother doesn't allow them to play with toy guns.

JERUSALEM - Egyptian and Palestinian officials said Sunday that they were close to reaching a deal with Israel that would end a mass hunger strike by Palestinians in Israeli jails. About 1,600 Palestinian prisoners are on strike, most for a month, but three have refused food for more than 70 days. They launched the strike to press their demands for better conditions and an end to detention without trial. An Egyptian-drafted proposal calls for Israel to move prisoners currently held in solitary confinement to regular cells, and allow families from Hamas-ruled Gaza to leave the seaside strip to visit imprisoned relatives, an Egyptian official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

Prosecutors have asked a Superior Court judge in Middlesex County, N.J., to sentence Dharun Ravi to prison for bias intimidation and a series of related charges in the Rutgers University webcam spying case. Ravi's convictions for live-streaming his gay college roommate's having an intimate encounter with a man and hindering the criminal investigation warrant jail time, First Assistant County Prosecutor Julia L. McClure argued in a 14-page memo and a supporting document filed Thursday.

JOHN GRZYMINSKI's life has gone from bad to worse. Clad in a yellow prison jumpsuit, the 50-year-old appeared before a federal magistrate Friday, after being charged with knowingly possessing unauthorized destructive devices, just a few days after cops found three pipe bombs in his Warrington home. The magistrate ordered him to remain behind bars until a hearing Tuesday to determine if should be eligible for bail. According to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in the eastern district of Pennsylvania, Grzyminski allegedly argued with his mother, Catherine Wilson, and his brother, Michael Grzyminski, when Wilson returned home Wednesday from a hospital stay for surgery.

KHARKIV, Ukraine - Yulia Tymoshenko ended a nearly three-week-long hunger strike Wednesday as the imprisoned former Ukrainian prime minister was moved from jail to a hospital for treatment of a severe back condition under the supervision of a German doctor. The news was likely to allay at least some Western concerns over Tymoshenko's health and handling in prison. EU officials and some governments from the 27-nation bloc have vowed to boycott the European Championship soccer tournament, which begins in June and is cohosted by Ukraine and Poland.

MOSCOW - Two of Russia's most prominent opposition leaders were sentenced Wednesday to 15 days in jail, while several dozen opposition activists who tried to stage a "people's stroll" through the city reportedly were detained. The sentencing of Sergei Udaltsov and Alexei Navalny came after several days of attempts by opposition activists to hold unauthorized protests against Vladimir V. Putin, who was inaugurated for a third term as Russian president on Monday. Udaltsov and Navalny were detained Sunday when participants in an authorized protest march tried to veer from their sanctioned route and head to the Kremlin.