European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday september 12, 1989 the stars and stripes Page 3 prison population up by record 7.3% in first half of 1989 Washington a the number of inmates in . Prisons jumped by a record 7.3 percent during the first half of1989 to a total of 673.565 inmates the Bureau of Justice statistics said. The six month increase of 46.004 in mates was higher than any increase re corded for a full year during the 64 year that the government has counted prison ers the Bureau said sunday. The largest annual increase Ever re corded was in 1981-82, when the nation Al prison population grew by 41,060 in mates from 344,283 to 385.343. Said Tom Hester a Bureau spokesman. The surge in prison population during the first half of 1989 was brought about by increases of 7 percent in the number of men imprisoned and 13 percent in the number of women the Bureau said. Attorney general Dick Thornburgh said the increase was an indication that More criminals Many convicted of drug related offences arc being caught and the criminal Justice system is said in a statement. People who break the Law do pay the the figures dramatize the need for Al most 1,800 new prison Beds a week the Bureau said. Congress needs to act swiftly on pics Jdant Bush s violent crime legislation which provides for the construction of More than 24,000 new Feder Al prison Beds Thornburgh said. The National drug control strategy announced by Bush last tuesday was Simi Lar to the crime legislation the president called for in May while seeking $1.2 Bil lion in 1990 budget authorization for additional Federal prison space. Most of the increase from dec. 31.1988, to june 30, 1989, occurred in the state prison systems where the Popula Tion grew by 41,214, or 7.1 percent from 577,633 at the end of 1988 to 618,847 atthe end of june. During the same period the Federal prison population expanded by 4,790, a 9.7 percent increase from 49,928 to 54,718.during the six month period nine jurisdictions reported double digit grow thin their inmate populations Rhode is land 20.3 percent South Dakota 19.9percent Connecticut 18.4 percent Utah 13.2 percent the District of co Lumbia 12.1 percent Idaho 11.3 per cent Mississippi 10.6 percent Missouri,10.4 percent and Kentucky 10.2 per states experienced declines in prison populations Tennessee was Down 2.3 percent and North Dakota Down 2.1 percent. And Texas had such Small increase Only 2 prisoners More that the change was listed As 0 1980, the number of slate and Federal prisoners serving sentences of More than one year known As sentenced prisoners More than doubled from 315,974, while four slates recorded a tripling of such inmates California new Hampshire Alaska and new Jersey. An additional 25 states and the District of Columbia doubled their prison , the number of sentenced prisoners As of june 30 was 260 per , with 18 of them in Federal Orisons and 242 in state institutions. On dec. 31, 1980, there were 139 sentenced prisoners per 100,000 population the Bureau said. Skating on thin ice just wait till i get you Back on a Burly soviet Duncing skating Bear seems to he telling come Dianne climb Antoshka who is trying her Best to insult him during a break in the Moscow state circus show at Cologne West Germany. Giving support to the Star Bear who found himself tired out from the strenuous skating is popular circus performer Gennady Budul by. Popular biking Bandit winds up tour de finance by the i of Angeles times Paris they finally caught the bicycling Bank robber of the Loire Valley a couple of weeks ago after his exploits nine successful Bank robberies before he was nabbed on a 10th attempt entertained France for More than six months. Even the motive for his crimes satisfied the tradition of French crime. No need to Che Chez la soon after his capture during a heist at a Bank in the Little town of Les Herb ices in the Vendee Region Jean Jacques Guillon 28, who once used the name of a popular cheese As his alias reportedly told police he had done it All for love. I m sure it was the girl said a woman who identified herself As Guillon s Stepmother at the Small family farm near Chiron a wine growing town in the Loire Valley. He started seeing her about two years ago. Shelved about 70 Kilometres 42 Miles away. They were planning to live another report in one of the regional newspapers suggested that the 6-foot-3, 230-Pound Guillon de scribed by his Rugby coach at the Chiron sporting club As a gentle giant May have been trying to raise Money to save his father s struggling farm. Either Way it was a Good tale for the French in May reporters for the newspaper nou pc Lac Republic que do Centre quest began tracking the bicycling Bank robber s holdups. One reporter dubbed him the ecologist armed robber because he did no waste any Fossil fuels while committing his crimes. Another journalist mimicking the breathless sport jargon used to describe the annual tour de France bicycle race described the series of robberies As differ ent stages of a rigorous athletic test he set a tortuous Pace but at each staging Point the record fell. Twenty thousand francs Here 50,000 francs there. But the yellow Jersey the shirt worn bythe leading rider in the tour do France race finally went to a Little savings and loan in the town of mlle 430,000 i be never seen anything like it the chief investigator assigned to the Case said admiringly. One Job and he gets 430,000 francs $70,000 something usually achieved by professional in each robbery the system was the same. The target was a Small Bank or savings institution in a Small Tow with streets and alleys too narrow for automobiles to give Chase. Always dressed in a Blue jacket and a Blue ski Cap and carrying a Blue plastic bag hence one of his nicknames be grand Bleu or the big Blue the robber would enter the Bank and wait patiently in line for his turn at the Teller window. Sometimes he would inquire about opening an account giving the pseudonym Gerard to Blocton. Rob Lockhon is a famous French cheese but As one writer pointed out haughtily not a Blue cheese which would have fitted in better with his color scheme. Finally he would pull out a revolver and demand Al the Money in the till. Money stuffed in his Blue bag. He would Back out of the Bank and mount his faithful Bike not a fancy Multi car racing machine but a Clunky common vehicle with a Bell and hand brakes. Peddling furiously he would beat his Retreat on narrow Street Load the Bike into his car which bore phony License plates and drive away. Police had nary a clue to his identity except for blurred photograph taken by a hidden camera at one of his latest targets. Coincidentally police had been Isles Herb ices a few Days before showing the photo to tellers who recognized the la grand Bleu almost immediately after he crossed the threshold. Alerted by the tellers two local police officers arrived but needed the help of two passing firefighters to disarm the Holdup Man. On thursday Guillon was taken before a magistrate in la Roche sur Yon for a preliminary hearing. The chronicled exploits of the bicycle Bank robber have provided a summer of diversion for the vacation ing French. At the end they were being compared to those of the 19th-Century literary character roam Bole a rogue and a daring thief created by author Pierre Ponson do to Trail. File on Ira suspects reportedly disappears Belfast Northern Ireland a an intelligence file containing photographs names and addresses of nine Ira suspects is missing from a British army base in North pm Ireland press association reported sunday. The British Domestic news Agency said army chiefs fear that the confidential file might have been obtained by protestant extremists who used another Security document to select and kill a roman Catholic Man. Police Are questioning several men in the slaying Oloughlin Maginn 38, who was killed last month by gunmen who smashed their Way into his Home a Rathfriland county Down. A protestant group the outlawed Ulster Freedom fighters claimed responsibility for the killing and said Maginn was slain because he was a member of the Irish Republican army. To support its claim it produced a stolen Security file that indicated Maginn Wasa suspected Ira member or supporter. Maginn s family firmly denied he was a member of the outlawed Ira a predominantly roman Catholic organi in the new Case of missing documents the confidential file disappeared from the Ballykinlar army Camp in county Down according to press said the file vanished last week after it was re turned by an army officer who had taken it out to study intelligence information on Ira suspects. Press association did not give the source of its information
