At the pace surveillance technology is moving, we guess this should be expected.

On Tuesday, Gov. Cuomo and Co. informed the public that Albany has been using advanced facial recognition methods for the past three years (the idea was originally brought up by then-Gov. Spitzer in 2008).

And, in that time, the State has dispatched more than 100 investigators to check out over 13,000 cases. As a result, 2,500 people on the terrorist watch lists or who were suspected of having criminal records have been arrested through the technology. Somehow, from those figures, state officials have bragged that the technology has a 94 percent success rate.

Also, don't forget those conning welfare benefits or driving illegally without a license: "We are successfully taking dangerous drivers off our roads, helping to track down criminals, and protecting taxpayer dollars... sending a clear message that New York State does not tolerate identity fraud and those who try will be caught," Cuomo told reporters.

Here's how it works.

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Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes is defending himself against charges that his office railroaded three men exonerated of violent crimes and released from custody over the past year.

In an interview with The New York Times, Hynes [pictured with aide Michael Vecchione] insists that his office got it right in the cases of William Lopez, Jabbar Collins, and Ronald Bozeman. The long-serving DA is facing a potentially tough reelection battle in November, and one issue in the race has been the wrongly convicted.

One case involved William Lopez, who served 22 years in prison based on the word of a crack-addicted prostitute who recanted her claims. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis ordered his release, writing, "The case of William Lopez began 23 years ago. It was rotten from Day 1." Garaufis added, "The prosecutor's evidence was flimsy to begin with and has since been reduced to rubble by facts arising after trial."

The most shocking thing about the conviction of Lopez might be that Hynes' office fought his release for well over a decade after the prostitute recanted verbally and in writing three times.

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Rajat Gupta, a key player in one of the biggest insider trading scandals in memory, helped his business partner/friend Raj Rajaratnam (at right), earned multiple millions of dollars and avoid losses. As a board member for Goldman Sachs, he leaked confidential information repeatedly over a period of years.

In 2008, for example, he told Rajaratnam, the president of the Galleon Group, that the board had approved a $5 billion investment by Berkshire Hathaway, and later that year, that Goldman was losing money for the quarter.

And his prison sentence? 20 years? 10 years? Nope. Just two years, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney's office. He still has to pay a $5 million fine.

Rajaratnam was sentenced in October, 2011 to 11 years in prison and fined $63 million.

The New York Civil Liberties Union recently released a report outlining the "inhumane, arbitrary use of solitary confinement" in New York state prisons.

Included in the report are handwritten letters from several inmates placed in segregated housing (solitary confinement) for various -- in many cases non-violent -- reasons. The letters describe what life is like for those locked in a cage for 23 hours a day.

The Voice will be publishing several of the letters in a series called Letters From the Hole.

Today's inmate: Billy has been in segregated housing for more than 25 years. According to the NYCLU, he's not there because he's broken any specific rules, but because the Department of Corrections considers him to be a threat -- and he might break the rules. 

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Jen Ackerman's Trapped: Mental Illness In America's Prisons

This is one of several photos from a series on mental illness within the prison system by photographer Jen Ackerman.

The New York Civil Liberties Union recently released a report outlining the "inhumane, arbitrary use of solitary confinement" in New York state prisons.

Included in the report are handwritten letters from several inmates placed in segregated housing (solitary confinement) for various -- in many cases non-violent -- reasons. The letters describe what life is like for those locked in a cage for 23 hours a day.

The Voice will be publishing several of the letters in a series called Letters From the Hole.

Today's inmate: Stefan, a prisoner at Southport Correctional Facility who was given six months in isolation for a fistfight at a different facility. Stefan received an additional 16 months in isolation after he tested positive for marijuana.

In July, Stefan claims prison officials denied him his son's report card, which was mailed to him but confiscated by prison officials. He says he needs the report card in order to perform his "fatherly role...given the circumstances."

According to Stefan, prison staff showed no interest in even acknowledging his grievance.

See his letter below.

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The New York Civil Liberties Union released a report yesterday detailing the "inhumane, arbitrary use of solitary confinement" in New York state prisons. Based on the report, the group is now calling for drastic reforms in how the New York State Department of Corrections deals with inmates in segregated housing units, where prisoners are often kept alone in their cells for 23 hours a day.

The DOC has since responded to the report, and while Commissioner Brian Fischer defends the need for segregated housing units, he says his office already has launched a review of the DOC's policies when it comes to solitary confinement.

"As society removes those individuals who commit crimes, so too must we remove from general population inmates who violate the Department's code of conduct and who threaten the safety and security of our facilities," Fischer says in a statement the DOC provided to the Voice. "The possession of drugs, cell phones, and weapons pose a serious threat within this and any other prison system."

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www.icanhazcheeseburger.com

It's not easy to feel a great deal of sympathy for many of the convicted criminals locked away in New York's prisons, we know. But a new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union might just conjure up at least some compassion.

Then again, maybe it won't -- they're still criminals.

Regardless, the NYCLU released a report this morning detailing the "inhumane, arbitrary use of solitary confinement" in New York state prisons. One of the more compelling anecdotes found in the report is the story of one particular inmate who's been locked away in solitary confinement for more than 20 years.

"Extreme isolation is one of the most extreme forms of punishment one human can force on another, and in New York State it is often a disciplinary tool of first resort," NYCLU legal fellow Scarlet Kim says. "People spend weeks, months and even years cut off from human interaction and rehabilitative services for non-violent, minor misbehavior. The process for determining who is sent to extreme isolation is arbitrary - there is virtually no guidance or limitations on who can be sent to extreme isolation, for what reasons, or for how long."

As outlined in the report, titled Boxed In: The True Cost of Extreme Isolation in New York's Prisons, more than 8 percent of New York's prison population is held in isolation at any given time.

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nypost.com

Nunez fleeing the scene of the murders.

On the evening of June 7th, three men - Luis Catalan, 25; Heriberto Suazo, 26; and Amaury Rodriguez, 30 - were found dead inside a stolen $88,000 BMW on 122nd Street and Claremont Avenue, just on the outskirts of the Columbia University campus. 
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If you have been following the story of Nechemya Weberman, an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man accused of being a child molester, you might have thought that it sounds all too familiar.

Weberman, 53, had been working as an unlicensed therapist in the uber-insular community. One of his patients, a young girl who attended "sessions intended to promote her religious practice," accused him of sexually assaulting her beginning when she was 12, according to the New York Times. The community has rallied behind him, it seems, with thousands attending a fundraiser for his legal defense Wednesday evening and a mere hundred people protesting in defense of the victim, who has been lambasted as a "liar."

Rewind to May 2011. The Voice detailed a similar saga taking place in El Barrio: Juan Caceres, a prominent leader of the Mexican community, had been convicted of repeatedly raping his own daughter. Instead of rallying behind her, they publicly villified her.

The Voice wanted to get a better understanding of why this shaming takes place. So we reached out to Grace Perez. She has worked as a sex abuse and domestic violence victims advocate in the New York metropolitan area for some 30 years and organizes the annual Brides March. What did she say?

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NY1

George Villanueva

When 43-year-old George Villanueva pushed a cop at his apartment last year, he probably didn't expect the officer to die. He probably didn't think it could land him in the hoosegow for the next three decades, either. But it might.

Villanueva was convicted of first-degree aggravated manslaughter today after fatally pushing NYPD Officer Alain Schaberger off a stairwell at his Brooklyn apartment in March of last year (he was found not guilty of a murder charge, which could have landed him in prison for life). He's now looking at more than 30 years in prison when he's sentenced later this month.

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