The State of Washington has consistently failed to provide timely competency evaluations and restoration services to defendants facing criminal charges. Despite years of litigation, injunctions, consent decrees, and contempt fines ranging into the hundreds of millions, problems persist unabated. With mentally ill detainees languishing in jails untreated and unable to ...

When government agencies—including corrections departments—enter contracts with private companies, they typically go through a competitive bidding process, beginning with a Request for Proposals (RFP). This ensures that taxpayers have access to information used to award government contracts, providing a level of fiscal responsibility. However, the Mississippi Department of Corrections (DOC), ...

In an opinion filed on August 26, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit dismissed an appeal by the Sheriff of Louisiana’s Orleans Parish, who sought to halt construction of a mental health annex for detainees at the Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) that was ordered under a ...

In an essay for Filter Magazine published on February 10, 2025, openly gay Tennessee prisoner Tony Vick made a surprising admission: He consistently identifies himself as “straight” in annual classification hearings conducted under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), 42 U.S.C. ch. 147, § 15601 et seq. The reason, he added, ...

The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (NMFOG) has filed an enforcement complaint under the state Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) against the Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners, seeking release of video and other records from the County’s Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), as well as a declaration whether MDC ...

Former Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) Warden Randall Hepp took a deal before his sentencing on April 28, 2025, accepting a $500 fine in exchange for his no-contest plea to a misdemeanor charge of violating state and county institution laws. The deal allowed the now-retired prison official to avoid any ...

The federal Department of Justice (DOJ) canceled some $5 million in funding to the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice on April 4, 2025. The decision to end the five multiyear grants to the criminal justice nonprofit was emailed that day and “effective immediately,” Vera reported.

The cuts affected programs ...