Alaska: Alaska Department of Corrections Commissioner Nancy Dahlstrom told legislators in October 2019 that Alaska would move forward with plans to ship prisoners to prisons in the Lower 48, after reinstating tougher criminal sentences caused a sharp spike in Alaska’s prison population. The Legislature had approved more than $16 million to re-open the Palmer Correctional Facility, which closed in 2016. Nancy Dahlstrom said the re-opening was not feasible and would take too long. Representative Tammie Wilson opposed sending Alaskans “outside,” saying many “came back as gang members.” The feds reported in 2019 that the 1488s, “a violent and ‘whites only’ prison-based gang” gained a foothold through Alaska’s out-of-state prisoner program. In a January 24, 2020 reversal, the DOC announced plans to reopen Palmer Correctional Center and Dahlstrom announced a pilot re-entry program to begin in 90 days, saying, “I can’t speak to the specifics right now, because some things are still getting worked out, but it will be a pilot that I believe will be successful.”

Arizona: Two jailers, Javier Chavez and Alfredo Reyes, at ASPC Tucson – Cimarron Unit were arrested on July 25, 2019 when they showed up to work, prompting their resignations. They were booked into the Pima County Jail, charged with conspiracy to commit dangerous deadly assault on a prisoner, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and conspiracy to commit tampering with physical evidence. They were then released; no bail information was available. “Video surveillance and other evidence collected by the investigators led to the swift arrest of Chavez and Reyes,” an ADOC spokesman said. On July 24, Reyes moved the victim from his pod to another cell, where he was assaulted by prisoners. A complaint alleges neither Reyes nor Chavez activated the incident alert system for more than one hour, despite both officers admitting to knowing that the victim had been assaulted and seeing him with injuries. Further, Reyes watched two prisoners carry the unresponsive victim back to his cell. The unnamed victim suffered a hematoma on the right side of his face, a hemorrhage, multiple facial fractures and contusions.

Arkansas: In March 2019, the Arkansas Department of Correction Agricultural Division held its Eighth Annual Horse Auction, Good Homes for Good Horses, at the Saline County Fairgrounds in Benton. The sale featured 33 horses bred and raised by the department for various jobs in corrections. The Shook family purchased three AR DOC horses at the 2019 auction: Buttons, Molly, and JJ. They are thriving in their new home. The AR DOC Agricultural Division breeds the horses, which begin training at 2 years-old and DOC work at 4 years-old. The horses are cared for by department staff and prisoner trainers. Staff members believe that working with the horses is therapeutic and helps prisoners learn responsibility and patience. Buttons worked security for outside work details at Cummins, Molly did the same at the Ouachita River, and JJ was used on regional maintenance at the North Central and as a chase horse for the East Arkansas Unit K-9 Division. He also carried the American Flag in many parades. The Ninth Annual Auction will be this month.

California: In preparation for watching the Super Bowl 20 on February 2, 2020, prisoners at the at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin prepared “pruno,” a jailhouse wine made of fruit, juice, yeast and sugar. They fermented the concoction in plastic bags concealed throughout the facility in toilets and beneath the trash bags in bins. The Alameda County Sheriff’s department posted a photo of the haul on social media with the caption, “Illegally made jailhouse alcohol from fruit and juice. There will be no Super Bowl party at Santa Rita Jail tomorrow. Good work by our team on duty today.” Jailhouse wine can pose a health risk and sometimes death. Prisoners were still allowed to watch the game. Sergeant Ray Kelly said, “We’re not looking to get anyone in trouble. It’s a violation of the jail, but it’s not criminal.” Caches of jailhouse wine are discovered fairly frequently, since some minimum security prisoners work in the kitchen.

California: Jonathan Watson, 41, used a walking cane to repeatedly bludgeon convicted child molesters David Bobb, 48 and Graham De Luis-Conti, 62, causing multiple head wounds at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, and State Prison, Corcoran (SATF) on January 16, 2020. Bobb died on the way to the hospital, despite continued life-saving measures by medical staff. De Luis-Conti died three days later at an area hospital. Watson transferred into CDCR from Humboldt County in September 2009. All three were serving sentences of life with the possibility of parole. Watson’s sentence was for first-degree murder and intentionally discharging a firearm causing great bodily injury or death. SATF’s Investigative Services Unit and the Kings County Coroner’s Office are investigating the killings. A 2015 Associated Press analysis found that male sex offenders made up about 15 percent of the prison population in California, but accounted for nearly 30 percent of murder victims. Sex offender Noah Rutherford died from his injuries on February 2, 2020, two months after his cellmate attacked him at Kern Valley State.

Colorado: On June 16, three ICE prisoners escaped from the Aurora Contract Detention Facility run by GEO Group. Around noon, Amilcar Aguilar-Hernandez, 23, Douglas Amaya-Arriaga, 18, and Carlos Perez-Rodriguez, 18, scaled the fifteen-foot fence and climbed a wall, as the prisoners were coming in from yard time and the duty guard was distracted by logging them back in on her sheet. After three nights together in Colorado Springs, they separated and all were re-captured on June 20. Aguilar-Hernandez, from El Salvador, had a felony trespassing conviction and is a suspect in a Fort Carson Army Base rape case. The other two are from Honduras, with no criminal history. Amaya-Arriaga was found in Denver with another migrant that ICE also arrested. The three were sent to federal court in Denver to face prosecution. U.S. Representative Diana DeGette had recently criticized the facility after an inspection revealed unlabeled food and a lack of outdoor activity for the prisoners. In a press release, an ICE spokesman praised the “sheer determination of our team.”

Delaware: Roman Shankaras was acquitted by a jury in May 2019 of all charges associated with a deadly prison riot that happened at James T. Vaughn Correctional in 2017, despite being characterized as a “mastermind” by the prosecution. However, on February 1, 2020, Wilmington police got calls about “a suspicious vehicle at 5th and Shipley streets.” Police found the car, Shankaras, and a loaded 9mm. Shankaras was slapped with several charges: possession of a deadly weapon by a person prohibited, possession of a firearm or ammunition by a person prohibited, violating an ordinance regarding stopping, standing or parking near a fire hydrant, and violating probation. Shankaras is being held at Howard R. Young Correctional. Cash bail is set at $10,001. The 2017 riot prompted the Delaware DOC to sign a $30 million contract in October 2018 with the Pennsylvania DOC to house at least 330 prisoners in Pennsylvania to relieve overcrowding and overtime. Vermont had a similar agreement in 2017. After three Vermont prisoners died, Vermont transferred its prisoners to CoreCivic’s Tallahatchie County Correctional in Mississippi.

Florida: Candie Lynn Walker, 35, was convicted in December 2019 of attempted first-degree premeditated murder with a weapon and sentenced on January 21, 2020 to 55 years in state prison, in connection with an October 2018 machete attack by her daughter, Hannah Fine, 16, in Escambia County. The machete victims, a woman and her daughter, survived the blows and named Fine as their attacker. Fine told investigators that her mother had said she would “ground” Fine if she did not kill the woman. Fine was sentenced to 16 years and seven months in state prison on January 17, 2020. Fine had pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree premeditated felony murder, aggravated battery and burglary of a dwelling with assault and battery in April 2019. Walker’s motive for wanting the woman dead was not revealed. At Walker’s sentencing, Assistant State Attorney Amy Shea said, “Candie is like the rock that is thrown in the bottom of a still lake.”

Florida: Despite throwing his feces at Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Lisa Walsh, Dorleans Philidor, 33, was acquitted of burglary by a jury. The incident happened on June 21, 2019. Philador defecated in his wheelchair and hurled the pile at the judge, yelling, “It’s protein! It’s good for you!” Witnesses said he ate some of the excrement himself. The judge was not hit, but the courtroom was closed for cleaning and closing arguments were moved to another courtroom. The day before, Philador had pooped and spread it on himself and on the walls of his courthouse holding cell. A doctor’s evaluation found him well enough to attend the next day’s trial. Philador remained in custody because of a separate grand theft auto case. There are no updates to that case and no apparent new charges related to his crappy behavior.

Georgia: On January 16, 2020, former Gwinnett County jail guard Aaron S. Masters, 27, was indicted for violating a prisoner’s civil rights and writing a false report. Shelby Clark was in jail on a simple battery charge in August 2018, when she attacked several guards. Once back in her cell, she began to harm herself. The Rapid Response Team (RRT) was called to prevent the self-harm. At that time, Masters punched Clark in the face with a closed fist. According to U.S. Attorney Byung Pak, “Following the assault, Masters wrote a report about the encounter in which he falsely claimed that the physical force was necessary to gain the inmate’s compliance.” Masters was initially arrested in August 2018, which prompted his resignation. The RRT in the Gwinnett jail has been under scrutiny since 2013 with an ongoing civil suit in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta for the use of “restraint chairs,” designed to hold prisoners’ extremities, chest and head in place. That lawsuit contends that the chairs were used as punishment, which constitutes excessive force.

Georgia: No one is explaining how Tony Maycon Munoz-Mendez, 31, who was serving a life sentence in Rogers State Prison in Tatnall County for rape and child molestation in Gwinett County, was “released in error” on October 25, 2019. Five days later, at 10:30 p.m., Munoz-Mendez was recaptured in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, near the border with Ohio, by the Georgia DOC Fugitive Unit, US Marshals Fugitive Task Force, and ICE. The Georgia DOC failed to alert the public until three days after his release. They also did not notify his victim or her foster mother. The Georgia Crime Victims Bill of Rights (aka Marsy’s Law) was passed in January 2019. It specifies, “The right to reasonable, accurate, and timely notice of the arrest, release, or escape of the accused.” John Warr, the Gwinnett County prosecutor who handled the Munoz-Mendez case complained, “Something needs to be done about the protocols, the procedures, about verifying who they’re releasing.”

Idaho: “Appropriate administrative action” was undertaken by the Power County prosecutor and sheriff after an internal investigation into former sheriff’s captain David Preston. Court records show that Preston was charged with misdemeanor battery in August 2019 for touching a Power County Jail prisoner on the buttocks on May 24, 2019. Power County Sheriff Jim Jeffries found out about the incident at the end of June. It is unclear whether Preston resigned or was fired. In a plea agreement, Preston pleaded guilty and was sentenced by Judge R. Todd Garbett to 30 days suspended jail time, and he was placed on probation for up to 12 months. Preston will also have to pay court costs and a $1,000 fine. Ryan Jolley, the Bonneville County deputy prosecuting attorney, handled the case and said the sentence was “standard for this type of crime.”

Indiana: Lawrence Onyesonwu, 33, and Martins Tochukwu Chidiobi, 29, were fired on February 21, 2019 by GEO Group of Boca Raton, Florida, operator of the New Castle Correctional Facility in Indiana, where the two men worked and were operating an identity theft scam. They were first arrested in Hendry County in February 2019, charged with fraud on a financial institution, counterfeiting and identity deception. They would allegedly steal prisoner identities to open bank accounts and to create false documents. The accounts were used to shift money to overseas accounts. In 2018, $70,000 went to seven people in Nigeria. A Citizens State Bank representative first alerted police in January 2019 that an account had been opened in a prisoner’s name. Onyesonwu went to the bank and showed a Republic of Liberia passport and a driver’s license with a prisoner’s name and his own picture. Passports from Ghana and China were also created. When confronted, Chidiobi pointed to Onyesonwu, saying Onyesonwu had someone in Nigeria make fake documents and send them back. In June 2019, the two men were indicted.

Indiana: Dorrian Jefferson filed a class action complaint against Allen County Sheriff David Gladieux in the Allen Superior Court, alleging that prisoners “were subjected to denial of minimally adequate medical treatment” after a fire broke out on November 20, 2017, in the Allen County Jail. Gladieux evacuated dozens of jail guards and their dogs, and provided them with emergency medical care. The prisoners were locked in their cells for the duration of the crisis and no medical care was provided after smoke abated. Allen County Commissioners settled the case on October 25, 2019 for $2,500. A separate inadequate medical care claim was settled for $2,500 at the same commission meeting. In that complaint, against jail commander Alan Cook and Gladieux, and Quality Correctional Care, prisoner Terry Ray Dowell asserted that medical treatment was delayed for his infected catheter in October 2016 and he was forced to sleep on the floor. Allen County “vehemently” denied the allegations, but assistant county attorney Spencer Feighner said “the settlement was better than fighting it.”

Louisiana: The last of four former Richwood Correctional Center guards involved in a conspiracy to falsify documents related to the October 2016 pepper spraying of five shackled prisoners has been sentenced. Former lieutenant Christopher Loring was sentenced to 46 months in prison on September 4, 2019. He pleaded guilty in March 2019 “to conspiring with other officers to falsify documents with intent to obstruct and influence the investigation of a matter within federal jurisdiction.” Loring admitted to not intervening, while five handcuffed, compliant, and kneeling prisoners that the guards suspected of gang activity were pepper sprayed in the face and eyes, out of range of security cameras. Loring then submitted false reports to cover-up the incident. Quintail Credit, a fifth guard, died before sentencing and his charges were dropped. A civil suit against the guards by the victims’ families is still pending. U.S. Attorney David C. Joseph stated, “I hope that the conclusion of this case demonstrates our commitment to ensure that Louisiana’s correctional officers follow the law and do not abuse the inmates under their supervision.”

Maryland: Ronnie Harris, 56, was eight years into an 80-year sentence for armed robbery and deadly weapon charges at the Maryland Correctional Training Center, in Hagerstown, when he was found unresponsive on a housing tier on May 29, 2019. He died the next day at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. The D.C. medical examiner’s office ruled Harris’ death as homicide by blunt force trauma. Thomas Cole, 39, was indicted on second-degree murder and assault charges for the death of fellow prisoner on August 20, 2019, after a Maryland State Police Homicide Unit and Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Internal Investigations Unit investigation. The circumstances leading up to Harris’s murder were not released. Cole was moved to Western Correctional in Cumberland to await trial.

Maryland: The July 27, 2019 guilty plea by former Eastern Correctional Institution prison guard Hope Gladden, 35, to federal racketeering charges to distribute synthetic cannabinoids and opioid addiction treatment drugs highlights the need for opioid addiction treatment at state prisons. With the help of prisoners Ishmael Valdez and Charles Owens from 2016 through November 2018, Gladden “solicited and received bribes in exchanges for bringing contraband into ECI including, specifically Suboxone and synthetic cannabinoids, also known as K2,” according to her plea agreement. Drugs and contraband were sent to a P.O. Box in Fruitland. In exchange for cash and other favors, some sexual, she brought them into Eastern Correctional. When “snitching” occurred, Gladden encouraged retaliation by cooperating prisoners. Gladden’s case is part of an ongoing federal investigation at Eastern. The Maryland DOC estimates that 70% of jail and prison residents suffer from substance abuse or dependence. Maryland officials say they will consider expanding programs for addiction screening, counseling and treatment at state prisons with three federally approved medications.

Mississippi: Former Adams County Correctional Center prison worker Kellie Fuqua, 57, pleaded guilty on June 19, 2019 to taking bribes from prisoners in exchange for contraband. In October 2019, Fuqua was sentenced to one year in federal prison. She is currently at FCI Tallahassee. Adams County Correctional is now an ICE facility, owned and operated by CoreCivic under contract with U.S. Immigration, Customs and Enforcement. The CoreCivic contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons expired in July 2019. Adams County leaders had lobbied to help CoreCivic, which opened the prison in 2009, repurpose the facility to keep jobs in economically depressed Southwest Mississippi. Adams County Supervisor David Carter said in June 2019, “We appreciate CoreCivic’s commitment to this area and look forward to their future here in Adams County.” A riot in 2012, prompted by poor medical care and substandard food, saw 25 staff members held hostage. Prison guard Catlin Carithers died and 16 other staff and three prisoners were injured.

Nebraska: Jami Cutshall, 34, the Nebraska State Penitentiary unit caseworker who was arrested at work in October 2017 for suspicion of selling synthetic marijuana (K2) to prisoners [see: PLN, May 2018, p.63], was sentenced by Judge Lori Maret on June 11, 2019. She was sentenced to 60 days in jail and will be on probation for two years. Cutshall got 18 days credit for time served. In a plea agreement, Cutshall pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit a felony and prosecutors dropped the charge. They also dropped a charge for sex abuse of an inmate on parole, even though Cutshall had admitted to having sex with a paroled prisoner. DOC Director Scott R. Frakes stated, “The investigation began following several incidents of suspected K2 use. I am proud of the investigative work completed by our intelligence team, criminal investigators and facility staff. I appreciate the assistance of the Nebraska State Patrol in the arrest.”

New Jersey: The Gateway Foundation provides drug abuse services for New Jersey prisons and five other states. In June 2019, Carney Springer, 50, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, an assistant director at the foundation was arrested on suspicion of bringing synthetic marijuana and illicit prescription pills into Mid-State Correctional Facility several times over two years.. Mid-State is on the grounds of Fort Dix in Wrightstown. An investigation was initiated after a prisoner was found with crushed pills and K2. Springer allegedly supplied Subutex and Suboxone, drugs used to treat opiate addiction, as well as K2 to the same prisoner, while he was at Southern State Correctional, in Delmont. The drugs were delivered in person and through the mail. Springer was charged with Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance, Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance with Intent to Distribute, Distribution of a Controlled Dangerous Substance, and Providing an Inmate with Contraband. Assistant Prosecutor Brian Faulk, supervisor of the BCPO Special Investigations Unit will prosecute the case. Bond information and scheduled court dates were not available.

New Jersey: “I was scared out of my mind. I’d never been detained. I’ve never been arrested,” Yarelis Rivera recalled. She had never dreamed that the wallet she lost on a New Jersey amusement park visit in 2012 would lead to her arrest seven years later by ICE agents as she disembarked from her twelve day Royal Caribbean cruise at the Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne. Customs and Border Patrol agents took her into custody on December 20, 2019, acting on a December 2013 Cumberland County Sheriff’s warrant for making false reports to law enforcement. A Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson said all Rivera’s particulars matched the warrant: name, weight, birth date, hair and eye color. A friend had to pick up Rivera’s kids and luggage. A Cumberland County van picked her up at the Hudson County jail on Christmas Eve. After a four hour van ride, in shackles, Cumberland County finally ran her fingerprints – no match. She was released on December 26. ACLU attorney Alexander Shalom said the jails violated Rivera’s constitutional rights by not running her fingerprints upon arrest.

Ohio: Christopher Perdue, a Cuyahoga County Jail guard was suspended for five days in May 2019 for “unnecessary contact” with an inmate that occurred six months earlier. Perdue placed Tyrone Hipps, a Muslim, in a choke hold and dragged him from a cell. Purdue said it was not Hipps’s cell. Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association attorney Adam Chaloupka says Hipps’s refusal to comply with orders allowed use of force. Video was released on April 2019. Perdue told supervisors that Hipps hit his chest with a shoulder, but the video does not appear to support that. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said, “Mr. Hipps states he believes the assault by the corrections officer was in retaliation for his speaking out to the US Marshal’s personnel regarding conditions in the facility.” The US Marshal’s report found conditions inside the jail “inhumane.” Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, asked marshals to investigate in 2018 after several deaths at the jail. Hipps, who is on community supervision, filed a lawsuit against Perdue and Cuyahoga County on November 4, 2019.

Pennsylvania: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit revived Briaheen Thomas’s civil rights lawsuit on January 15, 2020, vacating a November 2019 judgment. In 2015 a guard witnessed Thomas ingest something in the visiting room at SCI Rockview. Thomas said it was a peanut M&M. The guard believed it was drugs in a colored balloon and placed Thomas in a “dry cell” (no water, no linens), which Thomas contends was unsanitary, to analyze his feces. Thomas had 12 bowel movements in four days. No drugs were found and an X-ray revealed no obstructions. Nevertheless the Program Review Committee kept Thomas in the cell five more days. The new ruling states, “The PRC has not presented evidence of any penological justification for Thomas’s continued confinement in the dry cell. So we will affirm in part and reverse in part the District Court’s order granting summary judgment to the members of the PRC and remand for further proceedings on Thomas’ claim that his continued confinement in the dry cell without penological justification violated his constitutional rights.”

Puerto Rico: Former BOP guard Carlos Ochoa, 33, was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison on August 28, 2019 in the Northern District of New York. The judge also imposed four years of supervised release, beginning when Ochoa is released from prison, and ordered Ochoa to forfeit $17,840 and a black 2015 Cadillac Escalade. Ochoa had two cases pending against him. One originated in the District of Puerto Rico. Ochoa admitted to providing an armed escort in 2017 while he was still a BOP officer, working at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Guaynabo, PR, to facilitate a shipment of several kilos of cocaine. He was paid $5,000. Ochoa pleaded guilty to attempting to aid and abet possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. In an October 2012 case, Ochoa pleaded guilty to bribery by a public official, for smuggling an iPhone in exchange for $600 to a prisoner while he was working at FCI Ray Brook in New York state.

Rhode Island: Activists of Never Again Action Rhode Island staged a protest in the rotunda of the State House to shut down the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility (ICE) in Central Falls, on October 17, 2019. Wyatt Detention was where Captain Thomas Woodworth swerved his Chevy Silverado into Never Again Action protestors on August 11, 2019, then “strolled” into work. Some protesters had to be treated at the hospital. Other guards pepper sprayed protesters. Caught on video, Woodworth was placed on administrative leave and then resigned on August 16. Amy Anthony, the protest group’s spokesperson said, “If these officers felt empowered to attack a group of protesters in front of the public and the media, imagine what kind of violence must be taking place inside the prison, out of [sight], against vulnerable immigrants and people of color.” Wyatt Detention Facility is operated by the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation, a quasi-public entity overseen by a board that is appointed by the Central Falls mayor. On October 24, 2019 a grand jury declined to indict Woodworth over the incident.

Tennessee: “I’ll show you where I saw my first stabbing,” says George Wyatt Jr. as he guided tourists through the empty cellblocks of Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, in Morgan County. Wyatt and the Brushy Mountain State Pen are featured on the travel website RoadsideAmerica.com. Wyatt has been a guide there since 2018. Brushy Mountain Pen shut down in 2009, after 113 years, and is now a historic tourist attraction and distillery. Wyatt’s nickname was “Bomber.” He tells the tour group about blowing up the country club safe near Lake Tansi, “I used 16 sticks of dynamite and two gallons of gas. The blast was so powerful it blew 75 yards this way. Thank God it didn’t go this way because there was a condominium of people there. I would’ve been on death row.” He was sentenced to ten years. “This is my cell. This is B block,” he said. Wyatt was released after 2 1/2 years for good behavior in 1986. Brushy’s most famous inmate, MLK-assassin James Earl Ray, escaped for three days in 1977, but he only got eight miles away.

Texas: Travis County Correctional Complex guard Carlos Luna, 21, was arrested on July 13, 2019 and charged with tampering with a government record. A supervisor at Travis reviewed surveillance footage in the jail’s Building 12 and noticed that Luna didn’t seem to be doing the prisoner checks, required by state law, at the times he had noted in a logbook. In June 2019, he logged 49 visual checks in six days, but the video footage revealed he had skipped 34 of them. On July 10, a detective asked Luna why he didn’t complete his checks. He stated that he just “didn’t care.” Luna was hired in July 2017. Tampering with a government record is a Class A misdemeanor and punishable by up to a year in the county jail and a possible $4,000 fine.

Virginia: Jermaine Gaye, 34 is facing 34 charges, including several counts of cruelty to animals and is being held without bond in a bizarre case that began after he crashed into a police cruiser, leading to a high speed chase that injured two people on January 31, 2019. While in the Norfolk Jail, Gaye allegedly told three women over the phone to threaten the witness in his case. Denise Kearney, 35, and Ashley Pinkett, 20, attempted to do this. In March and April, according to court records, the two women allegedly had sex with Gaye’s dog while “he encouraged them over the phone from the Norfolk City Jail.” Pinkett said she took pictures. Gaye was moved to the Virginia Beach Jail, after trying to have an inappropriate relationship with a Norfolk City Jail employee. In two April video chats from the Virginia Beach Jail, Pinkett allegedly had sex with Gaye’s dog again with his encouragement. Pinkett faced charges, including bestiality, animal cruelty, and tampering with a witness. Kearney faced charges as well.

Washington: GEO Group released July 13, 2019 video footage of Willem Van Spronsen’s vehicle exploding in flames as gunfire is heard at the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center. Tacoma Northwest is an ICE facility, run by GEO, which holds migrants pending deportation proceedings. Van Spronsen, 69, planned his actions to coincide with the anniversary of a hunger strike detainees began on July 14, 2018. He left a manifesto, including the words, “When I was a boy, in post-war Holland, later France, my head was filled with stories of the rise of fascism in the ’30s. I promised myself that I would not be one of those who stands by as neighbors are torn from their homes and imprisoned for somehow being perceived as lesser.” There had been a peaceful rally hours before Van Spronsen set fire to his car to disable the fleet of Tacoma Northwest buses. He carried a home-built, unregistered, “ghost” AR-15. His friend, Deb Bartley said he intended to provoke a fatal conflict, as friends had received “just saying goodbye” letters. He died of multiple gunshot wounds. 

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