by Anthony W. Accurso
With signing of a settlement agreement on September 11, 2024, Ohio’s Richland County was on the hook for $220,000 to the estate of detainee Maggie Copeland, who died while experiencing withdrawal symptoms at the County lockup on Mother’s Day in May 2022. Under a separate agreement ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
A study released in March 2024 by the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) found that incidence of childhood trauma was higher among state prisoners than those not incarcerated. The rate rose even further when limited to prisoners subjected to discipline. For women prisoners, it was higher ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
Spit hoods are a type of restraint used by prison and jail guards, as well as other law enforcement and custodial healthcare professionals, ostensibly to protect themselves from the bites and spit of detainees. The instructions are simple: place the hood over a detainee’s head to ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
Since reporting a federal Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation was opened in September 2024 into sexual abuse of prisoners at two California lockups, PLN has obtained documentation of $4 million in settlement payouts to five victims of a former guard at Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) ...
by Douglas Ankney and Anthony W. Accurso
Prisoners have lost two chances to rein in abuses of solitary confinement in the past year, most recently with a toothless advisory from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). That followed a refusal by the ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
By the end of 2024, North Carolina’s Division of Community Supervision (DCS) will expand its Specialty Mental Health Probation (SMHP) to 56 of the state’s 100 counties. Employing 78 specially trained probation officers and 58 chief probation officers, SMHP represents the state’s attempt to confront the ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
A federal civil rights suit filed on March 12, 2024, accused a guard at South Carolina’s Marlboro County Detention Center of brutalizing a homeless mentally ill detainee—even stomping on his head. “Stories like this, where men and women are beaten, brutalized, dehumanized and even killed in ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
With the Harris County Jail (HCJ) short 139 guards, minimum staffing ratios set by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) have mathematically capped the number of beds that can be filled at the Houston lockup. As a result, the County has been shipping excess detainees ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
After a dozen years of fighting over a mass strip-search conducted during a training exercise in an Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) prison for women, the federal court for the Central District of Illinois approved a settlement on December 28, 2023. The successful conclusion of the ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
A report issued by California’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) on January 29, 2024, harshly criticized the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) for taking prisoner grievances that contained allegations of staff misconduct and reclassifying them as “routine grievances.”
Of the thousands of grievances ...
