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Articles by Chuck Sharman

Prisoners Caught in Ukraine War Crossfire

by Chuck Sharman

During Ukraine’s successful offensive to liberate the southern city of Kherson in October 2022, retreating Russian forces took 2,500 Ukrainian prisoners with them. What followed was a Kafka-esque journey through five countries, at the end of which the same Russian army that led the prisoners out of ...

Hawaii Guard One of Four Convicted in Smuggling Scheme at Honolulu Prison

by Chuck Sharman

A guard and a prisoner at Oahu Community Correctional Center in Honolulu were among four people convicted on federal conspiracy charges in a drug-and-gun-smuggling scheme at the lockup. All but the guard were sentenced in February and May 2023.

On February 10, 2023, prisoner Robert S. Gibson, ...

Guards Filmed Walking Away from Burning Mexican Detention Center Where 38 Migrants Died

by Jordan Arizmendi and Chuck Sharman

A huge fire inside an immigration detention facility in Ciudad Juarez, just across the Mexican border from El Paso, killed 38 men on March 28, 2023. Another 28 were left with injuries, according to Mexico’s National Immigration Institute.

While smoke filled the building and ...

Three Guards Arrested in One Week at Chicago Jail

by Chuck Sharman

Three guards at the Cook County Jail in Chicago were arrested in separate violent incidents during one week in April 2023. The jail recorded its seventh detainee death of the year the month before, one from a fatal beating, the other a fatal overdose. A jail nurse ...

Prisoners Earning Over $2,100 Monthly on Tik Tok

 

by Chuck Sharman

In the age of social media, when anyone can become a star overnight, there is an unlikely group joining the ranks of internet fame-seekers: prisoners. From behind bars at a UK prison, one incarcerated video blogger has reportedly amassed 24,000 followers who watch his Tik Tok ...

$1.3 Million Paid to Transgender Woman Held Five Months in Atlanta Jail on Bogus Charges

by Chuck Sharman

On January 3, 2023, the Atlanta City Council unanimously adopted Ordinance 22-O-1891, clearing the way for the city to pay $1.3 million to settle claims by a Black transgender woman that she was locked up in the city jail for five months on trumped-up charges. The settlement ...

Montana Becomes 13th State to End Prison Gerrymandering

 

by Chuck Sharman

On February 14, 2023, Montana joined a dozen other states to end prison gerrymandering, the practice of having census takers count prisoners where they are incarcerated, rather than in their hometowns. It is also the third state to do so without enacting a new law.

Gerrymandering ...

Pennsylvania Politicians Push to Abolish Death Penalty

by Chuck Sharman

On April 17, 2023, Democratic lawmakers in both chambers of Pennsylvania’s General Assembly filed bills to repeal the state’s death penalty. HB999 was introduced in the House and SB600 in the senate two months and one day after Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) – a onetime supporter of ...

Missouri Senior Citizen Jailed Three Days After Letting Dog Off Leash

by Chuck Sharman

On March 13, 2023, an attorney in Missouri’s Iron County helped a 64-year-old resident file a pro se motion in court, asking for an indigency hearing she never got before being ordered to pay restitution for letting her dog off-leash. When she couldn’t pay, Lori Ann Stuehmeyer ...

New Riker’s Crisis Response Chief Accused in Beating of Teen Detainee Kalief Browder

by Chuck Sharman

Old ghosts have come back to haunt the promotion of Vincent Grinnage to head the Emergency Services Unit (ESU) for the New York City Department of Correction (DOC).

It cost the city $3.3 million to settle the lawsuit filed over the suicide of Kalief Browder in 2015, ...