by Mark Wilson

"The State can no longer afford to manufacture a case built on lies and half-truths,” wrote Patrick and Kevin Francke in their letter to a federal judge in support of the man wrongfully convicted of killing their brother.

After serving 28 years in prison, Frank E. Gable, ...

by Paul Wright

After editing PLN for over 31 years now, it seems like all 370-plus issues of the magazine kind of blend together in my mind like one big, long magazine. A lot of stories don’t have a beginning, middle or an end but rather are like a very, ...

by Chuck Sharman

On September 21, 2021, the Indiana Department of Corrections (INDOC) agreed to a slate of policy reforms embodied in a consent decree to settle a censorship lawsuit filed by the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), publisher of Prison Legal News (PLN)and Criminal Legal News ( ...

by Chuck Sharman

A Florida man who spent 37 years in prison on a wrongful rape murder conviction filed a federal lawsuit on October 4, 2021, against the Tampa Police Department (TPD) officers who mishandled his prosecution, along with the city and a forensic odontologist who provided “expert” bite mark ...

by Matt Clarke

On March 26, 2021, the Fifth Circuit court of appeals overturned a permanent injunction that required a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prison to observe certain precautions against the spread of COVID-19.

Laddie Valentine and Richard King are state prisoners incarcerated at a TDCJ geriatric prison, ...

by David M. Reutter

On June 17, 2021, Southern Health Partners paid $750,000 to resolve a lawsuit alleging it failed to take proper steps in caring for a pretrial detainee who entered South Carolina’s Marlboro County Jail with a prescription drug addiction.

Roy Locklear, 30, had a history of drug ...

by Matt Clarke

In October 2020, the Arizona Auditor General’s Office published a report on a performance audit of the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (DOC). The audit reviewed the DOC’s revenues, expenditures, capital funding, and management of prisoners’ monies. Although the auditors found DOC spending was largely compliant ...

by David M. Reutter

An Arkansas federal district court issued a preliminary injunction that bars the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) from carrying out a state law that confiscates prisoners’ stimulus money and distributes it to the state.

The Court’s September 3, 2021, order was issued in a lawsuit brought ...

It all seemed above board when, on January 26, 2021, Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) Secretary Stephen Sinclair sent an email to DOC employees announcing his retirement effective May 1, 2021, but, according to the Seattle Times, a Public Records Request led to documentation that revealed he had been asked ...

Lake Ozark Politician Gives Women Prisoners Help, Gets Sex

by Casey J. Bastian

In 2015, Gerry Murawski was an elected city alderman for Lake Ozark, Missouri. Murawski was also engaging in questionable relationships with several young women. During the period of 2015-2016, Murawski would provide money and favors for at ...

by David M. Reutter

Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill was suspended by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp following the review of a federal civil rights indictment that charged Hill with ordering excessive use of force against detainees.

Kemp’s June 2, 2021 administrative order was issued after a commission he ordered in ...

by Paul Wright

Recent years have seen efforts by a lot of well-meaning people referring to prisoners as “people in prison” or “incarcerated people,” former prisoners as “returning citizens,” “formerly incarcerated people” and more. Pretty much since we started publishing PLN in 1990 we have used the terms prisoners, ...

Exconvict, formerly incarcerated, or returning citizen?

by Jeffrey Ian Ross

In the field of corrections, there are lots of labels, names, and terms that the public frequently applies to people who are housed in, live in, and are processed by jails and prison that I dislike.

These terms are frequently ...

by Brian Dolinar

When Hurricane Ida made landfall this past summer, it was the deadliest and most destructive to hit Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, many prisoners were not evacuated and left for days in their cells without food or clean water, standing chest-high in flood water.

This time ...

by Dale Chappell

The million-dollar question lately has been whether the thousands of federal prisoners released on home confinement to reduce prison crowding would have to return to prison once the pandemic is over. While it’s not looking so good for those sitting at home waiting for the answer, let’s ...

by David M. Reutter

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in an unpublished opinion, held that the Kentucky Department of Corrections (KDOC) policy of refusing to provide Direct-Acting Antivirals (DAAs) to all prisoners infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is constitutional. The Court found that because KDOC provides regular monitoring ...

by Jayson Hawkins

Marvin David Scott III was far from what most people would consider a criminal. The 26-year-old played football in high school, made straight As, and was described by friends and family as “generous to everyone around him.”

It is doubtful that police in Allen, Texas, a suburb ...

While the Massachusetts Department of Corrections charges prisoners ten or 11 cents per minute for phone calls, the state’s sheriffs set their own rates individually. Some sheriffs charged more than 40 cents per minute.

Now, according to the Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association (MSA), all 14 sheriffs in the state have agreed ...

by Keith Sanders

As if building prisons were not enough, companies are now engaged in what are called “corporate counterinsurgency” measures designed to influence public opinion by monitoring and surveilling groups opposing the construction of new prisons and other public works projects.

One architecture and design company in particular, HDR ...

by Douglas Ankney

On September 27, 2021, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California ordered implementation of the Receiver’s recommendations that “(1) access by workers to CDCR institutions be limited to those workers who establish proof of full vaccination or who have established a religious or ...

by Kevin Bliss

Louisville, Kentucky’s Metro Department of Corrections (MDOC) who operates the city jail has been ordered by the Metro Council Budget Committee to stop charging prisoners for phone calls from the jail by December 31, 2021.

MDOC currently contracts with Dallas, Texas communications giant Securus Technologies for its ...

by David M. Reutter

An international group of hackers gained access to the security cameras at 68 organizations that use Silicon Valley start-up Verkada, Inc. They got into cameras at schools, prisons, police departments, hospitals, and other companies.

The incident was reported in March 2021 after a hacker identified as ...

by Kevin Bliss

Staffing shortages in Wisconsin’s maximum security prison, Waupun Correctional Facility, prompted the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (WDOC) in June of 2021 to ask for guards at the state’s other prisons to voluntarily report to Waupun to work a two week pay period on a rotational basis through ...

by Kevin Bliss

Joel Castón, 44, a prisoner of the District of Columbia Jail, may be the first incarcerated elected official in the nation. He won the special election June 15, 2021 for the Ward 7 Advisory Neighborhood Commission seat, beating out four others for the position—who were also fellow ...

by Matt Clarke

On August 8, 2020, Corizon Health, Inc. agreed to pay $20,000 to settle its part of a federal lawsuit brought by an Arizona prisoner who suffered a partial foot amputation after Corizon delayed effective medical treatment.

Arizona state prisoner Edmund V. Powers fell 60 to 80 feet, ...

by Dale Chappell

In a move that surprised few, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit went against the grain of almost every other court and held on June 9, 2021, that the discretionary function exception, which grants immunity to federal employees when they injure someone while exercising ...

Incarcerated people have been denied basic services in the name of fighting the virus, exacting a heavy psychological toll.

by Brian Osgood, The Intercept

Michael Pitre spent Christmas Eve in a frigid cell in the Sacramento County Main Jail. Wrapped in a blanket that hadn’t been replaced in weeks, he ...

by Casey J. Bastian

The Office of the Inspector General completed an audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Chaplaincy Services Branch (CSB) in July 2021. The CSB is responsible for the BOP’s religious services nationwide. The program is intended to ensure that the constitutional right of prisoners to ...

An interview with Victoria Law

by James Kilgore, Truthout.org

One of the most pervasive myths about incarceration is that it makes a society safer. Now, a leading journalist who focuses on the criminal legal system has taken on that question in her new book.

Victoria Law is a prolific reporter ...

by Chuck Sharman

In an order and settlement agreement released on October 19, 2021, by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), prison financial giant JPay, LLC agreed to pay $6 million in fines and restitution, after its prepaid debit cards were found to have taken unfair advantage of some ...

by Brian Dolinar

As other cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York have slowly begun to decarcerate their county jails, the Harris County Jail in Houston has resisted reform efforts. Over the years, Prison Legal News (PLN) has documented the persistent problems at the jail in Houston. ...

by David M. Reutter

The Vermont Supreme Court concluded that under the Public Records Act (PRA) when “the state contracts with a private entity to discharge the entirety of a fundamental and uniquely governmental obligation owed to its citizens, that entity acts as an ‘instrumentality’ of the State.” That conclusion ...

by David M. Reutter

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of a former federal prisoner’s complaint brought pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The court concluded that a state rule that requires an affidavit of merit to state a claim for medical negligence does not ...

by David M. Reutter

The Indiana Supreme Court held that a prisoner who was erroneously released early “is entitled to credit time as if he were still incarcerated during the period he was erroneously at liberty.”

The court’s June 21, 2021 opinion was issued in an appeal brought by Jordan ...

by Matt Clarke

On February 21, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued an opinion clarifying the legal standards to be applied to lawsuits over conditions of confinement brought by civilly-committed sex offenders (CCSOs).

This is a class-action federal civil rights lawsuit brought under 42 ...

by David M. Reutter

An Illinois federal district court found that a prison records clerk deprived a former prisoner of his liberty and caused him to serve 721 days beyond his sentence. A federal jury awarded the former prisoner $721,000 in compensatory damages and $10,000 in punitive damages.

That result ...

The push to restrict voting rights and limit access to polling locations has gained momentum in the past several months. Advancing the false claims of excessive fraud and a rigged election by former President Donald Trump, state legislatures across the country have passed laws reducing voting hours, eliminating mail-in ballots, ...

by Casey J. Bastian

The Massachusetts Department of Corrections (DOC) has been knowingly using drug tests described by plaintiff’s lawyers as “fake” on legal mail to both interfere with attorney/client communications and impose strict punishments without due process. These claims are the basis of a class complaint recently filed by ...

by Dale Chappell

Providing an example of how the rules apply to everyone—even pro se prisoners—the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the motion of summary judgment (MSJ) by the district court in denying a prisoner’s federal civil lawsuit claiming bad medical care at the Wisconsin Secure ...

by Chuck Sharman

Under a new policy announced on October 19, 2021, pregnant prisoners held by the Michigan Department of Corrections (MIDOC) will be restrained less and will also have more time to spend with their newborns once delivered.

When it takes effect November 22, 2021, the policy change will ...

by Matt Clarke

On June 16, 2021, a federal court in the District of Columbia (D.C.) provisionally certified a class of disabled youth incarcerated in D.C. jails who were not being provided with the minimal amount of special education and related services required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ...

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an Illinois district court’s summary judgment dismissal of a prisoner’s claim that he was subjected to inhumane conditions and denial of medical care. The Court’s ruling found that the defendants were not deliberately indifferent to the conditions the prisoner alleged.

The court’s June ...

A California federal district court awarded a federal prisoner $128,624.01 in damages in a lawsuit alleging officials at Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) Safford in Arizona failed to warn him about Valley Fever.

The Court’s July 23, 2021, order was issued following a two-day bench trial that occurred in January 2020. ...

by Matt Clarke

On January 19, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that a county sheriff and three jail guards were not entitled to summary judgment based on qualified immunity in a lawsuit brought by a former jail prisoner who suffered permanent impotence after ...

Jessica “The Madam” Burnett is set to plead guilty to a series of charges which included conspiracy to distribute methamphetamines and marijuana as part of a major drug trafficking investigation covering several southern Georgia counties and correctional facilities.

Burnett was a sergeant at the Core­Civic-run private prison, the Coffee County ...

by Matt Clarke

On July 30, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated orders denying sovereign immunity to some defendants in a lawsuit brought by a transgender Texas prisoner seeking access to sex-reassignment surgery, female commissary items, and a long-hair pass.

Texas Department of Criminal ...

Walter Himmelreich was a prisoner at the Federal Correctional Institution in Elkton, Ohio for one count of producing child pornography on October 20, 2008, when he was assaulted by another prisoner, Peter Macari, due to the nature of his charge. Himmelreich stated that Captain Janel Fitzgerald retaliated against him when ...

A Florida federal district court awarded $5,000 to a prisoner on September 16, 2020, for a guard’s use of excessive force.

While at Everglades Correctional Institution, Florida prisoner Mazzard B. McMillian and other prisoners were found in the wrong dormitory during a prison count. As they were being escorted to ...

A California prisoner who tried to escape in a stolen fire truck left “half a block of destruction.” He was caught shortly after he tried to carjack another vehicle.

On July 5, 2021, the prisoner was working on the scene of a brush fire with a crew of prisoners and ...

by David M. Reutter

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of a Colorado prisoner’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging a guard violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by forcing him to shave off his beard. The court found the prisoner’s complaint stated a claim and ...

by Mark Wilson

On September 22, 2021 Oregon prison officials suspended outside prisoner work crews “in order to review any potential changes following a walk away earlier this year” according to an internal memo sent by Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) Director Colette Peters and Deputy Director Heidi Steward.

The ...

Florida’s Broward County Sheriff’s Office (BSO) has refused overtures to allow an independent investigation into the death of a pretrial detainee.

Kevin Desir, 43, lost consciousness during a January 17, 2021, confrontation with guards at the Broward County Jail (BCJ). He died ten days later. Desir was in jail on ...

by Jayson Hawkins

The New Jersey Department of Corrections had a policy of housing prisoners according to their gender assignment at birth, regardless of whether they are transgendered or of any non-binary sexual orientation. As a result, when Sonia Doe (not her real name) was sentenced to prison, she was ...

An Illinois prisoner was awarded $11 million by a federal jury in a lawsuit alleging doctors with Wexford Health Sources, Inc. (Wexford), were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs by failing to treat his kidney cancer. The Court also awarded $667,201.45 in attorney fees and costs.

The award was ...

An Arizona federal court dismissed a civil rights complaint brought in June 2020 by the Arizona State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) under the novel theory that, by commodifying people for profit, the state’s contract with private prison companies created a form of ...

by Matt Clarke

On August 11, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a confession of medical malpractice by prison health care providers does not prevent a district court from finding deliberate indifference. In affirming the district court’s denial of defendants’ motion for summary ...

Charles Talbert settled with Correctional Dental Associates (CDA) and Dental Practitioner Dr. Schneider for $23,000 in a lawsuit brought by him for inadequate dental treatment while housed in the Philadelphia Department of Prisons (PDP).

While being held in the PDP, Talbert requested extensive dental work to repair his damaged and ...

California: A guard at San Quentin State Prison and one of two outside co-conspirators were arraigned on September 8, 2021, on federal charges they smuggled cellphones to an unnamed prisoner on death row at the California lockup. According to a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice, the condemned man ...