by James Kilgore and Brian Dolinar
Electronic monitoring (EM) is rapidly expanding throughout the criminal legal system. COVID-19 is partly responsible for this. The pandemic precipitated jailers’ use of monitors to reduce the number of people in overcrowded cells. In Harris County, Texas alone, the number of people on ...
by Douglas Ankney
On June 24, 2022, U.S. District Judge Jorge L. Alonso of the Northern District of Illinois entered an amended consent decree in a class-action suit challenging prisoner healthcare in the state Department of Corrections (DOC).
Filed in October 2011 by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of ...
by Paul Wright
This month’s cover story on electronicmonitoring (EM) is reporting relatively modern developments with regards to the technology being used to surveil people. But the premise is as old as mass incarceration itself, going back to the early 1980s. Just as some new “program” is touted as somehow ...
by Kevin Dayton
Hawaii had more inmates die in its prisons and jails last year than any other year in at least the past decade, a grim statistic that includes at least six prisoners who died after becoming ill with COVID-19 in the state’s largest prison.
The 23 deaths recorded ...
by David M. Reutter
Twice in July 2022, the federal court for the District of Arizona spanked Centurion of Arizona, healthcare provider for the state Department of Corrections (DOC), issuing injunctions to correct mismanagement of prisoner medication.
On July 1, 2022, the Court issued a preliminary injunction requiring the state ...
by Jacob Barrett
The Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) began advertising for a new position in April 2022: A professional tattoo artist.
The new hire will serve prisoners from a tattoo parlor being opened at Stillwater Correctional Facility (STF). It is part of an effort to combat the spread of ...
by David M. Reutter
On August 18, 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced the first fruits of an investigation into allegations of voter fraud tied to the 2020 election. The state Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) arrested 20 ex-felons that day for voting illegally. That’s 20 potentially ineligible votes ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 17, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned a long line of prior decisions to hold that a ruling on defendants’ qualified immunity (QI) must be made at the first possible opportunity — and before discovery.
The Court’s new direction came ...
by Zara Stone, Mother Jones
Starting in 2017, Thai media published a series of articles on the country’s growing class of “new poor people,” former incarcerees who were finding it almost impossible to get hired and often returning to prison as a result. Criminal records were an obvious barrier to ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
Before November 29, 2021, Louisville Metro Department of Corrections (LMDC) averaged three prisoner deaths per year. Ten months later, that number had skyrocketed; a dozen lives were lost in the lockup by October 3, 2022.
As of April 2022, LMDC has a new director, after a ...
by David M. Reutter
On June 15, 2022, in a precedential ruling that might help the next prisoner plaintiff, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that “a prisoner has a valid access-to-courts claim” when “denial of access to legal materials — before and/or during trial — ...
by Benjamin Tshirhart
On August 22, 2022, as many as half of the prisoners in the maximum-security unit of Rhode Island’s Adult Correctional Institution staged a hunger strike, protesting conditions in the 144-year-old prison. But officials with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) denied it happened.
“There have been no ...
by Keith Sanders
On September 7, 2022, the city council in California’s Costa Mesa voted to hire 11 full-time jailers to keep the city lockup open. But at an estimated cost of $1.12 million, the city will have to cough up more than $175,000 over the price it was paying ...
by Eike Blohm, MD
After a federal court in North Carolina declined to stay a civil case against Wellpath and a nurse it employed accused in the wrongful death of a detainee at the Forsyth County Jail, the county settled its part in the case for $3 million on May ...
by David M. Reutter
On June 14, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed the grant of summary judgment to a Missouri prison food service director accused of interfering with a prisoner’s medical diet and then retaliating against him for filing grievances.
Before the Court was ...
by Harold Hempstead
On June 14, 2022, the federal Court for the District of Nevada granted summary judgment to a Muslim state prisoner, agreeing with him that the state Department of Corrections (DOC) violated his constitutional rights by restricting his ability to participate in Jumu’ah prayer.
While held at Lovelock ...
by Matt Clarke
According to a March 2022 report published by the Texas State Auditor, the state Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has an extremely high staff turnover rate — 32.8%, compared to a 21.5% rate for all state employees in fiscal year 2021.
Within TDCJ, the rate for prison ...
by Jacob Barrett
A pair of former guards with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) have been sentenced to federal prison for assaulting prisoners, one of whom died. A third guard has also been indicted on charges of participating in a cover-up of the incident.
Ashley Marie Aurich, ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
On June 14, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed denial of qualified immunity (QI) to officials with Virginia’s Department of Corrections (DOC) in a suit by a group of state prisoners alleging they were held in solitary confinement too long.
Red Onion ...
by Jacob Barrett
On June 23, 2022, the Supreme Court of Ohio held that the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) improperly withheld records requested by a former state prisoner. But the prisoner’s failure to properly document his request meant that he wasn’t entitled to damages.
Twice in December ...
by David M. Reutter
On June 10, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that a Florida jail’s policy requiring detainees to sign up for Passover meals 45 days in advance did not violate the constitution or the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). ...
by Dale Chappell
Official policy of the federal Bureauof Prisons (BOP) provides cost-free abortion to any female prisoner whose pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or which threatens the life of the mother. It also allows for an “elective abortion,” if the prisoner pays for it. PS 5200.02; ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
On November 29, 2022, two California prisoners attacked a third with a homemade knife in the recreation yard at the High Desert State Prison (HDSP). Responding guards first attempted to intervene with verbal commands. When those were ignored, they fired warning shots from a Mini-14 rifle. ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
On June 17, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision denying qualified immunity (QI) to federal prison wardens in Connecticut, who were accused of unconstitutionally restricting prayer practices for Muslim prisoners.
In 2014, while held by the federal Bureau ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
When it issued a death warrant for convicted murderer Gerald Pizzuto, Jr. on November 16, 2022, the Idaho Department of Corrections (DOC) admitted it did not have the drugs needed to carry out the execution. By its own self-imposed deadline, DOC must have lethal injection drugs ...
by Eike Blohm, MD
MRSA — Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus — is a bacterium that has become immune to Penicillin-like and Cephalosporin-class antibiotics. The pathogen is found where people live together in close quarters such as hospitals, nursing homes, and overcrowded U.S. prisons.
How It Spreads: Transmission from one prisoner to ...
by Chuck Sharman
After two detainees died within a week at Arizona’s Pima County Jail — and just before two more committed suicide — two other detainees managed to walk out, all within two months.
One man escaped, and the other was released by a confused guard. On November 21, ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 9, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that prisoners claiming indigent status in a federal civil rights suit are not barred by the ‘three strikes’ provision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e, if the prisoner ...
by Casey J. Bastian
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has been under intense scrutiny from lawmakers over misconduct by guards and officials at multiple prisons. Some of the worst behavior involves sexual abuse of female prisoners. One despicable perpetrator is 45-year-old Colin Akparanta. A naturalized U.S. citizen from Nigeria ...
by Keith Sanders
Incarceration poses many health risks. Violence, inadequate medical care, as well as physical and emotional trauma, all take a sometimes deadly toll inside American jails and prisons. Yet one often overlooked problem incarcerated Americans encounter is obesity. Health experts have raised the alarm for several decades about ...
by Keith Sanders
On November 17, 2021, the Ohio Court of Claims awarded a state prisoner $185,000 for injuries sustained when he was bitten by a dog on a K-9 unit visiting from a local jail.
Derek Woods, 23, was inside the gym at Trumbull Correctional Institution in Leavittsburg on ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
On January 4, 2023, a pair of former felons joined the Rhode Island House of Representatives. The two Democrats, Leonela Felix, 35, and Cherie Cruz, 50, say their shared mission is to help people rebuild their lives after run-ins with the law. It’s a cause dear ...
by David M. Reutter
On June 21, 2022, the federal court for the Southern District of Florida significantly trimmed a class-action lawsuit alleging that private prison operator The GEO Group misled investors in its stock, causing them to suffer losses.
For the last three decades, GEO Group has contracted with ...
by Casey J. Bastian
On May 3, 2022, the federal court for the District of South Carolina granted summary judgment to a federal prisoner left partially blinded by delayed treatment of a malignant melanoma. The ruling adopted a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation issued on April 6, 2022.
On June ...
by David M. Reutter
In a letter to PLN on May 16, 2022, the California Office of the Inspector General (OIG) confirmed that no one was disciplined at the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) following a bizarre incident in January 2020, when a state prisoner murdered two fellow ...
by Harold Hempstead
On August 17, 2021, after the IllinoisDepartment of Corrections (DOC) paid $450,000 to settle claims of medical neglect that cost him the use of his legs, a state prisoner successfully petitioned a federal court to dismiss his lawsuit.
In September 2017, while held at Hill Correctional Center, ...
by Keith Sanders
On March 14, 2022, an Iowa court awarded $3.5 million to the estate of a pretrial detainee who suffered a seizure and was left to die in the Cerro Gordo County Jail (CGCJ).
Ricky Christianson was arrested for a probation violation and taken to the jail on ...
by David M. Reutter and Keith Sanders
A law that severely limits the use of solitary confinement in Connecticut jails and prisons took effect July 1, 2022. It also creates an ombudsman position within the state Department of Corrections (DOC), selected from candidates nominated by a new nine-member advisory panel ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
On November 29, 2022, Missouri administered a lethal injection at the state prison in Bonne Terre to murder prisoner Kevin Johnson, 37. But his 19-year-old daughter was not by his side. That was because a federal judge had ruled that a state law barring Corionsa Ramey ...
by Ashleigh N. Dye
On October 14, 2022, a former South Carolina sheriff reported to the U.S. Penitentiary in Big Sandy, Kentucky, to begin serving a 46-month sentence for fraud and corruption-related charges.
Alex “Big A” Underwood, 59, was the Chester County Sheriff from 2012 until he was suspended by ...
by Jenifer Lockwood
On June 23, 2022, gang violence at Georgia’s second-largest women’s lockup sparked a sharply worded letter from U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) calling on FBI Director Chris Wray to get involved and stop the “tragic and wholly unacceptable” prisoner-on-prisoner assaults.
Reports of gang activity at Pulaski State ...
by David M. Reutter
Just as the Virginia Department of Corrections (DOC) was preparing to release 560 prisoners in July 2022, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) and state lawmakers stepped in with a budget amendment that stripped away sentence credits, leaving the prisoners in their cells.
“They dangled this hope in ...
by Keith Sanders
Just ten days after being sentenced to death for the 2017 murders of two state prison guards, a prisoner was found unresponsive in his cell at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison on June 26, 2022. Guards performed life-saving measures, but Ricky Allen “Juvie” Dubose, 29, was pronounced ...
by Jenifer Lockwood
A privately run jail in downtown San Diego is still holding federal detainees after receiving an “unprecedented” third exception to an executive order issued by Pres. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D). Florida-based GEO Group, Inc., informed its 300 employees at the Western Region Detention Facility (WRDF) of ...
by Keith Sanders
A recent study of deaths over the past ten years inside Los Angeles County jails revealed that over half of those recorded as “natural” showed evidence of physical harm.
The study was published June 1, 2022, by researchers at UCLA’s Carceral Ecologies Lab, in conjunction with the ...
by Keith Sanders
One of the most unjust consequences of mass incarceration in America is that it removes millions of citizens from the political process. Most prisoners lose voting privileges at least through their parole, though sometimes for life. But disenfranchisement is not the whole story; people with criminal histories ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 2, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that facts alleged in a supplemental administrative report which a district court requested from prison officials may not be relied upon if they conflict with factual allegations in a prisoner’s complaint. Such a ...
by Kevin W. Bliss
On June 16, 2022, the federal court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin ordered a state prison guard to pay $110,042.38 in legal costs and fees for a former state prisoner she subjected to unwanted sexual advances. The award came on top of a $125,000 jury ...
by Casey J. Bastian
On June 27, 2022, the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) announced it found Legionella bacteria in the water system at Jacksonville Correctional Center. The discovery of the bacterium — which causes a potentially fatal type of pneumonia known as Legionnaire’s disease — came just months after ...
by Ashleigh N. Dye
Did 19 women detained for federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a Georgia jail have forced hysterectomies? [See: PLN, Dec. 2020, p.60.]
A whistleblower complaint said so. That led to a January 2022 report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at ICE’s parent ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 8, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reinstated a New York jail detainee’s claim, saying he couldn’t be guilty of failure to exhaust his administrative remedies when the jail’s grievance policy specifically precluded him from grieving the matter at hand.
While ...
by Matt Clarke
When Greg Williams resigned from the Oklahoma County Jail on December 5, 2022, the administrator of the scandal-plagued lockup said only that “It is time for me to go.”
That was after one detainee sauntered out of the jail booking area in July 2022 and raped another ...
by Kevin W. Bliss
On November 14, 2022, Mississippi State Auditor Shad White submitted a civil demand for payment of $1.9 million to Utah-based private prison operator Management and Training Corporation (MTC) for violating its contractual agreement to fully staff the Marshall County Correctional Facility (MCCF) from 2017 to 2020. ...
by Matt Clarke
Before Oklahoma killed prisoners Donald Grant and Gilbert Postelle in early 2022 [See: PLN, May 2022, p.60], the state told a federal court hearing a challenge to their executions that a doctor would be on-hand at each killing for a fee of $15,000.
That’s quite a ...
byHarold Hempstead
In October 2022, the Mississippi Corrections and Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force reported there were 2,192 more state prisoners than the year before. That pushed the state Department of Corrections (DOC) close to 95% capacity, despite reopening a former juvenile prison in 2021.
That prison, Walnut Grove Correctional ...
by Douglas Ankney
On August 19, 2022, the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), publisher of Prison Legal News (PLN) and Criminal Legal News (CLN), filed suit in federal court for the District of Wyoming, accusing Park County Detention Center Administrator Joseph D. Torczon and Sheriff Scott ...
by David M. Reutter
After reaching a $115,000 settlement with the Maine Department of Corrections (DOC), a state prisoner dismissed his suit on October 21, 2021, in which he alleged guards at the Maine State Prison (MSP) used excessive force against him when they deployed eight times the amount of ...
by David M. Reutter
On June 16, 2022, the Supreme Court of Florida held that a trial court has authority to make corrections to sentence credits for jail and prison time already served by a defendant. However, it must do so within statutory time limits. As a result, a state ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
From payoffs to teachers over biased tests to oversight for excessive force in New York City jails, there’s money in being a federal monitor for New York City agencies. But are the results worth the incredible outlay by taxpayers?
The history of these monitors and “special masters” ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
Wexford Health Sources had been sued over 50 times in just four years when the state of New Mexico terminated the firm’s contract to provide healthcare to state prisons. That was in 2007. So the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was understandably alarmed ...
Loaded on
Jan. 1, 2023
published in Prison Legal News
January, 2023, page 63
Alabama: On November 2, 2022, a former state prison guard at the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility near Birmingham pleaded guilty to federal contraband smuggling charges. The Birmingham News reported that Wilson Brian Clemons, 32, was arrested on November 23, 2021, on state counts of marijuana possession and promoting ...
