On August 26, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published its final rule in the Federal Register, formalizing rulemaking that the agency issued the previous month which significantly reduces the cost of phone and video calls made by people held in prisons and jails nationwide. It is the latest development ...

For over 32 years the Human Rights Defense Center has advocated against the financial exploitation of prisoners and their families. Since 1992 HRDC has advocated, litigated, investigated and exposed the abuses, corruption and exploitation of the prison phone industry. This has included extensive interactions with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ...

On September 13, 2024, a Missouri judge rejected an unusual request by St. Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell to overturn the conviction of condemned state prisoner Marcellus Williams, just weeks after accepting a new plea deal that the state Supreme Court then invalidated. Bell then took the ruling by St. Louis ...

The last of three federal prisoners was sentenced on September 6, 2024, for the murder of fellow prisoner James “Whitey” Bulger, the 89-year-old former boss of Boston’s “Irish Mafia,” who was killed within hours after he arrived in October 2018 at the U.S. Penitentiary in Hazelton, West Virginia. For his ...

Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections (DOC) fired Lexington Assessment and Reception Center (LARC) Deputy Warden Tasha Parker on May 9, 2024, one day before her arrest for smuggling contraband into the prison. Within a month, two of four guards accused of setting up a prisoner’s assault pleaded no contest to the ...

On February 16, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a grant of qualified immunity (QI) to three Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC) officials and dismissed a prisoner’s suit alleging they retaliated against him because he accused one of them of sexual assault—and then was disciplined ...

On September 4, 2024, the federal Department of Justice announced an investigation into sexual abuse of women imprisoned by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) at Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women (CIW) in Chino.

As PLN reported, CDCR fired guard ...

Corruption charges against three former guards and two other former employees at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex were continued on May 9, 2024, a week after a massive stash of contraband was uncovered at the lockup— including cellphones, ceramic blades, tobacco, marijuana and cocaine, as well as oxycodone, ...

Private jail medical providers usually win contracts with promises to save a county money. But after two federal lawsuits filed in federal court for the Northern District of Ohio in 2023 against Ohio’s Richland County and its privately contracted jail medical provider, Advanced Correctional Healthcare (ACH), the jail dropped the ...

In August 2024, a nine-month investigation by the office of Melanie Rouse, Coroner of Nevada’s Clark County, concluded that the death of state prisoner Patrick Odale, 39, was a homicide. Odale was killed when guards pepper-sprayed him and left him shackled him face-down at Southern Desert Correctional Center in December ...

An investigation into staff misconduct at Maine State Prison (MSP) resulted in replacement of its top leader. New Warden Nathan Thayer began work on May 20, 2024. Meanwhile, state Department of Corrections (DOC) Director Randall Liberty had no update on the months-old investigation, which led him to reassign former Warden ...

As of March 2024, Texas state prisoner Ricky Smith, 56, had spent over 30 years in solitary confinement. Though the state Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) calls it “security detention,” he is one of 3,141 state prisoners held alone in a cell about the size of a bathroom 23 hours ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit waded into a contentious debate over religious rights on November 27, 2023, holding that prisoners claiming a violation of those rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 need to show only that their beliefs were burdened. The Court joined the Third, Fifth and ...

On July 24, 2024, a Vermont jury hung on an assault charge against Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore, who is accused of kicking a shackled detainee at the county jail in 2022. That followed a report from the Impeachment Committee of the Vermont House on April 9, 2024, finding no ...

A little-known Missouri law allows the state to confiscate money from prisoners to pay for the costs of their incarceration. That alone is sadly not unusual; most states have some sort of “pay-to-stay” policy. But the severity of such laws—and how harshly their consequences fall on re-entering prisoners—can vary widely ...

Former Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) guard Daniel Farmer, 33, was sentenced to 15 years in state prison on July 10, 2024, after pleading guilty to allowing one prisoner to attack another at Augusta State Medical Prison (ASMP). However, Columbia County Superior Court Judge Sheryl B. Jolley ordered Farmer to ...

On April 25, 2024, a federal jury in Southern California awarded $1.8 million to the Estate of a detainee who died of a methamphetamine overdose while incarcerated at the San Diego Central Jail. The verdict was preceded by a finding that two jail nurses intentionally denied Ronnie Sandoval needed medical ...

A South Florida woman gave birth to a baby girl at Miami-Dade County’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center (TGK) on June 19, 2024. But it remained unclear how Daisy Link, 29, became pregnant or who the child’s father is.

Link is accused of fatally shooting her domestic partner outside their ...

After a string of killings at Alabama prisons blamed on overcrowding, the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a statement of interest on July 7, 2024, in a long-running lawsuit over conditions at one state prison. With too few guards to adequately protect prisoners, DOC has called short-staffing a “major ...

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 Douglas Ankney

In an April 2024 article, Willamette University Van Winkle Melton Professor of Law Laura I. Appleman traces the profit motive in American criminal punishment from colonial times, aiming to better understand and reform the way private companies exploit prisoners and their families.

Appleman identifies the investors, corporations ...

by Stephanie Woodard

Native Americans serve astoundingly longer prison sentences—because they are Native.

Federal charges ordinarily cover matters of national reach: immigration, voting rights, racketeering. Not in Indian Country. Tribal members frequently find themselves in federal court for all sorts of allegations— not just serious crimes, such as murder, but ...

A former guard captain at South Carolina’s Broad River Correctional Institution is headed to trial after she was indicted on April 2, 2024, on charges of taking at least $219,360 in bribes over five years to smuggle 173 contraband cellphones to prisoners. Cpt. Christine M. Livingston, 46, was charged in ...

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 ...

In July 2024, the second season premiered of UnPrisoned, a series on TV streaming service Hulu that tells the story of a father rebuilding a relationship with his daughter after serving 17 years in prison. Dealing with reentry after incarceration and its effects on families distinguishes the show from ...

by Douglas Ankney

On December 8, 2023, the Supreme Court of Alaska held that the state Department of Corrections (DOC) violated the rulemaking process laid out in the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) when it unilaterally changed the definition of “firm release date” found in 22 Alaska Administrative Code (AAC) 05.660(a)(18) ...

Before a prisoner can sue under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, he must exhaust any administrative remedies available to him; that is the threshold requirement of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e. Not infrequently, a court is asked to resolve factual dispute over satisfaction of that requirement; but what ...

On April 18, 2024, Hawaii’s Correctional System Oversight Commission (CSOC) called on lockups in the state to stop using restraint chairs over concerns they are dangerous. CSOC said it wasn’t aware that any of the devices were still around until a March 2024 inspection left commissioners “quite taken aback” to ...

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 ...

A Native American activist incarcerated for nearly half a century was once again denied parole on June 10, 2024. Despite support from human rights groups and seven Democratic U.S. Senators, the U.S. Parole Commission decided to keep Leonard Peltier, 79, behind bars at the Federal Correctional Complex in Coleman, Florida. ...

by David M. Reutter

On March 5, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated dismissal of a Wisconsin prisoner’s civil rights action for failure to exhaust administrative remedies, as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e. Defendant state Department of Corrections (DOC) officials ...

Though convicted of stealing nearly $500,000 from the Florida town where he used to work, Christopher Kovanes was hired and promoted by Miami-Dade County. That is to the County’s credit, for giving the former prisoner a chance. But the decision to let him oversee county contracts? That was a serious ...

On July 17, 2024, the Ohio Court of Claims approved a settlement between the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) and the Estate of mentally ill prisoner Dewey C. McVay, Jr., who died after taking a beating from guards who then lied about what happened at the Correctional Reception ...

Under Sheriff Bob Songer and his administrator for the Klickitat County Jail (KCJ), Loren Culp, conditions at the rural southwestern Washington lockup have deteriorated so far that County Commissioners voted to close it on March 29, 2024.

The fate of two Native Americans detained there in 2023 drew criticism of ...

An undisclosed settlement with Grundy County on May 22, 2024, added to a $1 million payout that former Tennessee prisoner Adam Braseel had already received for 12 years he spent wrongfully imprisoned. That earlier award from the state Department of the Treasury Board of Claims on June 23, 2023, also ...

by Douglas Ankney

When the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (DOC) changed its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in January 2019 to prohibit prisoners from sending money from their trust accounts to private individuals, it didn’t promulgate a new rule under G. L. c. 30A. Prisoners called foul and sued, but a ...

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 ...

It is well known that several state prison systems use incarcerated firefighters. Lesser known is that many rural areas have become almost completely dependent on prisoners for emergency responders. In an essay published on April 15, 2024, a research professor at Texas A&M University argued that “incarcerated people have become ...

The California Bar filed disciplinary charges on August 26, 2024, against Los Angeles attorney Aaron Spolin, 39, accusing him of moral turpitude, charging unconscionable fees and 16 other violations of professional conduct rules and the state business code.

After two new measures took effect in 2019— SB 2942, which expanded ...

Warden Chadwick “Chad” Ray Crabtree, 45, of Alabama’s Limestone Correctional Facility (LCF), was behind bars at Limestone County Jail on April 19, 2024, after agents from the state Department of Corrections (DOC) joined local and state cops to execute five warrants and raid his home, arresting him on charges of ...

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 ...

On June 21, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona ordered the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to pay $10,000 to transgender prisoner Grace Pinson for her claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) that a guard at the U.S. Penitentiary (USP) in Tucson negligently failed ...

Three former Santa Clara County Jail guards pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on August 13, 2024, for fatally beating a mentally ill detainee nearly nine years earlier. In their plea deal, Jereh Lubrin, 37, Matt Farris, 36, and Rafael Rodriguez, 35, agreed to serve a maximum of 11 years in ...

A report released on April 16, 2024, concluded that Minnesota’s Sex Offense Civil Commitment (SOCC) program, which is operated by the state Department of Human Services at a cost of over $100 million per year, has “no discernible impact” on reducing sexual violence. Released by the Sex Offense Litigation and ...

On September 10, 2024, an Alaska court refused to keep Eric G. Hafner from appearing on the upcoming November ballot as a Democratic candidate for the state’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives—even though he has never been to Alaska and is currently incarcerated by the federal Bureau ...

On May 28, 2024, remaining claims were dismissed in federal court for the Southern District of Indiana by the Estate of Joshua McLemore, a psychotic Jackson County Jail detainee who starved himself to death following his July 2021 arrest, losing 45 pounds in less than three weeks at the lockup, ...

On June 18, 2024, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced $32 million in state funding for a new regional jail to serve Jackson, Lawrence, and Pike Counties. That promises significant savings for Pike County, among the state’s smallest and poorest; with no jail of its own, it currently spends about ...

Although a guard was fired from Iowa’s Polk County Jail for forcibly kissing and touching him while detained there, Justin Mowry’s lawsuit for damages against the county was dismissed on June 20, 2024. Fifth Judicial District Court Judge Lawrence P. McClellan ruled that Mowry’s complaint failed to clear a pleading ...

by Douglas Ankney

In federal court for the Southern District of Indiana on April 11, 2024, Clark County officials agreed to pay $328,000 to settle claims filed by 25 former detainees for sexual assault at the county jail in October 2021, during the tenure of former Sheriff Jamey Noel. He ...

by David M. Reutter

On March 21, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated summary judgment in favor of a Philadelphia Department of Corrections (DOC) guard, who was accused of leaving a prisoner to languish for hours in a truly “crappy” situation after his cell toilet ...

by Douglas Ankney

After winning a temporary restraining order (TRO) directing the medical contractor for the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) to treat his colon disease, state prisoner Arthur Burnham’s location was unknown on September 10, 2024. That was the date when the U.S. District Court for the District of ...

On July 17, 2024, the Third and Fourth District Courts of Appeals of Florida reinstated voter fraud charges against two former prisoners which had previously been dismissed. Ronald Lee Miller was charged with illegally voting as an ex-felon in Miami-Dade County’s 2020 elections. Terry Hubbard was also charged with illegally ...

by Douglas Ankney

After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against a class of Oregon prisoners suing over the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal court for the District of Oregon dismissed their claims against Gov. Kate Brown (D) on April 10, 2024. But ...

Former Sheriff Charles Lemon of South Carolina’s Marlboro County was acquitted by a federal jury on August 19, 2024, of violating the civil rights of a detainee whose brutal assault was caught on video at the county jail in May 2020. The jury agreed with Lemon that the force used ...

After becoming the surprise new Democratic nominee for the presidency in July 2024, U.S. Vice-Pres. Kamala Harris has leaned into her credentials as a former California prosecutor. But her record has enough to alienate both progressives and law-and-order voters.

Before becoming one of California’s U.S. Senators in 2016, Harris won ...

by David M. Reutter

According to a lawsuit removed to federal court for the Western District of Oklahoma on May 1, 2024, prisoners at Great Plains Correctional Center (GPCC) were confined in a tiny shower stall for days on end. That follows a report from Florida that prisoners there were ...

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 ...

For-profit prison healthcare contractor Corizon Health had a sordid reputation even before it attempted a legal maneuver known as the “Texas Two-Step,” using that state’s laws to put its valuable assets in a new company called YesCare and creating a second company called Tehum Care Services to assume its remaining ...

by David M. Reutter

Over more than three decades of publication, PLN has chronicled some outlandish and horrifying stories of prisoner abuse, but few can compete with the Hobson’s choice guards at Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex (EKCC) allegedly presented prisoners who failed a urinalysis. According to a civil rights complaint ...

Arizona: State prisoner Brigido Montoya made the briefest of escapes from the State Prison Complex in Eyman on August 10, 2024, before he was recaptured 48 minutes later by Florence Police, the Florence Reminder & Blade-Tribune reported. The state Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (DCRR) said that Montoya scaled ...