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Articles by Anthony Accurso

Virginia Prisoners Stuck Waiting for Education Programs

On November 10, 2025, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) of the Commonwealth of Virginia released a report detailing the long wait prisoners can expect when trying to participate in educational programming in the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) and the impacts such …

$939,000 for Nevada Prisoner Left in Wheelchair by Delayed Back Pain Treatment

by Anthony W. Accurso

Nevada agreed to pay state prisoner Charles Morris $939,000 on May 16, 2025, resolving his claims that state Department of Corrections (DOC) failed to provide him back timely surgery, resulting in a fall which required emergency surgery and left him bound to a wheelchair. …

America’s Deadliest Jails: Tarrant County Edition

by Anthony W. Accurso

In January 2025, protests erupted outside the Tarrant County Jail (TCJ) in Fort Worth, Texas, with demonstrators holding signs that read “Sheriff of Shame” and “69 + Deaths = Mass Murder.” So many people showed up to Commissioners Court meetings that new rules were …

Seventh Circuit Dismisses Jail Detainee Suicide Case for Lack of Showing Deliberate Indifference

On July 29, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the dismissal of a case brought against a Wisconsin county jail relating to a detainee’s suicide, affirming the lower court’s ruling that the deceased’s family failed to meet the deliberate …

How Nepotism in New York Prisons Cost Prisoners Their Lives

by Anthony Accurso

The Martuscello family, a practical dynasty within New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), manipulated the system to take power and avoid accountability while overseeing a system that perpetuated physical and sexual abuse of prisoners.

The killing of Robert Brooks occurred on …

Jail-­Based IGNITE Program Found to Reduce Recidivism

by Anthony W. Accurso

A study analyzing the effects of a new jail-­based rehabilitation program shows significant reductions in recidivism, and is upending the previous correctional mindset of “nothing works.”

Nearly 600,000 people are incarcerated in jails in the United States on any given day. Most are …

Sixth Circuit Holds Dismissal Not Automatic When Plaintiff Simultaneously Files Same Claims in State Court

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of a plaintiff’s claim of retaliation, finding the district court misapplied a waiver doctrine that prevented persons from filing the same claim in state and federal courts.

Lionel Harris is a prisoner at the …

Delaware’s ACLU Files Action on Behalf Of Six Prisoners 
Assaulted During Midnight Raid

On behalf of six prisoners in Delaware, the ACLU filed a civil rights complaint against a Warden and his Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT) for assaults and abuse that occurred during a midnight raid.

All of the plaintiffs were prisoners held at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center …

DOJ Inspects BOP Food Service Operations, 
Finds Troubling Issues at Multiple Facilities

In the first week of June 2024, the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) conducted surprise inspection at six Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Food Service Departments, finding deficiencies at the facilities which “impair[ed] the administration of food service.”

The inspections occurred nearly simultaneously at one …

Guaranteed Basic Income Programs for Prisoners 
Reduce Food Insecurity and Homelessness

The cities of Gainesville, Florida, and Durham, North Carolina, experimented with providing guaranteed basic income (GBI) to prisoners who were reentering the community, and have released information about the outcomes created by the program.

Both programs enrolled just over one hundred former prisoners. The Gainesville cohort received $1,000 …