Skip navigation

Articles by Ashleigh Dye

Alabama County Ends Controversial Policy Using Women’s Pregnancies to Jail Them

by Ashleigh N. Dye

In the state of Alabama, it is a felony to expose a child to an environment in which controlled substances are manufactured, ingested, or distributed. Called Chemical Endangerment, the crime can land a pregnant woman in jail after using drugs.

Ashley Banks, 23, was arrested on ...

CoreCivic Still Accruing Fines for Short-Staffing Florida Jail Where Developmentally Disabled Teen Was Raped

by Ashleigh N. Dye

At its meeting on January 24, 2023, the Board of County Commissioners of Florida’s Citrus County voted to deduct $116,250 off its December 2022 bill from private prison operator CoreCivic to run the county jail. The fine represents a daily fee of $3,750, assessed for failing ...

$959,000 Paid by Pennsylvania County in Deaths of Two Detainees, Plus at Least $750,000 from PrimeCare

by Ashleigh N. Dye

For the 2018 deaths of two detainees at Pennsylvania’s Bucks County Correctional Facility (BCCF), the county has agreed to pay a total of $959,000. Its privately contracted jail healthcare provider, PrimeCare Medical, reportedly agreed to pay another $750,000 in one case, plus an undisclosed amount to ...

Former Judges in Pennsylvania ‘Kids for Cash’ Scandal Must Pay $206 Million in Damages

by Ashleigh N. Dye

On August 18, 2022, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ordered two former state judges to pay $206 million in damages for taking $2.8 million in kickbacks to shut down Luzerne County’s juvenile detention center, instead sending children — many first-time offenders as young as eight-years-old — ...

$480,000 Paid by California County to Detainee Whose Newborn Died After Guards Stopped at Starbucks en Route to Hospital

by Ashleigh N. Dye

On August 23, 2022, the Board of Supervisors of California’s Orange County approved a settlement providing $480,000 to a former detainee in the county jail who went into labor and waited hours to reach a hospital — even while transport guards dawdled at Starbucks — after ...

Former South Carolina Sheriff Begins 46-Month Prison Term for Corruption

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 ...

OIG Report Defers Claims That ICE Detainees in Georgia Had Forced Hysterectomies

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 ...

Fourteen Officials Indicted in New Jersey Women’s Prison Abuse Scandal, $21 Million Class-Action Settlement Reached

by Ashleigh N. Dye

On September 27, 2022, a New Jersey grand jury indicted 14 officials at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility (CF), the state’s only women’s prison. It was the latest fallout from a years-long sex abuse scandal that led Gov. Phil Murphy (D) to announce the prison will be ...

California Pays $3.5 Million to Settle Suit Over State Prisoner’s Murder

by Ashleigh N. Dye

On September 24, 2022, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) signed a settlement agreement providing $3.5 million to the heirs of Shaylene Graves, a state prisoner found hanged in her cell at the California Institute for Women (CIW) in Chino in June 2016.

At ...

Former South Carolina Deputy Gets 18 Years for Driving Transport Van With Two Detainees Into Flood, Drowning Them

by Ashleigh N. Dye

A former South Carolina Sheriff’s deputy was sentenced to 18 years in prison on May 19, 2022, for driving a jail transport van onto a flooded road, where it was swept away with a pair of detainees locked in the back and they drowned.

Former Horry ...