by Ashleigh N. Dye
Settlement agreements totaling $177,500 were approved in the winter of 2021-22 by the Board of County Commissioners of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, resolving claims by a pair of former detainees at the county jail who were allegedly assaulted by guards.
The first agreement was …
by Ashleigh N. Dye
A disabled woman, who suffers from a severe seizure disorder, ended up spending eight weeks hospitalized in a coma with a black eye and bruises, after spending ten days in Texas’ Tarrant County Jail.
Kelly Masten, 38, was sent to the jail after …
by Ashleigh Dye
“Hey guys, this is Kay coming from Lowell CI, where the day is as dark as black coffee.”
So begins each video in a series recorded by a woman while she was incarcerated at Lowell Correctional Institution in Florida in 2021, which were then …
by Ashleigh N. Dye
A sex discrimination suit against filed by a female guard at the Maine State Prison against the state Department of Corrections (DOC) was settled for $400,000 in June 2022.
The guard, Autumn Dinsmore, filed the suit in federal court for the District of …
by Ashleigh Dye
On December 7, 2021, Maryland lawmakers voted to override the governor’s veto and take away his power to overrule parole recommendations for state prisoners serving a life sentence.
After the bill, SB 202, passed earlier in the year, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed it …
by Ashleigh Dye
When prison telecom company Global Tel*Link (GTL) agreed to slash the price for calls that it charges detainees held by the Miami-Dade Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) in November 2021, it was only because advocates of the incarcerated convinced county officials to forfeit kickbacks …
by Ashleigh Dye
A woman who gave birth in a cell in 2017 at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California, has been awarded $250,000 to settle a lawsuit she filed the following year against Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern and jail employees, including its privately contracted healthcare …
by Ashleigh Dye
On April 18, 2022, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) signed House Bill 863, legislation that will repeal the 32-year-old law creating the Mississippi Prison Industries Corporation (MPIC), a non-profit entity tasked with providing job training that ultimately reduces recidivism for prisoners. Barring further action by …
By Ashleigh Dye
In October 2021, the South Carolina Department of Corrections (DOC) paid $920,000 to settle a four-year-old lawsuit filed against the small town of Ridgeland after it threatened to cut off water and sewer service over unpaid bills owed by DOC’s prison there, Ridgeland Correctional Institution …
by Ashleigh Dye and Jayson Hawkins
A New Jersey prison guard was arrested on October 1, 2021, on charges he ran a “fight club” in the kitchen he supervised at Bayside State Prison, regularly beating and torturing prisoners who worked under him there.
“A badge is not …
