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Articles by Brooke Kaufman

DOJ Secures Settlement With South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice at Detention Center Where Staff Hogtied and Bit Kids

by Brooke Kaufman

On April 14, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a Settlement Agreement with the federal court for the District of South Carolina that brings to a close a suit against the state Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) over allegations of abuse and excessive use of solitary confinement ...

“On-Going Distress and Harm” Persist at FCI Sheridan Months After Court-Ordered Inspection

by Brooke Kaufman

In a status report filed in federal district court in Oregon in February 2022, a federal public defender said conditions at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) at Sheridan remained just as dire as she had found during an inspection the previous September, leaving prisoners there to suffer ...

Spring COVID-19 Outbreak Sickens Hundreds at Washington State Prisons

By Brooke Kaufman 

In early April 2022, the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) reported the largest COVID-19 outbreak seen in its prisons since the pandemic began over two years earlier. At Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell, 20% of its 1,800 prisoners had tested positive for the disease in the previous 30 days.

The ...

Be “Good Bitches”: New Mexico Prisoners Sue Over Sexually Degrading Abuse

By Brooke Kaufman

A lawsuit filed by 14 state prisoners in the District of New Mexico federal court on April 4, 2022, alleges their civil and constitutional rights were violated with “intentionally punishing strip searches” while being held by the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD).

After their transports to Central New Mexico Correctional Facility ...