by Chuck Sharman
The Richmond City Justice Center remained under state oversight through May 20, 2026, after the Virginia Board of Local and Regional Jails (BLRJ) extended a compliance plan that the lockup had been operating under since a spate of four jail deaths in 2022 and 2023. …
by Chuck Sharman
In what is quite possibly the first damages payout to U.S. prisoners for injuries suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, Oregon has agreed to a $49 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of state prisoners sickened or killed by the disease. Gov. Tina …
by Chuck Sharman
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit partially reversed summary judgment granted in favor of officials with the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) in a challenge to two of its mail policies brought by the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), the nonprofit publisher …
by Chuck Sharman
In a settlement signed on May 19, 2026, Illinois’ Cook County agreed to pay $4.5 million to resolve claims filed by the Estate of Michael O’Connor, 33, a detainee who fatally hanged himself in the County’s massive jail on Chicago’s Southwest side on Christmas Day …
The Detroit City Council voted on July 14, 2026, to pay a $5.8 million settlement to resolve claims filed by former state prisoner Aaron Salter, who served 15 years of a life sentence for a murder he didn’t commit before his 2018 exoneration.
Salter was 21 in 2003 …
by Chuck Sharman
On February 17, 2026, the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) agreed to pay former prisoner Tajuddin Ashaheed a total of $245,000 to settle his religious discrimination claims against Sgt. Derrick D. Porcher, a former guard at the Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center (DRDC) accused of …
by Chuck Sharman
In a ruling on April 9, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California granted approval to a $3 million settlement of attorney’s fees and expenses, in a class-action challenge to sexual abuse by federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) staff of women …
by Chuck Sharman
Ohio’s Lorain County and the City of Elyria reached a settlement on June 16, 2026, paying a total of $6.35 million to Jeffrey Fry, a former detainee in the County jail who was left permanently damaged after a former guard slammed him head-first into a …
by Chuck Sharman
Washington’s King County agreed on May 26, 2025, to pay $3.5 million to Karen Rowland, the widow of a detainee who died in the County jail under a pile-on of guards just hours after his arrest in April 2022. Michael Rowland, 63, was one of …
by Chuck Sharman
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia granted approval on March 26, 2026, to a $3.25 million settlement resolving claims filed on behalf of a state prisoner who died of a heart attack caused by heat exhaustion while locked in a recreation …
