by Chuck Sharman
In just over seven years, changes in prison mail policies proliferating across the country have severely restricted mail privileges at lockups holding the majority of America’s nearly 1.2 million prisoners. According to research conducted by PLN in January 2026, at least 78% of these prisoners …
by Chuck Sharman
Under a settlement with Washington’s Walla Walla County, a now-released state prisoner took a $300,000 payment to resolve claims that he was denied treatment for a kidney stone while in pretrial detention in the County jail. After he signed the agreement on January 28, 2025, …
by Chuck Sharman
In a decision that upheld a lower court ruling, the Michigan Court of Appeals said on December 22, 2025, that exonerated former state prisoner Desmond Ricks must use a $7.5 million settlement from a civil suit filed over his wrongful conviction to repay over $1.2 …
by Chuck Sharman
On September 30, 2025, the story of one woman’s long battle with drugs reached its conclusion, when the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ordered distribution of proceeds from a settlement it had previously approved between the City of Troy and the …
by Chuck Sharman
A settlement reached on September 15, 2025, moved the North Carolina Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission a step closer to finally realizing changes that it was ordered to make almost a decade ago in its parole review procedures for prisoners whose crime was committed when …
by Chuck Sharman
On September 26, 2025, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and Wayne County agreed to pay $2 million to settle claims brought by the mother of a former detainee at the County Juvenile Detention Facility (JDF) in Detroit, who alleged that officials …
by Chuck Sharman
In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on January 26, 2026, state prisoner Joseph Allen Renney said that he had reached agreements with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) and its contracted medical provider, Wexford Health Services, settling …
by Chuck Sharman
Under a legal settlement approved on December 2, 2025, prisoners with learning disabilities held by the Delaware Department of Correction (DOC) moved several steps closer to receiving the educational instruction necessary to achieve a high school diploma or its equivalent. Though they are entitled by …
by Chuck Sharman
On January 16, 2025, a grand jury in Georgia’s Richmond County reported that its inspection of the County jail revealed serious overcrowding, with mattresses on the floor pressing many cells into double-occupancy. As if to underscore the problem’s seriousness, a detainee was violently assaulted and …
by Chuck Sharman
On January 22, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found the state’s felony disenfranchisement law ran afoul of the power granted by Congress when the state was readmitted to the Union after the Civil War. Though the ruling does not …
