by Chuck Sharman
On April 14, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana granted the latest in a series of extensions that have added more than 17 years to a settlement agreement in which the Monroe County Sheriff promised to alleviate overcrowding causing unsafe …
by Chuck Sharman
The Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) announced new procedures on March 18, 2026, to “strengthen suicide prevention, clinical coordination, and safety operations across the correctional system.” The changes came in response to an audit ordered after a spate of six prisoner suicides in 2025; the …
by Chuck Sharman
After more than two decades of wrongful incarceration, Texas state prisoner Carmen Mejia, 54, was exonerated and released from the Travis County Correctional Complex by the state Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) on March 11, 2026. Two days earlier, Travis County District Court Judge P. …
by Chuck Sharman
In a report issued on February 20, 2026, Geogia’s Fulton County and Sheriff Pat Labatt touted improvements made at the County lockup in Atlanta since entering a consent decree a year earlier with the federal Department of Justice (DOJ). The claims were issued in response …
by Chuck Sharman
On February 17, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned a lower court’s grant of qualified immunity (QI) to three North Carolina prison guards who allegedly failed to keep a prison door closed—because they found doing so too inconvenient—thereby allowing a …
by Chuck Sharman
On March 23, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina approved a $3.8 settlement paid by Richland County for the death of Lason Butler, during his incarceration in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center (ASGDC). Despite evident symptoms of a mental …
by Chuck Sharman
Incarcerated in New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex to await sentencing, 19-year-old Christopher M. recalled that he was not mistreated, with “regular access to daily schooling, religious services, organized recreational outlets, including a basketball team, unrestricted bathroom access, and liberal access to telephones,” …
by Chuck Sharman
In an agreement signed on March 26, 2026, private prison and jail medical contractor NaphCare paid an $875,000 fine to the state of New York to settle charges that the company violated state licensing laws and was operating illegally. As part of the settlement, the …
by Chuck Sharman
During a trial in the federal court hearing a challenge to excessive heat in state prisons on March 31, 2026, new Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) Director Bobby Lumpkin testified that the cost to fully air condition every cell for all 132,250 state prisoners …
by Chuck Sharman
The South Carolina Court of Common Pleas for Charleston County approved a settlement on February 26, 2026, paying $2,135,000 to the Estate of D’Angelo Dontrel Brown, a schizophrenic detainee who died in December 2022 after being found unresponsive in his cell at the County’s Al …
