by Chuck Sharman
On June 1, 2026, Wisconsin officials gave the final sign-off to an agreement paying $3.75 million to the mother of a state prisoner who died of dehydration at Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI) in 2024. The death of Donald Maier, 62, who was being held in …
by Chuck Sharman
Few aspects of prison life are not subject to restriction by administrators. But when Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) officials extended their purview to the content of a prisoner’s literary journal submission, he filed suit. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington …
by Chuck Sharman
The jail system in California’s San Francisco City and County, which held 1,330 detainees as recently as March 9, 2026, hasn’t held more than 1,200 since May 27, and not more than 1,100 since August 24. The total dropped below 1,000 on September 4, a …
by Chuck Sharman
The West Virginia Circuit Court for Kanawha County gave its approval on September 1, 2026, to a $700,000 settlement reached five days earlier between the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) and Lisa Huffman, personnel representative of the Estate of Nathan James Kennedy, a …
by Chuck Sharman
In a torturously reasoned opinion issued on June 16, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama slammed the door on a federal prisoner’s claims that U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials violated her civil rights with a decade-long delay in treatment …
by Chuck Sharman
On July 14, 2026, the Nevada Board of Examiners approved a $250,000 payment to Alfred Lajes, 75, a former state prisoner who threatened to sue over the lack of treatment he received while incarcerated by the state Department of Corrections (DOC). The payout meant that …
by Chuck Sharman
The state of Washington will pay $5 million for a series of errors by the state Department of Corrections (DOC) that put a mentally ill prisoner in a Seattle re-entry center, from which he walked away and tried to rob and rape a woman at …
by Chuck Sharman
In April 2026, just a month after a former guard came forward with allegations of staff mistreatment at Indiana’s Miami Correctional Facility (MCF), the state Department of Correction (DOC) agreed to pay $1.2 million to 31 prisoners who alleged that they were held in depraved …
by Chuck Sharman
A decision by the Supreme Court of Ohio on September 1, 2026, highlights the evolving landscape for state prisoners mounting mandamus actions to challenge public records requests that have been denied by the state Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (DRC).
As PLN has reported, …
by Chuck Sharman
On September 2, 2026, the Maryland Board of Public Works approved without discussion a settlement of two lawsuits accusing state Department of Corrections and Public Safety (DCPS) officials of withholding key records in a prisoner’s dehydration death at Western Correctional Institution in July 2023. The …
