by Chuck Sharman
A 50-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California on October 30, 2025, seeks “some measure of justice” for the prisoner who filed it, identified in the complaint as “J.M.” and in the accompanying claim under the Federal Tort …
by Chuck Sharman
Under terms of a settlement reached on October 15, 2025, Washington’s Pend Orielle County agreed to pay $1.9 million to the Estate of Jacob Mitchell, a detainee who died at the County jail in 2023 of complications from untreated diabetes. The County also agreed …
by Chuck Sharman
On May 22, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit refused a request by officials with the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) for a rehearing before the full Court en banc of their challenge to a ruling, which came down in …
by Chuck Sharman
The Board of County Commissioners of Ohio’s Montgomery voted on September 30, 2025, to pay $7 million to the Estate of Christian Black, who died at the county jail the previous March after being violently extracted from his cell and placed in a restraint …
by Chuck Sharman
In an ruling on August 25, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia found officials with the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) in contempt of an injunction issued three months earlier, when a state prisoner’s request was …
by Chuck Sharman
In an agreement finalized with the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) on January 14, 2025, District Attorney Todd Spitzer (R) of California’s Orange County committed to a series of reforms in the use of “jailhouse snitches.” The DOJ conducted a lengthy investigation beginning in …
by Chuck Sharman
People not intimately familiar with prison life struggle to comprehend the level of casual cruelty that must be endured. Yet even the most hardened prisoner would be stunned by the allegations in a case pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District …
by Chuck Sharman
It sounded like a jail from a 19th century novel: “infestations of insects, spiders and rodents”; “extreme and dangerous heat and humidity” in warm weather; exposure to “extreme cold” in winter months; “broken and missing windows”; “broken fixtures including showers, toilets and sinks”; “frequent …
by Chuck Sharman
On August 5, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed that damages claims may proceed to trial against Rhode Island Department of Corrections (DOC) officials who kept state prisoner Jerry Cintron in solitary confinement for 450 days, as punishment for …
by Chuck Sharman
A June 2025 report from the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) called out the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for misuse of restraints on prisoners. The OIG also called on BOP leadership to step up enforcement of policies governing restraint use that …
