by Chuck Sharman
Blocked from seeing attorneys. Left to sleep on the floor under blazing lights. Sharing a 215-square-foot cell with 89 others. Women forced to menstruate without pads and wear their bloody clothing for days afterward. These were just some of the conditions which a putative class …
by Chuck Sharman
Surveillance video from New York City’s Rikers Island jail captured staffers flouting policy and ignoring detainee Ardit Billa, 29, as he lay dying in a cell in August 2025, according to a report released on September 17, 2025, by the city’s Board of Correction (BOC), …
by Chuck Sharman
In January 2022, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) reported that unidentified hackers breached its computer systems, exposing sensitive information of some 236,000 state prisoners and parolees. On April 25, 2025, a Sacramento state court gave final approval to a $1.8 million settlement …
by Chuck Sharman
Even as some states successfully move to strip hormone therapy and other gender-related care from trans prisoners, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina twice ruled against state prison officials trying to deny gender-affirming surgery to state prisoner Kanautica Zayre-Brown. The …
by Chuck Sharman
Admitting to a federal judge that he “made some mistakes,” a self-described jailhouse lawyer said that one mistake “was being overly optimistic on a few occasions and sharing that optimism with clients.” But since he wasn’t licensed to have legal clients, Christopher Reese, 57, was …
by Chuck Sharman
Two legal challenges to forced labor for minimal or no pay, which were mounted by detainees held for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), were gaining steam when Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) was re-elected on November 5, 2024. But as his administration ramped up …
by Chuck Sharman
Claims filed over a trio of detainee murders at the Oklahoma County Detention Center survived motions to dismiss in March 2025. As PLN reported, the lockup was stripped from control of the Sheriff’s Office in 2020, operating since under the County Criminal Justice Authority (CJA). …
by Chuck Sharman
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on September 30, 2025, to issue a Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to relax the current ban on using cellphone “jamming” technology in prisons and jails. The Commission’s target: nearly 500,000 contraband cellphones used by 25% of U.S. …
by Chuck Sharman
On September 15, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction ordering the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to immediately begin complying with a state law that bars holding mentally ill prisoners in solitary …
by Chuck Sharman
The small Seattle suburb of Issaquah (pop. 39,664) paid a whopping $5.5 million for a pair of withdrawal deaths at the city lockup, according to settlement agreements completed in September and October 2024. The latest agreement was completed with a release from the Estate of …
