by Chuck Sharman
On April 21, 2023, South Carolina prisoner Dexter Lawrence, 27, was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release for his role in a “sextortion” scam that targeted U.S. military personnel. Two co-conspirators also previously received federal sentences for money-laundering. …
by Chuck Sharman
In a surprising shift, the Texas Legislature approved construction of new state-run prisons for youth and transferring some teenagers from the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) to the more punitive adult prison system. The passage of SB 1727 on May 29, 2023, marked a departure …
By Chuck Sharman
An off-duty Florida prison guard was arrested on June 7, 2023, after he allegedly shot a woman several times outside her home.
Wilner Cyprien, 31, a state Department of Corrections (DOC) guard at Martin Correctional Institution in Indiantown, was allegedly waiting outside the woman’s …
by Chuck Sharman
In a statement to a local Jacksonville news station on June 6, 2023, the healthcare provider for at the Duval County Jail denied wrongdoing in the death of a former detainee who missed critical doses of drugs to prevent rejection of his transplanted heart. Instead, …
by Chuck Sharman
During Ukraine’s successful offensive to liberate the southern city of Kherson in October 2022, retreating Russian forces took 2,500 Ukrainian prisoners with them. What followed was a Kafka-esque journey through five countries, at the end of which the same Russian army that led the prisoners …
by Chuck Sharman
A guard and a prisoner at Oahu Community Correctional Center in Honolulu were among four people convicted on federal conspiracy charges in a drug-and-gun-smuggling scheme at the lockup. All but the guard were sentenced in February and May 2023.
On February 10, 2023, prisoner …
by Jordan Arizmendi and Chuck Sharman
A huge fire inside an immigration detention facility in Ciudad Juarez, just across the Mexican border from El Paso, killed 38 men on March 28, 2023. Another 28 were left with injuries, according to Mexico’s National Immigration Institute.
While smoke filled …
by Chuck Sharman
Three guards at the Cook County Jail in Chicago were arrested in separate violent incidents during one week in April 2023. The jail recorded its seventh detainee death of the year the month before, one from a fatal beating, the other a fatal overdose. A …
by Chuck Sharman
In the age of social media, when anyone can become a star overnight, there is an unlikely group joining the ranks of internet fame-seekers: prisoners. From behind bars at a UK prison, one incarcerated video blogger has reportedly amassed 24,000 followers who watch …
by Chuck Sharman
On January 3, 2023, the Atlanta City Council unanimously adopted Ordinance 22-O-1891, clearing the way for the city to pay $1.3 million to settle claims by a Black transgender woman that she was locked up in the city jail for five months on trumped-up charges. …
