by Chuck Sharman
Alabama attorney Bill Lunsford has been a “rainmaker” for the Montgomery office of Butler Snow LLP, raking in over $42 million in contracts since 2020 to defend the state Department of Corrections (DOC) in various litigations. Now state Rep. Chris England (D-Tuscaloosa) is calling “enough”; …
by Chuck Sharman
Georgia’s Fulton County Jail in Atlanta stopped booking those arrested on most misdemeanor charges on July 1, 2026. Sheriff Pat Labatt announced the policy change in late May, shortly after the office of County Attorney So Joo issued an opinion Labatt had requested, and the …
by Chuck Sharman
Hawai‘i lawmakers voted on May 26, 2026, to pay an $800,000 settlement reached by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) with the Estate of Jimuel Gatioan, 49, who committed suicide while awaiting trial in April 2023 at Oahu Community Correctional Center (OCCC).
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by Chuck Sharman
Under a settlement reached in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston County agreed to pay $280,000 to resolve claims filed by the Estate of Julian Jenkins, a detainee who died six days after his incarceration in the County’s Al Cannon …
by Chuck Sharman
The City of Boston paid $11 million to settle federal civil rights claims filed by former state prisoner Joseph Jabir Pope, after he was exonerated in 2022 of a murder conviction for which he spent 37 years in prison. The August 2025 settlement only came …
by Chuck Sharman
On March 13, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida entered a $100,000 judgment against state Department of Corrections (DOC) healthcare contractor Centurion of Florida LLC and its gynecologist Ader Benoit, in a suit brought by five prisoners who accused him …
by Chuck Sharman
On July 30, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida refused to let the state Department of Corrections (DOC) seize the settlement it paid a prisoner—for his excessive force claim against guards who nearly blinded him—in order to satisfy cost-of-incarceration liens …
by Chuck Sharman
A preliminary injunction issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on June 30, 2026, ordered Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III and other officials with the state Department of Corrections and Community Services (DOCCS) to immediately begin providing prescribed treatment to …
by Chuck Sharman
The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota granted an injunction on August 14, 2026, to the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), nonprofit publisher of PLN and Criminal Legal News, ordering the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to modify a publications policy that censored …
by Chuck Sharman
On May 26, 2026, Hawai‘i lawmakers agreed to fund a $600,000 settlement resolving claims against the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) filed by the Estate of Brian O’Gorman, who died two weeks after being taken off his methadone addiction treatment by officials at …
