by Chuck Sharman
The U.S. District Court for the District of Hawai’i granted dismissal on September 10, 2025, to a group of mentally ill state prisoners and pretrial detainees who settled a class-action lawsuit challenging the mental healthcare they received while confined by the state Department of Corrections …
by Chuck Sharman
Washington will remain one of just a dozen states without oversight or even enforceable standards for jails, after legislation to rectify the problem died on January 30, 2026, killed by lawmakers lobbied by a group representing counties and another representing police chiefs and sheriffs. That …
by Chuck Sharman
Pennsylvania’s Bucks County executed a settlement agreement on December 20, 2025, paying $950,000 to resolve claims filed by the parents of Kimberly Stringer, a mentally ill detainee who was repeatedly pepper-sprayed by guards in the county lockup while displaying signs of active mental illness during …
by Chuck Sharman
When a prisoner is held in a state facility to await sentencing on federal charges, does that confer federal immunity on the lockup? That was the question presented to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in the appeal of David Daoud Wright, …
by Chuck Sharman
On March 4, 2026, the Board of Commissioners of Kansas’ Sedgwick County approved a $10.3 million payout to settle claims filed by the survivors of a 17-year-old who died under a pile-on of guards at the County Juvenile Intake and Assessment Center (JIAC) in Wichita …
by Chuck Sharman
On January 9, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York granted approval to a settlement agreement by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), resolving claims by three nonprofits providing …
by Chuck Sharman
In a verdict reached on March 4, 2026, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania awarded $1.5 million to the surviving sons of Louis Jung, Jr., 50, who died after receiving only sporadic treatment for his Type 1 diabetes …
by Chuck Sharman
A February 2026 review by PLN of mail policies at 250 of the largest U.S. jail systems, which together hold over half the country’s detainees, reveals that almost 62% have instituted policies banning physical mail, except for legal mail. The findings indicate that jails are …
by Chuck Sharman
On January 6, 2026, federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials were lambasted by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the BOP’s parent agency, the federal Department of Justice, in a report cataloguing a cascade of bumbling failures that cost prisoner Frederick Mervin Bardell …
by Chuck Sharman
The U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota granted preliminary approval on December 3, 2025, to a settlement resolving a putative class-action challenge to Pennington County’s policy of diverting defendants to its 24-7 Sobriety Program and then jailing them when they can’t afford …
