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 …
by Chuck Sharman
In a settlement reached on October 22, 2025, the Arkansas Department of Corrections (DOC) agreed to repatriate a state prisoner shipped to a federal lockup in West Virginia, restoring his job upon return in the law library at the Larry B. Norris Unit outside …
by Chuck Sharman
On September 2, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted class certification to a complaint filed by disabled state prisoner Eugene Westmoreland against Cook County and its Sheriff, Tom Dart. It was at Dart’s jail where Westmoreland claims he …
by Chuck Sharman
“We’re spending millions on prison health care,” Mississippi House Corrections Committee Chairwoman Becky Currie (R-Brookhaven) told Mississippi Today, “and we’re not getting any.”
That charge was made on the news outlet’s political podcast, The Other Side, on November 3, 2025, when …
by Chuck Sharman
Finding that the “library” at Tensas Parish Detention Center (TPDC) “is nothing more than a nominal designation,” the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana granted a prisoner’s request for a preliminary injunction on February 19, 2025, forcing Warden Nolan Bass “to …
by Chuck Sharman
After securing an order for the release of settlement records from Centurion of Florida in a state prisoner’s death, the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), nonprofit publisher of PLN and Criminal Legal News, was awarded $222,134.84 in legal costs and fees on November …
