by Chuck Sharman
The Maine Department of Corrections (DOC) agreed to pay $250,000 to former state prisoner Zachary Swain on February 26, 2026, settling his claims that he was subjected to excessive and debilitating solitary confinement during his six-year incarceration at Maine State Prison (MSP). The payout is …
by Chuck Sharman
In a one-paragraph opinion issued on May 14, 2026, the Arkansas Supreme Court declined to review a lower court’s ruling that invalidated two new laws transferring much of the prison oversight authority formerly held by the state Board of Corrections (BOC) to Gov. Sarah H. …
by Chuck Sharman
A former New Mexico prisoner’s excessive force complaint against guards morphed into a public records suit over his stonewalled demand for documentation of the incident before the state agreed to a settlement on March 4, 2026. Under its terms, $112,500 was paid to the former …
by Chuck Sharman
A massive six-year-old class-action challenge to conditions of confinement in the San Diego County jail system moved a step closer to resolution on March 12, 2026, when the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California granted preliminary approval to a partial settlement resolving …
by Chuck Sharman
Manhattan District Attorney (D.A.) Alvin Bragg (D) announced on April 27, 2026, that his office had successfully moved a state judge to vacate the conviction of and dismiss the indictment against Harry Ruiz, 57, who served 25 years in a state prison for murder before …
by Chuck Sharman
Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County Council voted on April 28, 2026, to pay $75,000 to Jerome Williamson, a former prisoner in the county lockup who accused a guard of shoving him to the floor and breaking his wrist.
The incident unfolded in September 2023 at the …
by Chuck Sharman
New York City has reached nearly $5.2 million in settlements resolving two suits that accused staffers at the Rikers Island jail complex of ignoring detainees suffering fatal methadone overdoses. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an order on May …
by Chuck Sharman
On February 17, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland granted dismissal to the mother of a detainee who committed suicide five years earlier at the Dorchester County Detention Center (DCDC), after she accepted $1 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit …
by Chuck Sharman
A Pennsylvania judge vacated the murder convictions of Jermal Shuler, Marc Brittingham and Rasheed Smith on May 26, 2026, after they spent 28 years in state prisons for the brutal 1997 killing of Essie Thomas, 73, in her Philadelphia home.
The Conviction Integrity Unit …
by Chuck Sharman
On April 14, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana granted the latest in a series of extensions that have added more than 17 years to a settlement agreement in which the Monroe County Sheriff promised to alleviate overcrowding causing unsafe …
