by Chuck Sharman
Two legal challenges to forced labor for minimal or no pay, which were mounted by detainees held for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), were gaining steam when Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) was re-elected on November 5, 2024. But as his administration ramped up …
by Chuck Sharman
Claims filed over a trio of detainee murders at the Oklahoma County Detention Center survived motions to dismiss in March 2025. As PLN reported, the lockup was stripped from control of the Sheriff’s Office in 2020, operating since under the County Criminal Justice Authority (CJA). …
by Chuck Sharman
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on September 30, 2025, to issue a Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to relax the current ban on using cellphone “jamming” technology in prisons and jails. The Commission’s target: nearly 500,000 contraband cellphones used by 25% of U.S. …
by Chuck Sharman
On September 15, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction ordering the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to immediately begin complying with a state law that bars holding mentally ill prisoners in solitary …
by Chuck Sharman
The small Seattle suburb of Issaquah (pop. 39,664) paid a whopping $5.5 million for a pair of withdrawal deaths at the city lockup, according to settlement agreements completed in September and October 2024. The latest agreement was completed with a release from the Estate of …
by Chuck Sharman
A jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado returned a verdict on April 9, 2025, awarding $4 million to the Estate of Jackson Maes, a detainee whose cries for help allegedly went largely ignored by staffers at the Saguache County Sheriff’s …
by Chuck Sharman
When he was sentenced to prison on July 3, 2025, former federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) guard Mikael Rivera, 48, received an eight-year term for sexually assaulting three prisoners at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Aug., 2025 p.62.] …
by Chuck Sharman
In a frustrating series of court rulings, three Texas prisoners seeking redress for a guard’s blatant sexual abuse saw their last claims dismissed on April 15, 2025. Though devastating for them, the case offers an important warning to other prisoners that they need to keep …
by Chuck Sharman
Two suits filed by victims of guard rapes at Kansas’ Sedgwick County Adult Detention Center were concluded in April 2025, with three women taking $527,979.50 from Sheriff Jeff Easter for the sexual predations of a pair of his guards.
The …
by Chuck Sharman
Officials in Minnesota’s Ramsey County agreed on April 9, 2025, to pay $3.6 million to settle claims filed for the Estate of Dillon Bakke, a 32-year-old hemophiliac who suffered a brain hemorrhage that went undiagnosed and untreated for three days at the county jail before …
