Striking a rare blow for fairness, the Supreme Court of Kentucky issued a ruling on February 25, 2025, reversing the imposition of $10,972 in jail fees upon Dillian Ford at his criminal sentencing in Carlisle County Circuit Court. Because there was no evidence in the record that the fees were based upon more than an unofficial agreement between Carlisle County and neighboring McCraken County, where Ford was held, the high Court found error in the lack of an officially adopted policy, as required by state law.
Ford was sentenced on November 17, 2022, to a total of 15 years on his underlying charges and fined $10,972 in jail fees for the 422 days he was held in custody prior to sentencing. During the plea colloquy, Ford stipulated that Carlisle County paid McCracken County $26 per day to imprison him.
On appeal, Ford did not question the agreement between the counties. However, he argued that imposition of the fee was error because there was no evidence that either county had a jail reimbursement policy approved by the county’s governing body.
In Capstraw v. Commonwealth, 641 S.W.3d 148 (Ky. 2022), the Court had held that a trial …
On October 4, 2024, the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) settled the second of two lawsuits brought by prisoners involved in educational programs who claimed that they were subjected to retaliation after classroom debates over political and social issues piqued reactionary prison officials.
Centralia Correctional Center prisoner Anthony McNeal was assigned as a peer educator in the Citizens Civics Education program, which was authorized by state lawmakers with the Re-Entering Citizens Civics Education Act, 730 ILCS 200/1; the primary goal of the law is to teach soon-to-be released prisoners about their voting eligibility and how voting is vital to successful re-entry.
On March 1, 2023, McNeal was performing his assignment, carrying out a lesson plan that discussed poll taxes, literacy tests, and other racist laws from the Jim Crow era. In response to another prisoner’s inquiry, McNeal informed the class how many southern states had used literacy tests and poll taxes to suppress the Black vote.
Nathan Tucker, a prison official assigned to monitor the class, cut McNeal off and instructed him not to discuss racism in class. Tucker further insisted that McNeal present literary tests as having a legitimate nondiscriminatory purpose of ensuring that …
On October 24, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois entered judgment awarding $69,384.73 to a state prisoner in his civil rights action alleging a Department of Corrections (DOC) food service director subjected him to excessive force over a grievance filed against him. The judgment included damages awarded by a trial jury and an additional award for attorney fees and costs.
Prisoner Jeremiah Fallon, then 35, filed a grievance on September 19, 2019, alleging that food service supervisors at Pontiac Correctional Center (PCC) fed prisoners cereal that they knew was contaminated by mice droppings. The next day, Food Service Director Dean Wessels confronted Fallon in the prison’s kitchen, where he “got in (his) face, and screamed and cursed at him,” Fallon’s civil rights complaint recalled. After Fallon admitted filing the grievance, Wessels told Fallon that he was fired and demanded he leave the kitchen immediately.
Fallon walked into the adjoining hallway. But the gate was locked, so he remained there. Wessels saw him, screamed at him, and demanded to know why he had not left. Surveillance video captured what happened next as Wessels violently slammed Fallon into the locked gates, “causing extreme pain …
Texas’ Bexar County agreed on April 22, 2024, to pay $2.4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Curtis Raymond Smith, 66, who was killed just hours after his arrest by fellow pretrial detainee Mark Anthony Wong at the county lockup in San Antonio.
Police …
On April 11, 2025, amended judgment was entered in federal court for the Northern District of Illinois, awarding $4,384,216.16 to state prisoner Timothy Kyles, who successfully prosecuted his claim that state Department of Corrections (DOC) officials were guilty of failure to protect him and of intentional infliction of emotional …
On December 17, 2024, the Court of Appeals of the State of Washington, Division II, held that a trial court lacked personal jurisdiction over the state Department of Corrections (DOC) and dismissed a motion to enforce a released prisoner’s community custody condition. The Court concluded with an important warning …
A $2.8 million partial settlement was reached on March 4, 2024, in a national class action lawsuit challenging excessive fees on jail and prison “debit release” cards. The case was filed in 2015 by the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), publisher of PLN, on behalf of Danica Love …
On December 18, 2024, notice was filed in the federal court for the Central District of Illinois that a $6 million good-faith settlement had been reached resolving a lawsuit seeking compensation for the April 2022 death of pretrial detainee Brian Downs at the Morgan County Detention Facility (MCDF). The …
by David M. Reutter
One year after Illinois eliminated cash bail, state courts are not only remanding fewer people to jail to await trial but also engaging in more deliberation about pretrial detention. Those results are part of the findings in a report published by the Loyola Chicago …
by David M. Reutter
The City of Philadelphia agreed on November 3, 2023, to pay $9.1 million to settle a wrongful conviction lawsuit brought by Walter Ogrod, 59, a former state prisoner exonerated of murder and released after more than 28 years of wrongful incarceration—including 23 years on …
