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Articles by Edward Lyon

$750,000 Settlement After Mentally Ill Prisoner Dies at Virginia Jail

by Ed Lyon 

Natasha McKenna, a diagnosed schizophrenic, died at age 37 at a jail in Fairfax County, Virginia, where she was being held awaiting transfer to Alexandria on charges of assaulting a peace officer. Alexandria officials had failed to take custody of McKenna three times during her eight-day ...

Gladiator-Style Fight Club at San Francisco Jail Results in $60,000 Settlement

by Chad Marks and Ed Lyon

For a second time, the City of San Francisco has agreed to settle a prisoner’s lawsuit stemming from a fight club orchestrated by jail deputies and induced by fear.

Former prisoner Quincy Lewis filed a federal civil rights action against several deputy jailers in ...

Georgia Prisoner Left in Vegetative State; Lawsuit Settles for $1,500,000

by Ed Lyon

In March 2014, Mollianne Fischer’s term of probation for misusing a credit card was revoked and she began serving a two-year sentence at Arrendale State Prison. She appeared to be in good health at first, though later began vomiting and had trouble breathing and remaining continent. She ...

People with Traumatic Brain Injuries More Likely to Commit Crimes

by Ed Lyon

After Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher murdered his girlfriend and then killed himself in 2012, an autopsy revealed he suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a disease caused by blunt head trauma during football blocking. Problems associated with CTE and other types of Traumatic Brain ...

Prisoner Enters Federal System Able to See, Leaves Nearly Blind; $2.6 Million Settlement

by Ed Lyon 

Vannara Nhar, 22, was sentenced to a term in federal prison for selling firearms to an undercover cop. He entered the Bureau of Prisons in October 2011 with near-perfect vision and was assigned to FCC Butner in North Carolina. When he left in 2013, his eyesight ...

Republican-Appointed Federal Judges Sentence Blacks More Harshly, Women More Leniently

by Ed Lyon 

Under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, presidents nominate judges to sit on federal district and circuit courts, as well as the Supreme Court. Federal judges are appointed for life and serve until they retire, resign, die or are impeached. Politicians (including presidents) have historically been ...

Ohio High Court Denies Relief to Prisoner Challenging White Supremacist Classification

by Ed Lyon

Ohio state prisoner William H. Evans Jr. was designated to be a white supremacist by a classification committee’s ruling in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC), the state’s prison system. This designation was arrived at solely by virtue of Evans having the words “white power” ...

Report: Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Centers Operate Below Set Standards

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not own or even maintain immigration detention facilities for the prisoners under its charge. ICE contracts with private companies to operate 211 facilities holding 53,435 prisoners awaiting immigration, asylum and deportation hearings. ICE does have a set of standards these facilities are expected to ...

Wisconsin State Prison Sergeant Rats Out Prisoner Informants

by Ed Lyon 

It is unfortunate that one of the first things someone learns after being incarcerated is to never, ever trust anyone. Now-retired Wisconsin prison captain Jason Wilke is a poster-child for the never-trust-anyone creed, demonstrating that it also applies to prison staff not being able to trust ...

Scabies Outbreak at Michigan Women’s Prison Under Corizon Health

by Ed Lyon 

Scabies is the name for an infestation of tiny mites that burrow under a person’s skin and cause an itchy rash. They are spread by touching an infected person or an item of the person’s clothing or bedding. Crowded conditions, like those one normally encounters ...