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Articles by Jo Ellen Nott

Body Cam Video Contradicts Detainee’s Indictment in Scuffle With Chicago Jail Guards

by Jo Ellen Nott

A long-term civil detainee in Chicago’s Cook County Jail – the only one, in fact – is facing charges of aggravated battery of a guard, although body camera footage of the October 2022 incident contradicts a guard’s version of events used to secure the indictment.

A ...

Convicted Murderer Released 16 Years Early Is Ordered Back to Prison by South Carolina High Court

by Jo Ellen Nott

At an emergency hearing on April 26, 2023, the South Carolina Supreme Court found a legal rationale to countermand the release of a convicted killer 16 years before the end of his sentence.

A clandestine deal freed Jeroid Price in March 2023, reportedly in reward for ...

Texas Prisoner Allegedly Punished by a Guard for Talking About Abortion

by Jo Ellen Nott

A Texas prisoner says she was punished for sharing abortion information with fellow prisoners at the Lane Murray Unit in April 2023.

Kwaneta Yatrice Harris, 50, is serving a sentence for her boyfriend’s 2006 murder, as well as a subsequent scam to rob his family of ...

Sheriff Accused of Blocking Investigation Into Georgia Jail Detainee Death

by Jo Ellen Nott

After an otherwise healthy 32-year-old succumbed to testicular cancer at Georgia’s Clayton County Jail in January 2023, the Director of the county Medical Examiner’s Office accused Sheriff Levon Allen of withholding documents needed in the death investigation.

“When you don’t get all sides of the story ...

Schizophrenic Detainee Dies after 20 days in Solitary Confinement in Indiana Jail

by Jo Ellen Nott

A lawsuit filed on April 12, 2023, accuses the jail in Indiana’s Jackson County of deliberate indifference to the serious medical need of a detainee who had been held in solitary confinement for 20 days when he died of “multiple organ failure due to refusal to ...

Lawsuit Accuses New Mexico Guards of Beating and Abusing Prisoner During Shakedown

by Jo Ellen Nott

A civil rights complaint filed by attorney Mallory Gagon of the New Mexico Prison and Jail Project in April 2023 alleges that five Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility guards, two of them with rank, entered the cell of prisoner Carl Berry and “sexually abused him, threw ...

Dogged by Racist Comments, North Carolina Sheriff Resigns – Again

by Jo Ellen Nott

On January 4, 2023, Jody Greene (R) resigned as Sheriff of North Carolina’s Columbus County – for the second time in just over two months. First elected in 2018, he had earlier resigned in October 2022 to avoid being removed from office, after he was caught ...

Maine’s Jails and Prisons Record 39 Deaths in 34 Months

by Jo Ellen Nott

On January 10, 2023, WMTW in Portland reported findings from a months-long investigation of deaths in Maine’s prisons and jails. By comparing information from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with data collected by the federal Department of Justice (DOJ), investigators found 39 deaths – 10 ...

Arizona Supreme Court Asked to Order Governor to Carry Out Prisoner’s Execution, Despite Three Botched Killings in 2022

by Jo Ellen Nott

Convicted murderer Aaron Gunches is scheduled to die by lethal injection in Arizona on April 6, 2023. But Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes, both newly elected in November 2022, say the state is not ready, after the last three executions ran into trouble. ...

At Least 1,000 Children Taken from Migrant Parents at Border Still Not Reunited With Them

by Jo Ellen Nott

Five years after they were cruelly separated from their parents at the southern U.S. border, at least 1,000 migrant children have still not been reunited with them. That was the key takeaway from a fact sheet released on February 2, 2023, marking the two-year anniversary since ...