by Jo Ellen Nott
On January 14, 2023, the violence at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex began early, when a guard saw one detainee slashed by others. In a separate incident later that day, a second detainee was stabbed in the chest. Plus, around midday, a …
by Jo Ellen Nott
Justin Reeder, 32, died alone in a restraint chair at North Texas State Hospital (NTSH) on September 17, 2022. That night, staff could not control a spell of aggressive agitation Reeder was experiencing. So they strapped him into a four-point mechanical restraint chair, wheeled …
by Jo Ellen Nott
On April 9, 2022, family members and friends of men held at the Civil Commitment Facility (CCF) in Littlefield, Texas, protested the injustices which occur within the razor-wire fences of the former prison. Decrying the state’s “failed sex offender treatment program,” the protestors called …
by Jo Ellen Nott
On December 21, 2022, after a year of records requests and research by criminal justice nonprofit The Marshall Project, a database of 54,000 banned books was compiled from prisons in 18 states. In news no one should find surprising, the Florida Department of …
by Jo Ellen Nott
On November 30, 2022, nearly two years after a 44-year-old Alabama prisoner died, an amended complaint filed by his sister claims he “literally baked to death in his cell” where a broken heating system went unrepaired at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility (CF). But …
by Jo Ellen Nott
Back on April 25, 2021, while attempting to remove handcuffs and leg shackles from an unruly and apparently intoxicated detainee, Denver Sheriff’s Deputy Daniel Rodriguez broke out a pair of nunchucks. Then he proceeded to break the man’s wrist. After a subsequent disciplinary action …
by Jo Ellen Nott
A convicted drug trafficker who broke out of a Kansas City-area jail was back in custody on December 30, 2022 – along with his mother, who was charged with abetting his escape.
Trevor Scott Sparks, 33, escaped from the Cass County Jail on …
by Jo Ellen Nott
On November 10, 2022, three guards who work for the New York City Department of Correction [DOC] at Rikers Island were arrested on charges of federal program fraud. Steven Cange, Monica Coaxum and Eduardo Trinidad were named in criminal complaints announced by the U.S. …
by Jo Ellen Nott
In early January 2023, five prisoners escaped from the U.S. Penitentiary in Thomson, Illinois, according to the union representing the prison’s guards. Local 4070 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) said all five were recaptured by January 13, 2023. But Local President …
by Jo Ellen Nott
Michigan state prisoners are having a grim winter. Quarantine orders are in effect at 11 state lockups suffering outbreaks of the flu and COVID-19.
Two prisons, Macomb Correctional Facility (CF) and G. Robert Cotton CF, were under full quarantine as of January 2023. …
