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
After a review of public records from Michigan, online magazine and video channel Motherboard found that the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) has restricted prisoner access to at least 1,000 books between 1998 and April 2022. Michigan is not alone in banning titles from …
by Jo Ellen Nott
A former guard and a former nurse at a prison in the United Kingdom – who both fell for “flirty” calls on a contraband cellphone from a “Romeo inmate,” British tabloids proclaimed – are now paying for their involvement with the convicted drug dealer. …
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
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 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
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
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 …
