by Keith Sanders
On September 30, 2022, nineteen-year-old Quafabian McBride was fatally stabbed in the heart during a fight between rival gangs at Georgia’s Phillips State Prison. McBride and fellow “Rolax Bloods” member Dejuan Cannon, 22, allegedly attempted to attack another prisoner, “Crips” member Antavious Simon, also 19. But Simon got to McBride first.
A third prisoner, Joseph Williams, claimed he watched as guard Jarvis Jones led McBride into the building where Simon’s cell was located and opened another cell nearby, releasing Cannon and another member of Simon’s gang. Williams said the guard “[made] it possible for McBride and two other inmates to attack a rival gang member” by “unbolting the cell door.”
But Simon was on alert because another guard, Sgt. Geramy Brown, had removed Simon’s cellmate just before the attack and left that cell door unlocked, too. Brown was fired three days later “for violating employee standards of conduct, staff misconduct, and failure to comply with an investigation.” Jones was suspended with pay, along with fellow guard Sara Patterson, “pending the outcome of investigations into violations of employee standards of conduct,” according to personnel records. Patterson was reinstated in January 2023, the same month Jones was fired for ...
by Keith Sanders
On January 31, 2023, a group of 26 prisoners housed in New York’s notorious Sing Sing maximum-security prison brought suit against the state for an assault on them by guards during a two-day prison-wide search in November 2022. The suit, filed for the prisoners in state Court of Claims by attorney Alexander Klein of Barket Epstein Kearon Aldea and LoTurco LLP, accuses guards and supervisors of battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and failure to intervene, and it accuses the state of negligent hiring, training, discipline and retention of guards at the 198-year-old prison. Klein is seeking $500,000 in compensatory damages and another $500,000 in punitive damages for each prisoner claimant.
The incident unfolded on November 9, 2022, when Sing Sing and its 1,400 prisoners saw the arrival of a special Corrections Emergency Response Team (CERT) from the state Department of Corrections and Community Services (DOCCS) to conduct a two-day facility search. DOCCS maintains 21 CERT teams, which are notorious for violent tactics and disregard for policies and procedures under the guise of “security” to conduct their searches. When their operation began at Sing Sing, they were decked out in full “black tactical gear with visors,” ...
by Keith Sanders
On March 20, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed a lower court’s denial of summary judgment to members of the New York Board of Parole Commission and Offender Rehabilitation Coordinator’s claims of absolute and qualified immunity (QI), in a suit brought by ...
by Keith Sanders
On March 15, 2023, the Supreme Court of Hawaii ruled that Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) §706-671 (2014) does not entitle a defendant to count time earned in detention or incarceration twice against consecutive sentences imposed later.
The Court’s ruling concerned Jonathan Vaden, who was charged with five ...
by Keith Sanders
Smuggling contraband into prison – like the synthetic cannabinoid known as K2 or “spice” – is a ubiquitous problem. There is an opportunity to quickly make significant money when an 8 x 11 sheet of paper sprayed with liquid K2 can sell for up to $32,000. But ...
by Keith Sanders
On January 31, 2023, a group of 26 prisoners at New York’s notorious maximum-security Sing Sing Correctional Facility sued the state for assaults allegedly carried out by guards during a two-day prison-wide shakedown in November 2022.
The suit, filed in State Court of Claims by attorney Alexander ...
by Keith Sanders
On November 14, 2022, a Hawaiian court ordered the state Department of Public Safety (DPS), the agency that runs state prisons and jails, to reveal the names of those who have died while incarcerated by the state.
The decision by Judge John M. Tonaki of the state’s ...
by Keith Sanders
America’s carceral system strips millions of people of many privileges as citizens. Even when released, some of those privileges are not regained. Take voting, for instance. Felons – with rare exceptions in a couple of states – lose their privilege to participate in the political process that ...
by Keith Sanders
On February 2, 2023, the federal court for the Central District of Illinois denied a motion to overturn a $400,000 jury verdict for a state prisoner, who suffered serious complications arising from untreated diabetic ulcers. Before month’s end, the Court augmented that with nearly $250,000 in attorneys’ ...
by Keith Sanders
With the highest incarceration rate in the world – over six out of every 1,000 people – America has long known there is one thing that consistently reduces recidivism: education.
A recent meta-analysis conducted by Middle Tennessee State University Professors Steven Sprick Schuster and Ben Stickle reviewed ...
