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Articles by Keith Sanders

Texas County Jail Cited for Neglecting the Needs of a Pregnant Prisoner

by Keith Sanders

In December, 2020, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) issued a Special Inspection Report detailing the Brazoria County jail’s failure to attend to the nutritional needs of a pregnant prisoner. The report cited the jail for not ensuring that pregnant prisoners are given meals appropriate to ...

Company Surveils Activists Opposing Construction of Prisons and Jails

by Keith Sanders

As if building prisons were not enough, companies are now engaged in what are called “corporate counterinsurgency” measures designed to influence public opinion by monitoring and surveilling groups opposing the construction of new prisons and other public works projects.

One architecture and design company in particular, HDR ...

Court Grants Class Certification for Illinois Prisoners in Restrictive Housing Lawsuit

by Keith Sanders

On June 14, 2021, United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois granted Plaintiffs’ motion for class certification while granting in part and denying in part Defendant’s motion to Supplement.

The Plaintiffs, six prisoners housed in restrictive housing at different facilities in the Illinois Department ...

Iowa County Wants to Use COVID-19 Relief Money to Build New Jail

by Keith Sanders

On June 8, officials in Woodbury County, Iowa, voted unanimously to approve the use of money from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to help fund the construction of a new $65 million regional jail complex. The 110,000 square-foot facility will house 480 prisoners and provide space ...

New Mexico Jail Sued For Allowing Woman Prisoner to Die of Infections

by Keith Sanders

On February 25, 2021, the estate of Carmela DeVargas, who died while in custody at the Santa Fe County Detention Center, filed a federal lawsuit against the Santa Fe County Board of Commissioners and its employees. The suit alleges officials at the Detention Center failed to provide ...

Prisoner’s Suicide in Sherburne County Minnesota Jail Results in $2.3 Million Settlement

by Keith Sanders

A recent investigation by KARE 11, a Minnesota-based NBC news affiliate, has brought much-needed attention to systematic failures at jails throughout Minnesota. Many local and state correctional facilities in that state, according to the months-long investigation, do not provide prisoners with adequate medical and mental health care. ...

South Carolina to Use Firing Squads to Execute Prisoners

In recent decades, the inability of state corrections departments to procure the necessary drugs to carry out lethal injections and kill people has led to a gradual decline in the number of executions in America. Many states have put a moratorium on death sentences as a result, ...

Virginia Prison Guards Attack Prisoners with Dogs

On ...

Seven Guards Fired After Prisoner Dies in TX Jail

After DOJ Finds Unconstitutional Conditions for Mentally Ill Prisoners in Solitary, Massachusetts Experiments with Monitoring Gadget

Six months after the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a highly critical report accusing the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (MADOC) of violating the constitutional rights of mentally ill prisoners by holding them in isolation too long, the agency has not made conditions any less ...