By Mark Wilson
Approximately 40 Nevada prisoners at a maximum-security lockup near Reno started a hunger strike on December 1, 2022, that lasted at least nine days. Top officials with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) claimed the strike at Ely State Prison was due to skimpy portions served by ...
by Mark Wilson
“I have long believed that justice is not advanced by taking a life, and the state should not be in the business of executing people – even if a terrible crime placed them in prison,” said outgoing Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) on December 14, 2022, in ...
by Mark Wilson
On May 10, 2022, the federal court for the District of Nebraska granted dismissal to the estate of a prisoner murdered by his cellmate, while the two were double-bunked despite being classified for restrictive housing. Under the settlement negotiated in exchange, Nebraska prison officials agreed to pay ...
by Mark Wilson
On July 8, 2022, the federal court forthe Eastern District of Michigan awarded $2.4 million in compensatory and punitive damages to three prisoners sexually abused in 2018 by a former physician at the county jail where they were held. Two years later, prosecutors secured a sexual abuse ...
by Mark Wilson
On March 29, 2022, the federal courtfor the Western District of Washington approved a $3 million settlement between King County and a mentally ill man who suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) when savagely beaten by a cellmate that jail officials allegedly knew was dangerous and psychotic, ...
by Mark Wilson
On September 29, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision to toss the murder conviction of Frank Gable, now 62, in the 1989 killing of Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) Director Michael Francke outside his office. Although the claims ...
by Mark Wilson
On March 9, 2022, Montana prison officials paid $2,500 to settle a federal suit alleging that they failed to protect a state prisoner from a known threat of brutal beating by other prisoners.
Andrew Yellowbear, Jr., is an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe. He is ...
by Mark Wilson
On October 28, 2022, the Alaska Supreme Court held that a prisoner is required to challenge a discretionary parole decision in a post-conviction relief (PCR) action, rather than a civil suit. Though a loss for Donald McDonald, the case is instructive – and not just in proper ...
by Mark Wilson
Locked in solitary confinement for decades, mentally ill Illinois prisoner Anthony Gay engaged in severe and shocking self-mutilation. Stabbing a razor blade into his eye. Eating his own flesh. Cutting out one of his testicles and hanging it on a cell door. He also packed a fan ...
by Mark Wilson
On April 29, 2022, the California Court of Appeals held that incompetent to stand trial (IST) defendants who are confined in a state hospital receiving treatment to restore competency must be granted the same opportunity for presentence conduct credit as defendants who remain in the jail receiving ...
