by Jean Casella and Aviva Stahl, Solitary Watch

What will it take to end long-term solitary confinement in America’s prisons? Colorado could be the first to find out.

For 13 of his 22 years in prison, Cero Smith spent 23 hours a day alone in a small concrete cell. Three ...

by Paul Wright

The past 40 years have seen a massive rise in the use of solitary confinement throughout the United States as a means of psychological torture to destroy people. As federal courts enjoined official means of physical torture (prisoners were being flogged in the yard of the Tennessee ...

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania is trying to beef up its Court-Assisted Re-entry Program (CARE), which is available to federal prisoners placed on supervised release after they serve their prison term. The program’s newest effort is called the Cooperatively Arranged Re-entry Services (CARES).

CARE began ...

In May 2016, the New York Supreme Court in Dutchess County held the State Parole Board (the Board) in contempt for failing to follow a court order governing a parole review.

New York state prisoner John Mackenzie, 69, was convicted in 1975 of the murder of a police officer during ...

On July 5, 2017, the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), which publishes Prison Legal News, filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Jail alleging civil rights violations. The jail holds the largest number of pre-trial detainees in the United States, and was previously the subject of a federal ...

The California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, reversed a lower court’s orders treating a prisoner’s damages action as a habeas corpus petition and then denying relief.

California prisoner Ernest L. Cox filed a civil suit in state court against various prison officials, alleging sexual harassment, intentional infliction of emotional ...

by Derek Gilna

A new report from the federal government documents what many already know: that the problem of substance abuse addiction continues to expand, now affecting an estimated 20.8 million Americans. That’s more than the total number of people in the U.S. with cancer.

Prisoners at the local, state ...

by Derek Gilna

After three years of research, the highly-respected, non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law published an extensive report in December 2016 which concluded that while “mass incarceration has emerged as an urgent national issue to be addressed, the reforms currently offered are ...

by Christopher Zoukis

Qadir Shabazz, aka Deangelo Moore, aka Deangelo Muhammad, a 41-year-old Atlanta man, was convicted in January 2016 of charges related to a fraudulent scheme that sold false hope to prisoners and stole millions from the U.S. government.

Shabazz opened a “charity” called Indigent Inmate in 2009, and ...

by Christopher Zoukis

In a deposition taken in a federal lawsuit challenging the lack of legal representation for children in deportation hearings, a longtime immigration judge caused the Justice Department to distance itself from his claim that he had “taught immigration law literally to 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds” well enough to ...

The deaths of four pre-trial detainees at the Durham County Jail in North Carolina are under investigation. Over the past 16 years, 10 other prisoners have died at the facility. Officials are remaining mum, referring questions to the jail’s medical contractor, Correct Care Solutions, which also is not commenting.

Dennis ...

by Christopher Zoukis

As government authorities come to grips with the massive and costly incarceration problem in the United States, efforts to find alternatives to expensive prison and jail sentences are underway. Pretrial diversion, an old favorite, is once again gaining popularity across the country in conjunction with bail reform ...

by Derek Gilna

Recent court filings make it clear that G. Michele Yezzo, an evidence technician for 33 years with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), had a long history of behavioral problems that put the credibility of her findings in criminal cases in doubt.

According ...

by Brian Dolinar, Truthout

The appointment of retired Army General Mark S. Inch to head the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a major blow to those working for prison reform under Trump. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on August 1, 2017 that Inch would be taking over the position. ...

The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of an indigent prisoner’s lawsuit for failing to pay the filing fee within 30 days, when he had complied with state law by paying within 45 days.

Indiana prisoners are required to pay a partial filing fee for state court actions. If ...

by Matt Clarke

In a June 30, 2016 opinion, the Iowa Supreme Court held that all felonies were “infamous crimes” under the voter disqualification provision of the state’s constitution.

Kelli Jo Griffin was convicted of the class C felony of delivery of 100 grams or less of cocaine in 2008. ...

by Christopher Zoukis

The Ohio State Highway Patrol, which investigates all manner of crimes in Ohio, launched an investigation in November 2016 into the use of stolen credit card numbers to fund commissary accounts in the state prison system.

Three prisoners and a woman who lives in Cincinnati may be ...

by Bob Libal

Legislation developed by private prison corporation GEO Group that would have licensed immigrant family detention centers as “child care facilities” failed in the Texas legislature in May 2017 following widespread opposition by child welfare, medical and immigrant rights organizations.

Companion bills filed in the Texas House (HB ...

On August 14, 2017, the King County Council in Washington State voted 8-1 to pass an ordinance prohibiting the county from contracting with private prison companies. The county does not currently use for-profit prisons and has contingency arrangements with other counties should additional jail beds be required.

Councilmember Dave Upthegrove ...

by Christopher Zoukis

Derrick Deacon spent more than 24 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. After having his conviction thrown out by an appeals court and being found not guilty in a subsequent retrial, Deacon, 61, sued the City of New York for malicious prosecution.

 On ...

by Derek Gilna

Following a two-day hearing, Colorado federal district court judge Richard P. Matsch approved a landmark settlement in December 2016 that ended a five-year class-action lawsuit over the horrendous mistreatment of mentally ill prisoners. As a result of the settlement, federal prison officials agreed to sweeping changes in ...

by Matt Clarke

Corizon Health is one of the nation's largest for-profit medical providers for prisons and jails. Recent lawsuits against the company, however, call into question the quality, and even the availability, of the healthcare services it is supposed to provide. Further, a former New Mexico prison employee has ...

by Carrie Wilkinson

The Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC) submitted a formal comment on three Federal Communications Commission dockets on August 9, 2017, accusing FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who formerly represented prison telecom giant Securus Technologies, Inc., of having a conflict of interest. In its filings, HRDC noted that “not ...

by Derek Gilna

According to data gathered by the Reuters news agency, which culled records from various Canadian provincial governments, almost 270 prisoners awaiting trial have died over the past five years. Apparently pretrial bail practices in our northern neighbor are in serious need of reform, according to prisoners’ rights ...

by Joe Watson

A counselor at the Turney Center Industrial Complex (TCIX), a close-security prison located in southwestern Tennessee, was suspended for three days after she posted profanity-laced insults on the Facebook page for the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) in April 2017, in the wake of an assault on ...

The Ninth Circuit has held that a courtroom deputy was not entitled to absolute immunity for shoving a bail enforcement agent from a courtroom. The appellate court also found, however, that the deputy was entitled to qualified immunity.

Nevada bail enforcement agent Adam Brooks owns Las Vegas Fugitive Recovery. Brooks ...

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed summary judgment for the defendants on a prisoner’s retaliatory discipline claim, finding the district court erred in failing to compel prison officials to produce a security video which would have been dispositive evidence.

Illinois state prisoner Kenneth Ogurek was charged with a disciplinary ...

by Matt Clarke

A federal jury awarded an Oklahoma woman $6.5 million after she was sexually assaulted by a Hollis, Oklahoma assistant police chief while held at the Harmon County jail.

Tiffany Ann Glover, 33, filed a federal civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Harmon County ...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has sharply criticized a district court’s handling of a Wiccan prisoner’s lawsuit, and reinstated a longstanding consent decree in the case.

In 1993, California state prisoner William Rouser filed suit on behalf of himself and thirty other prisoners, seeking to compel prison officials to ...

The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has reversed the dismissal of a challenge to a prison grooming policy filed by Native American prisoners.

Texas state prisoners Teddy Norris Davis and Robbie Dow Goodman alleged their religious freedoms had been curtailed by TDCJ policies related to pipe ceremonies, medicine ...

An Oregon federal district court issued a preliminary injunction enjoining prison officials from releasing a disabled prisoner without assistance.

Oregon state prisoner Steven Fox was an able-bodied person when he entered prison in 2010. Due to the neglect of prison officials, however, he sustained injuries that severely limited his mobility ...

by Derek Gilna

On July 24, 2017, the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), the parent organization and publisher of Prison Legal News, entered into a settlement with private prison firm Management and Training Corp. (MTC), which has contracts to operate detention centers nationwide. The settlement agreement resolved what HRDC argued were First and Fourteenth Amendment violations with respect to sending publications to prisoners at the company’s facilities.

HRDC filed separate federal lawsuits alleging that MTC, a Utah corporation, had blocked the distribution of PLN books and other publications sent to prisoners at the company’s Otero County Prison Facility in New Mexico and North Central Correctional Complex in Ohio.

HRDC and PLN have published numerous articles critical of private prison companies like MTC, accusing them of engaging in the systematic violation of prisoners’ rights in their quest to generate profit. [See, e.g.: PLN, Feb. 2017, p.60; Dec. 2016, p.20; March 2011, p.24].

According to HRDC executive director Paul Wright, “MTC has a policy and practice of censoring the free speech of publishers and book distributors around the country. As a for-profit, private prison company, it is shameful that they are being paid by taxpayers to violate the First Amendment ...

The Missouri Court of Appeals has held that a trial court erred as a matter of law in finding that a federal statute pre-empted the Missouri Incarceration Reimbursement Act (MIRA) and precluded attachment of a prisoner’s Individual Retirement Account (IRA).

MIRA, §§ 217.825-.841, authorizes the Missouri Department of Corrections to ...

by David M. Reutter

A federal investigation into the abuse of pretrial detainees at Louisiana’s Iberia Parish Jail resulted in guilty pleas by ten sheriff’s deputies. A trial is pending for an 11th deputy who did not plead guilty, Mark Frederick. Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal was also charged but ...

Halfway houses, known as Residential Reentry Centers (RRCs), are the last stop for federal prisoners before they are released from the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). According to a recent U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) memorandum on the subject, the BOP “maintains agreements with 103 different contractors to operate 181 [RRC] ...

by Derek Gilna

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has published three new studies based on calendar year 2015 data, with one indicating the total number of prisoners nationwide declined to the lowest level since 2005. The number of people on probation also decreased slightly, but the number of ...

Although incarceration levels in the U.S. have receded slightly this decade – to around 2.2 million people in 2016, according to the Prison Policy Initiative – the number of offenders on some form of probation or community supervision has increased. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that 4.65 million ...

The Oregon Court of Appeals has held that a prisoner was entitled to dismissal of a dangerous weapon charge because a plastic spoon with a slightly sharpened handle was not a dangerous weapon. The Court also held an “attempt” jury instruction should have been given.

Oregon state prisoner Sean Coby ...

On December 6, 2016, the Supreme Court of Utah reversed the termination of a prisoner’s parental rights because the juvenile court had interpreted a state statute as prohibiting the appointment of counsel for the prisoner.

C.B.S. is a Utah prisoner who gave birth to E.K.S. while she was on probation ...

by Christopher Zoukis

At least four people, including a newborn, have died in Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County Jail since April 2016. The facility, run by Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr., houses about 950 detainees daily. The string of deaths has raised concerns about conditions at the jail, including whether adequate medical ...

A surprise predawn shakedown on March 3, 2017 yielded an “excessive amount of contraband” at one of Mississippi’s three privately-operated prisons, according to Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) Interim Commissioner Pelicia Hall. The search at the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility was the start of “Operation Zero Tolerance,” which includes surprise ...

On June 16, 2017, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed legislation to regulate the online mugshot industry, preventing websites that publish booking photos from charging a fee to remove them.

South Carolina passed a similar law, known as the “Mugshot Extortion Bill,” in February 2016. As former state Senator Paul Thurmond ...

The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed a summary judgment order in favor of prison officials who subjected prisoners in segregation to visual body-cavity searches three times a day.

While confined in a Secured Housing Unit (SHU) cell at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center, Delaware prisoner Donald ...

The Oregon Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s dismissal of a prisoner’s handwritten, pro se filing for failure to state a claim.

Oregon prisoner Michael Spillino filed a handwritten petition in circuit court, claiming that Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) lieutenant Hogeland wrongfully took his personal property, valued at ...

The Oregon Court of Appeals held last year that a prisoner’s release date had been improperly rescinded due to a public outcry, contrary to state law.

Oregon prisoner Sidney Dean Porter was sentenced to life imprisonment for beating police officer Frank L. Ward to death in 1992. Porter’s blood alcohol ...

The Alabama Supreme Court held last year that the prison mailbox rule applies to a motion for sentence reconsideration under former state law.

Alabama Code § 13A-5-9.1 authorized the filing of a motion for sentence reconsideration, but the state legislature repealed that provision effective March 13, 2014. The repeal bill ...

Citing budgetary cuts, the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) finally closed the troubled, privately-operated Walnut Grove Correctional Facility (WGCF) on September 15, 2016.

As previously reported in PLN, Walnut Grove had been under a federal consent decree since 2012 over allegations of guards smuggling drugs and having sex with ...

by Derek Gilna

Shawnnon Hale, 24, wrongful accused of felony rape and jailed for 61 days, was released from custody in Denver, Colorado in early 2015 when the police crime lab acknowledged it had mislabeled a DNA sample that incorrectly identified him as the perpetrator. As a result of his ...

by Derek Gilna

American University, a private college in Washington, D.C., bowed to pressure from a federal law enforcement group and removed a statue of Native American activist and prisoner Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of the 1975 murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in ...

The Oregon Court of Appeals has held that a prisoner was improperly denied an early parole consideration hearing when the Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision (Board) failed to define “reasonable cause” before applying that statutory term.

In 1986, George W. Nulph was convicted of several crimes and the trial ...

by Derek Gilna

California state prisons are known to be dangerous and violent places, but prisoners employed in industry programs at those facilities are also at serious risk of work-related injuries, as indicated by records maintained by the California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA).

According to CALPIA, there have been over ...

by Derek Gilna

The "Millions for Prisoners Human Rights March," held in Washington, D.C. on August 19, 2017, apparently prompted a statewide lockdown by the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) to prevent any displays of solidarity with the free-world marchers, according to prisoners’ rights advocates. The protest in the nation’s ...

Alaska: A former prison guard convicted of smuggling drugs into the Goose Creek Correctional Center was sentenced on April 24, 2017 to eight months in federal prison. Adam Jason Spindler, 33, pleaded guilty to one count each of drug conspiracy and possession of controlled substances with the intent to distribute. ...