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Prison Legal News: September, 2023

Issue PDF
Volume 34, Number 9

In this issue:

  1. “Frozen in Solitude’’: Heat-Sensitive Texas Prisoners Get More Than Air Conditioning Locked Inside Former Segregation Cells (p 1)
  2. From the Editor (p 10)
  3. Four Hawaii Prison Guards Sentenced for Beating Prisoner – But One Wins Back-Pay (p 11)
  4. Sheriffs Offered Caribbean Cruises and Florida Retreats As Part Of Jail Telecom Contracts (p 12)
  5. $1 Million Settlement Reached After Detainee’s Suicide in Washington Jail (p 14)
  6. The Lecturer at the Lockup: Maine Prisoner Is First to Teach College Courses from His Cell (p 15)
  7. Arkansas Parole Board Denies Release to Sex Offender For Failure to Find Appropriate Housing (p 15)
  8. Unyielding Pursuit of Justice or Unfulfilled Promises: Doubts Surround California Habeas Attorney (p 16)
  9. After $300,000 Settlement for Detainee’s Death, Texas County Looks to Replace Jail (p 17)
  10. LGBTQ+ Detainees at Rikers Island Suffer Under Mayor Adams (p 18)
  11. $8.25 Million Verdict Against Former Colorado Sheriff for Detainee’s Sexual Assault During Jail Transfer (p 19)
  12. Life Sentence for Alabama Jail Escapee After Suicide of Guard Lover Who Helped Him (p 19)
  13. Calls for California Sheriff’s Department Oversight After Jail Deaths, $30,000 Settlement for Botched Traffic Stop (p 20)
  14. Innovative Brazilian Prison Claims “Here the Man Enters, the Crime Stays Outside” (p 22)
  15. Oregon Parole Hearing Exclusion Rule Invalidated (p 23)
  16. U.S. Marshals Pull Out of Virginia Jail After Two Escapes in One Day (p 24)
  17. Government Watchdog Adds BOP to List at “High Risk” of Mismanagement (p 25)
  18. BOP Guard, Nurse in Virginia Indicted in Prisoner’s Death (p 25)
  19. Washington Supreme Court: Requiring Certificate of Merit for Medical Malpractice Suits Held Invalid (p 26)
  20. Four Deaths in Seven Weeks at Pennsylvania Prison (p 27)
  21. Two Dead and $4.675 Million Paid After Deputies’ Alleged Misconduct in California’s Sonoma County (p 28)
  22. Congress Forces BOP to Upgrade Security Cameras (p 29)
  23. Prisoner Health Update: Over-the-Counter Medications (p 31)
  24. San Diego County Pays $4.35 Million After Jail Guards Failed to Stop Detainee From Blinding Herself (p 32)
  25. New York Prison System Found Liable for Failure to Protect Prisoner from Assault (p 33)
  26. Prison Ministry Sues Indiana Jail Over Book Ban (p 34)
  27. Insider Trading Charges Dropped Against JPay Founder (p 34)
  28. Five Years After Limiting Personal Visits and Banning Mail, Drug Use Worse in Pennsylvania Prisons (p 35)
  29. FBI Crime Report Lacking Data from Police Agencies Serving 25 Percent of U.S. Population (p 36)
  30. At Massive and Corrupt Philippine Prison, Contraband Includes Jacuzzis and Horses (p 36)
  31. Incarceration Increases Death Risk for Cancer Patients (p 37)
  32. $120,000 Paid to Muslim Detainees for Discrimination by Maryland Jail (p 38)
  33. Oregon Will Hold Release Hearings for 73 Prisoners Sentenced to LWOP as Juveniles (p 39)
  34. Federal Watchdog Finds BOP Staffing, Maintenance in Crisis (p 40)
  35. Senators Slam “Egregious” Prisoner Sexual Abuse by BOP Employees (p 40)
  36. Minnesota Supreme Court Denies Qualified Immunity for Delayed Transfer of Sex Offenders (p 42)
  37. Former BOP Employees Guilty of Assaulting a Prisoner and Taking Bribes at Troubled Federal Prison in Massachusetts (p 43)
  38. Second Circuit Affirms $600,000 Punitive Damage Award to New York Prisoner Brutally Beaten by Guards (p 44)
  39. “Be Christian or Be Penalized”: After Fourth Circuit Revives Muslim Prisoner’s Challenge, Virginia Jail Settles Suit for $30,000 (p 46)
  40. Aramark Sparks Nevada Prison Hunger Strike (p 46)
  41. HRDC Granted Injunction to End Censorship in Arkansas Jail (p 48)
  42. $50,002 Jury Award to Illinois Prisoner Retaliated Against for Daughter’s Facebook Posts (p 48)
  43. As e-Messaging Takes Off in U.S. Prisons, Complaints Over Service and Costs Multiply (p 50)
  44. California Guard Charged with Raping 22 Prisoners (p 53)
  45. Maryland Sheriff Charged with Illegally Procuring Machine Guns from ATF (p 53)
  46. Nevada Pays $75,000 for Religious Discrimination Claims of Prisoners in Episcopal and The Way Faith Groups (p 54)
  47. California Supreme Court Remands Guards’ Overturned Murder Convictions In Detainee Death At Santa Clara County Jail (p 55)
  48. Former Connecticut Prisoner’s Challenge Proceeds Against “Pay-to-Stay” Fees (p 56)
  49. Alabama Denies Parole to 90% of Eligible Prisoners (p 56)
  50. No Summary Judgment for Private Transportation Company in Maryland Detainee’s Suit Alleging “Horrific” 2,000-Mile Journey (p 57)
  51. $5,000 Settlement for Warrantless Search of Pro Se North Carolina Prisoner’s Cellphone (p 58)
  52. Challenge Survives to Maryland County’s Cash Bond Program (p 59)
  53. Shocking Video Footage Reveals Rampant Violence and Neglect in Los Angeles County Jails (p 60)
  54. Oregon Governor Commutes All Death Sentences (p 60)
  55. Voting Rights Restoration for Virginia Ex-Felons Once Again Subject to Governor’s Whim (p 61)
  56. Solitary Confinement is a Catch-22 for Colorado Prisoners and a “Moral Injury” for Mental Health Workers (p 62)
  57. Doctor Convicted of Sexually Abusing USA Gymnasts Is Stabbed in Prison Cell (p 62)
  58. Exasperated Federal Judge Issues Permanent Injunction to Arizona DOC in Healthcare Class-Action (p 63)
  59. News in Brief (p 63)

“Frozen in Solitude’’: Heat-Sensitive Texas Prisoners Get More Than Air Conditioning Locked Inside Former Segregation Cells

by Matt Clarke

After the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) settled a lawsuit over life-threatening excessive heat at the Wallace Pack Unit in 2018, it realized it needed to apply the suit’s heat-sensitivity criteria systemwide – and found a quick solution.

For years, officials had been moving prisoners out ...

From the Editor

By Paul Wright

As summer winds down our cover story reports on the impact of extreme heat on Texas prisons; in the next few months we will report more on what the heat did this summer in American prisons. For decades now Prison Legal News has been the only publication ...

Four Hawaii Prison Guards Sentenced for Beating Prisoner – But One Wins Back-Pay

by David M. Reutter

On January 17, 2023, the last of four former Hawaii prison guards convicted of beating a state prisoner was sentenced to federal prison. The sentences ranged from one to 12 years. Three of the guards – Jason Tagaloa, 31, Craig Pinkney, 38, and Jonathan Taum, 50 ...

Sheriffs Offered Caribbean Cruises and Florida Retreats As Part Of Jail Telecom Contracts

by Hayden Betts

Members of five sheriff’s offices across the country were offered cruises from “Tampa Bay to the Caribbean” as part of jail telecommunications contracts with the vendor Smart Communications, according to documents obtained by The Appeal.

Smart Communications is a for-profit company that sells communications services including phone, ...

$1 Million Settlement Reached After Detainee’s Suicide in Washington Jail

by David M. Reutter

In November 2022, a $1 million settlement was reached in a lawsuit filed by the estate of a 23-year-old indigenous woman who committed suicide at Washington’s Fork City Jail in 2019. Kimberly Bender took her own life following weeks of alleged sexual harassment by guard John ...

The Lecturer at the Lockup: Maine Prisoner Is First to Teach College Courses from His Cell

Professor Leo Hylton’s class is like almost every other at Colby College in Maine. Students form a circle with their chairs around their professor. His course on prison abolition – the movement to end incarceration – is offered through the school’s anthropology department. But there is one thing that sets ...

Arkansas Parole Board Denies Release to Sex Offender For Failure to Find Appropriate Housing

by David M. Reutter

On February 2, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas dismissed a state prisoner’s habeas corpus petition challenging denial of his parole because he did not have approved sex offender housing. While bad news for him, the decision is instructive for any ...

Unyielding Pursuit of Justice or Unfulfilled Promises: Doubts Surround California Habeas Attorney

In a quest to exonerate Abel Soto, his family and friends hired Aaron Spolin, a Los Angeles lawyer who advertises himself as “California’s top-ranked habeas attorney.” Soto and his supporters believe he was wrongfully convicted of a 2003 murder, when he was 19 years old. By 2019, he had spent ...

After $300,000 Settlement for Detainee’s Death, Texas County Looks to Replace Jail

Using detainees’ money to push forward with plans to replace Texas’ Nueces County Jail, Sheriff J.C. Hooper tapped a commissary fund in April 2023 to spend up to $220,770 for an outside consultant to prepare a study for a new lockup, after the current one failed its last two state ...

LGBTQ+ Detainees at Rikers Island Suffer Under Mayor Adams

by Kevin W. Bliss

On June 8, 2023, the New York City Council passed legislation to ensure transgender, gender-nonconforming, non-binary and intersex (TGNCNBI) detainees and prisoners at city lockups are provided with services designed to make their reentry into society easier and more successful.

But nothing comes for free, including ...

$8.25 Million Verdict Against Former Colorado Sheriff for Detainee’s Sexual Assault During Jail Transfer

by Matt Clarke

On October 4, 2022, a federal jury in Colorado awarded $8.25 million to a woman taken by a former sheriff to his home and sexually assaulted as he was transporting her to another jail.

Peatinna Biggs, 46, who is developmentally disabled, was in custody of Sedgwick County ...

Life Sentence for Alabama Jail Escapee After Suicide of Guard Lover Who Helped Him

On June 8, 2023, a judge in Alabama’s Lauderdale County handed a life sentence without parole to a state prisoner for escaping the county lockup with his jail-guard lover, who then committed suicide as pursuing police closed in. Casey White, 39, pleaded guilty to felony escape in a deal with ...

Calls for California Sheriff’s Department Oversight After Jail Deaths, $30,000 Settlement for Botched Traffic Stop

By January 7, 2023, after the second death in the county jail in just over 10 weeks, a grassroots nonprofit calling for civilian oversight of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department (SMSD) had rounded up support from the county Board of Supervisors as well as the councils of several cities ...

Innovative Brazilian Prison Claims “Here the Man Enters, the Crime Stays Outside”

Though Brazil’s incarceration rate is just two-thirds that in the U.S., the South American country’s prisons offer plenty of misery to those incarcerated there. Which makes the boast of a Christian nonprofit running a few dozen Brazilian lockups all the more remarkable: Their prisoners don’t want to run away, they ...

Oregon Parole Hearing Exclusion Rule Invalidated

by David M. Reutter

The Oregon Court of Appeals on November 23, 2022, held that the state Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision exceeded its statutory authority when it adopted a rule that excludes prisoners convicted of aggravated murder – including those for whom an initial parole release date has ...

U.S. Marshals Pull Out of Virginia Jail After Two Escapes in One Day

After two detainees escaped from Virginia’s Piedmont Regional Jail (PRJ) on April 30, 2022, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) announced it was relocating its detainees while the jail “works to improve security measures.” This is bad news for PRJ: It receives $50 per day for up to 200 federal detainees ...

Government Watchdog Adds BOP to List at “High Risk” of Mismanagement

by Kevin W. Bliss

In March 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its bi-annual “high-risk list” of federal programs or operations that are susceptible to waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement. Added to the list this year was the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), mainly due to its inability ...

BOP Guard, Nurse in Virginia Indicted in Prisoner’s Death

On June 6, 2023, a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted two employees of the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for allegedly showing deliberate indifference to a prisoner suffering a cardiac emergency that killed him in 2021.

Guard Lt. Shronda Covington, 47, and Registered Nurse Tonya Farley, 52, are accused ...

Washington Supreme Court: Requiring Certificate of Merit for Medical Malpractice Suits Held Invalid

A Washington prisoner allegedly subjected to ruthless medical treatment by the state Department of Corrections (DOC) can take his claims to a jury, following a determination from the state Supreme Court on May 26, 2022, which invalidated a Washington law requiring a certificate of merit before his claims could proceed. ...

Four Deaths in Seven Weeks at Pennsylvania Prison

During the spring 2023, a troubling number of mysterious deaths took place in the State Correctional Institution (SCI) at Rockview, Pennsylvania. Richard Woods, 46, was found unresponsive in his cell on April 20, 2023. He was rushed to Mount Nittany Medical Center in State College, where he was declared dead ...

Two Dead and $4.675 Million Paid After Deputies’ Alleged Misconduct in California’s Sonoma County

by Casey J. Bastian

A coroner’s report on March 14, 2023, confirmed that an undocumented worker was fatally shot by a Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department (SCSD) deputy after a foot chase the previous summer. Sebastopol attorney Izaak Schwaiger, who is representing the estate of the dead man, David Pelaez-Chavez, 35, ...

Congress Forces BOP to Upgrade Security Cameras

by Mark Wilson

“Broken prison camera systems are enabling corruption, misconduct and abuse” within America’s 122 federal prisons, declared U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), when Pres. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D) signed Ossoff’s bipartisan Prison Camera Reform Act of 2021 into law on January 10, 2023.

When he introduced the ...

Prisoner Health Update: Over-the-Counter Medications

by Eike Blohm, MD

Various medications are available to prisoners for purchase in commissaries and can be taken without instructions from medical staff. Yet taken incorrectly, these medications may have significant adverse effects or result in false positive drug tests, leading to loss of good time and potentially solitary confinement. ...

San Diego County Pays $4.35 Million After Jail Guards Failed to Stop Detainee From Blinding Herself

by David M. Reutter

The County of San Diego agreed on September 14, 2022, to pay $4.35 million to settle a lawsuit alleging a guard at the county lockup stood by and failed to stop a detainee high on meth from clawing her eyes out.

Tanya Suarez was taken into ...

New York Prison System Found Liable for Failure to Protect Prisoner from Assault

On July 19, 2022, the New York Court of Claims found the state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) partially liable for failing to protect a prisoner from being assaulted by another prisoner.

Jeremy Sanchez was incarcerated at Great Meadow Correctional Facility (GMCF) when he was viciously attacked by ...

Prison Ministry Sues Indiana Jail Over Book Ban

Unshackled Hearts is a central Indiana prison ministry that says its mission is to bring spiritual “restoration and freedom” to incarcerated Hoosiers through bible study, positive communication, and heart healing. But it hit a wall at the Howard County Jail (HCJ) in Kokomo on January 1, 2023, when a new ...

Insider Trading Charges Dropped Against JPay Founder

by Matt Clarke

On December 5, 2022, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss insider trading charges against JPay founder Ryan Shapiro, 45. For a hefty fee, the firm provides financial and communications services to people incarcerated in jail and prisons. JPay was acquired by Securus Technologies in April 2015. Both are ...

Five Years After Limiting Personal Visits and Banning Mail, Drug Use Worse in Pennsylvania Prisons

As reported by the Harrisburg Patriot News on April 21, 2023, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) implemented a solution to the drug problem in state prisons in September 2018 that has proved cruel and ultimately ineffective. That year, a rash of illnesses befell prison staff, which DOC blamed on ...

FBI Crime Report Lacking Data from Police Agencies Serving 25 Percent of U.S. Population

In October 2022, the FBI released its 2021 report titled Crime in the U.S. Published annually for a century, it is considered the gold standard for data on criminal activity in the U.S. However, the new report – which covered 2021 – lost much of its value because a change ...

At Massive and Corrupt Philippine Prison, Contraband Includes Jacuzzis and Horses

by Kevin W. Bliss

In an article published on March 3, 2023, ABS-CBN News said that conditions at the Philippines’ New Bilibid Prison (NBP) – one of the largest prisons in the world – were simply deplorable. Overcrowding and insufficient resources have resulted in abundant contraband, establishing a power hierarchy ...

Incarceration Increases Death Risk for Cancer Patients

PBS News Hour reported on March 7, 2023, that people with cancer who have been incarcerated are more likely to die than patients who were never in prison. The reporting was based on research from the SEICHE Center for Health and Justice at the Yale University School of Medicine published ...

$120,000 Paid to Muslim Detainees for Discrimination by Maryland Jail

by David M. Reutter

On March 31, 2023, the federal court for the District of Maryland granted dismissal to a suit by a former detainee at the Prince George’s County lockup, after he and co-Plaintiffs accepted a settlement resolving their claims that the county Department of Corrections (DOC) operated under ...

Oregon Will Hold Release Hearings for 73 Prisoners Sentenced to LWOP as Juveniles

by Mark Wilson

On October 6, 2022, the Oregon Supreme Court denied a petition for review from prosecutors seeking to stop the Governor and Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision (BPPS) from granting early release hearings to 73 prisoners who were sentenced to life for offenses committed as juveniles. See: ...

Federal Watchdog Finds BOP Staffing, Maintenance in Crisis

The Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report in early May 2023, finding “four foundational, enterprise-wide challenges” confronting the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

The first involves “weaknesses in the BOP’s internal audit function,” deficiencies “that undermine confidence in reports and ratings of institutional ...

Senators Slam “Egregious” Prisoner Sexual Abuse by BOP Employees

by Mark Wilson

“I was sentenced and put in prison for choices I made,” said Briane Moore. “I was not sentenced to prison to be raped and abused.”

She was testifying at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on December 9, 2022, about being repeatedly raped ...

Minnesota Supreme Court Denies Qualified Immunity for Delayed Transfer of Sex Offenders

by Mark Wilson

On February 1, 2023, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that civilly committed sex offenders have a clearly established right to transfer to Community Preparation Services (CPS) within a reasonable time. What is reasonable under any given circumstances, however, is a fact issue to be determined in the ...

Former BOP Employees Guilty of Assaulting a Prisoner and Taking Bribes at Troubled Federal Prison in Massachusetts

On July 10, 2023, a sentence of 12-months plus one day was handed to a former guard at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) in Danvers, Massachusetts, for brutally assaulting a mentally ill prisoner who was restrained. Seth M. Bourget, 43, was also ordered to serve two years of supervised release ...

Second Circuit Affirms $600,000 Punitive Damage Award to New York Prisoner Brutally Beaten by Guards

by Kevin W. Bliss

On July 18, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed an earlier ruling for the federal court for the Southern District of New York by Judge Cathy Seibel, who decided that punitive damages awarded to state prisoner Nicolas Magalios for an unwarranted ...

“Be Christian or Be Penalized”: After Fourth Circuit Revives Muslim Prisoner’s Challenge, Virginia Jail Settles Suit for $30,000

by Douglas Ankney

On May 22, 2023, a $30,000 settlement was reached between officials with a Virginia jail and a Muslim prisoner who objected to its broadcasts of Christian religious programming, which he claimed violated the First Amendment prohibition against any government action “respecting establishment of religion.”

The agreement between ...

Aramark Sparks Nevada Prison Hunger Strike

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 ...

HRDC Granted Injunction to End Censorship in Arkansas Jail

by David M. Reutter

On March 31, 2023, the federal court for the Western District of Arkansas concluded that a “postcard-only” policy at the Baxter County Correctional Center (BCCC) constituted a de facto blanket ban on publications, in violation of the First Amendment rights of the Human Rights Defense Center ...

$50,002 Jury Award to Illinois Prisoner Retaliated Against for Daughter’s Facebook Posts

by David M. Reutter

On March 30, 2023, a jury sitting in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois awarded $50,002 in damages to state prisoner Larry ‘Rocky’ Harris on his claim that prison officials punished and transferred him to a less desirable lockup because of what ...

As e-Messaging Takes Off in U.S. Prisons, Complaints Over Service and Costs Multiply

by David M. Reutter

Historically, prisoners have been largely left out of the technology wave changing the way the rest of the world communicates and does business. It wasn’t until March 2009 that the first phones for prisoner use were installed by the Texas Department Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Before then, ...

California Guard Charged with Raping 22 Prisoners

A former guard at Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla was arrested on May 24, 2023, and charged with raping 22 prisoners since 2014. The 96 counts handed Greg Rodriguez, 55, include sodomy, sexual battery and rape with threat to use authority, according to the office of Madera County District ...

Maryland Sheriff Charged with Illegally Procuring Machine Guns from ATF

by Kevin W. Bliss

On April 5, 2023, the Sheriff of Maryland’s Frederick County was charged with using his office to order machine guns from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) that were supposed to be used for demonstration and evaluation – but which were later rented ...

Nevada Pays $75,000 for Religious Discrimination Claims of Prisoners in Episcopal and The Way Faith Groups

by David M. Reutter

On March 6, 2023, the Nevada Department of Corrections (DOC) reached an agreement with a group of state prisoners to settle claims that a change in chapel schedule substantially burdened the exercise of their religion, in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal ...

California Supreme Court Remands Guards’ Overturned Murder Convictions In Detainee Death At Santa Clara County Jail

On May 31, 2023, the Supreme Court of California vacated and remanded to the Court of Appeal a decision handed down in August 2022, overturning the second-degree murder convictions of three guards who fatally beat a mentally ill detainee in the Santa Clara County Jail. 

Home to Silicon Valley, the ...

Former Connecticut Prisoner’s Challenge Proceeds Against “Pay-to-Stay” Fees

According to an analysis published by the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice on April 19, 2023, the cost of locking up America’s two million prisoners and detainees exceeds government agencies’ ability to afford it. With the help of tough-on-crime lawmakers, that has created a financial hell for prisoners and their ...

Alabama Denies Parole to 90% of Eligible Prisoners

According to an AP News report on January 18, 2023, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Parole (BOPP) denied parole in fiscal year 2022 to 90% of eligible prisoners — the highest rate of denial in state history. Leola Harris, 71, received one of those denials. In 2001 she was ...

No Summary Judgment for Private Transportation Company in Maryland Detainee’s Suit Alleging “Horrific” 2,000-Mile Journey

by Keith Sanders

Over nine days in December 2015, during transport from Maryland to South Carolina to face charges he skipped child support payments, William Karn endured a grueling trek stretching more than 2,000 miles while shackled to a metal bench in a van owned and operated by Prisoner Transport ...

$5,000 Settlement for Warrantless Search of Pro Se North Carolina Prisoner’s Cellphone

by Matt Clarke

A North Carolina prisoner who alleged his constitutional rights were violated during his arrest and pretrial detention eventually filed five federal lawsuits. Three were dismissed by the federal court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. One is still pending. Another was settled on August 12, 2021, ...

Challenge Survives to Maryland County’s Cash Bond Program

by David M. Reutter

Finding that changes in pretrial release procedures of Prince George’s County “may or may not be ameliorative,” the federal court for the District of Maryland on June 7, 2023, refused to dismiss a complaint filed by a group of pretrial detainees who claim the county’s bond ...

Shocking Video Footage Reveals Rampant Violence and Neglect in Los Angeles County Jails

A collection of graphic videos reported by the Los Angeles Times on June 24, 2023, pulled back the curtain on rampant violence and chaos inside Los Angeles County jails. The footage, saved on a discarded thumb drive, portrays a shocking lack of supervision from jailers, as well as incidents of ...

Oregon Governor Commutes All Death Sentences

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 ...

Voting Rights Restoration for Virginia Ex-Felons Once Again Subject to Governor’s Whim

by Kevin W. Bliss

In a letter to Virginia lawmakers on March 22, 2023, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) took executive action to roll back voting rights restoration to ex-felons. It is the fourth time since 2013 that a governor has modified procedures. State Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon) said the ...

Solitary Confinement is a Catch-22 for Colorado Prisoners and a “Moral Injury” for Mental Health Workers

Responding to an open-records request, the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) revealed on April 11, 2023, that 1.7% of the state’s prison population was in solitary confinement for 22 hours a day or more.

A mentally ill woman held for DOC at the Delta County Jail (DCJ) was in that ...

Doctor Convicted of Sexually Abusing USA Gymnasts Is Stabbed in Prison Cell

One of the more notorious prisoners at a federal lockup in Florida was stabbed by a fellow prisoner on July 9, 2023. Larry Nassar, 59, survived and was recovering from the assault by 49-year-old Shane McMillan. The incident was reportedly provoked by a comment Nassar made about the Wimbledon Women’s ...

Exasperated Federal Judge Issues Permanent Injunction to Arizona DOC in Healthcare Class-Action

by Matt Clarke

On April 7, 2023, a visibly annoyed U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver issued a highly-detailed permanent injunction (PI) specifying what must be done by the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (DCRR) to meet minimum constitutional standards in providing prisoner healthcare and mental health care, as ...

News in Brief

Alabama: According to WSFA in Montgomery, a guard at the Montgomery County Detention Center was charged on July 18, 2023, with conspiracy to provide contraband to a prisoner as well as bribing a public official. Timothy Bernard Summerlin, 33, had worked at the lockup for roughly three and a half ...