by Anthony W. Accurso

In January 2025, protests erupted outside the Tarrant County Jail (TCJ) in Fort Worth, Texas, with demonstrators holding signs that read “Sheriff of Shame” and “69 + Deaths = Mass Murder.” So many people showed up to Commissioners Court meetings that new rules were …

As of late October 2025, prisoners incarcerated in Washington state’s prison system now have the ability to call a crisis hotline if they are experiencing suicidal thoughts. The hotline was created based on recommendations from a report after three prisoners—Mitch Hemphill, Everette D. Alonge, and Michael R. Giordano—died by …

by Paul Wright

This month’s cover story is part of our ongoing coverage of barbaric conditions of confinement in American jails around the country. While American prisons tend to have a lot of problems keeping prisoners safe and healthy, jails tend to be much worse. With over 3,500 …

by Chuck Sharman

Tackling the pernicious practice of using prepaid debit cards to return funds seized from prisoners upon their release—and then eating up the balance with fees—the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), the nonprofit publisher of PLN and Criminal Legal News, has filed several lawsuits. Two have …

by Chuck Sharman

On February 13, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois approved an $11 million settlement agreement between DuPage County and the Estate of Reyneda Aguilar-Hurtado, a detainee who died in the County jail in Wheaton in June 2023.

A mother …

by Chuck Sharman

Susie Annie Balfour, who spent 33 years incarcerated at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) before her 2021 release, died on August 5, 2025, the victim of metastatic breast cancer that she blamed on exposure to toxic chemicals in cleaning agents she was forced to use …

by Jo Ellen Nott

On October 14, 2025, at around 6 p.m. in the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri, Lance Shockley, 48, was executed by lethal injection after Governor Mike Kehoe (R) denied him clemency. The state executed the former prison minister for the 2005 murder of …

by Chuck Sharman

The federal government’s immunity from lawsuits for damages might provide cover for mistreating prisoners to any employee of the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), if it wasn’t for a decades-old decision by the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) in Carlson v. Green, 446 …

by Chuck Sharman

On September 12, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky rejected a desperate plea from a transgender state prisoner who had been receiving hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for her gender dysphoria for nine years before a new anti-trans state law was …

by Chuck Sharman

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted on July 15, 2025, to pay $14 million to former state prisoner Alexander Torres, 45, to settle his federal civil rights claim over his wrongful conviction and two-decade imprisonment for a 2000 murder that he didn’t commit.

by Chuck Sharman

On September 18, 2025, less than a month after losing a bid to dismiss a wrongful death suit filed by the survivors of a detainee murdered in the county lockup, San Diego County filed a crossclaim against its jail medical contractor, NaphCare, along with the …

by Chuck Sharman

Two federal appeals courts recently considered cases involving delays in summoning care for detainees in medical distress. In one, the Administrator of Alabama’s Clarke County Jail (CCJ) didn’t summon emergency responders for a prisoner having a heart attack but made him dress and walk to …

by Michael Thompson

Cordell Sanders spent eight years in segregation housing at the Pontiac Center in Indiana after committing multiple disciplinary offenses. While being held apart from others, he suffered from severe mental health issues, harmed himself, attempted multiple times to take his own life, and was found …

by Matt Clarke

On July 25, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit clarified what constitutes a “strike” for purposes of the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s (PLRA) “three-strikes” rule, 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). See: Simmons v. Washington, 996 F.3d 350(6th Cir. 2021). …

by Chuck Sharman

In a letter dated September 10, 2025, attorneys for a group of more than 500 prisoners at Indiana’s Pendleton Correctional Facility announced a $2.4 million settlement of claims arising from an outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease in late 2021 and 2022 caused by contaminated water. All …

by Chuck Sharman

Expanding on a pilot program begun in February 2025, Maryland lawmakers have moved to require a body-worn camera (BWC) for use by all guards in the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) by the beginning of 2026. The requirement was added to …

by Chuck Sharman

Back in January 2020, Carlos Escobar Mejia, 57, was in a car in San Diego when he was pulled over by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents. Though he had lived and worked in the U.S. since 1980, he was …

by Chuck Sharman

Wisconsin’s Department of Corrections (DOC) was ordered on February 25, 2025, to immediately implement policy changes placing pregnant prisoners in the least restrictive environment possible, as well as allowing them to be physically present with their newborns to provide care. Though state lawmakers had annually …

by Chuck Sharman

On June 11, 2025, Securus Technologies was denied a motion to dismiss claims filed against the prison telecom giant and its JPay subsidiary, alleging they colluded with competitor Global*Tel Link (GTL), now known as ViaPath Technologies, to fix prices on single-call services sold to families …

by Chuck Sharman

Under an agreement filed with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on April 10, 2025, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters agreed to pay $150,000 to the Estate of Esther Truax, a mother of five who died by suicide while in custody of …

by Chuck Sharman

Blocked from seeing attorneys. Left to sleep on the floor under blazing lights. Sharing a 215-square-foot cell with 89 others. Women forced to menstruate without pads and wear their bloody clothing for days afterward. These were just some of the conditions which a putative class …

by Chuck Sharman

Surveillance video from New York City’s Rikers Island jail captured staffers flouting policy and ignoring detainee Ardit Billa, 29, as he lay dying in a cell in August 2025, according to a report released on September 17, 2025, by the city’s Board of Correction (BOC), …

by Douglas Ankney

On February 25, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) reversed Oklahoma prisoner Richard Eugene Glossip’s death sentence. This is the second time a death sentence imposed upon Glossip has been overturned. His case wreaks of state corruption, so much so that a …

by Chuck Sharman

In January 2022, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) reported that unidentified hackers breached its computer systems, exposing sensitive information of some 236,000 state prisoners and parolees. On April 25, 2025, a Sacramento state court gave final approval to a $1.8 million settlement …

by Chuck Sharman

Even as some states successfully move to strip hormone therapy and other gender-related care from trans prisoners, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina twice ruled against state prison officials trying to deny gender-affirming surgery to state prisoner Kanautica Zayre-Brown. The …

by Anthony Accurso

On July 29, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the dismissal of a case brought against a Wisconsin county jail relating to a detainee’s suicide, affirming the lower court’s ruling that the deceased’s family failed to meet the deliberate …

by Douglas Ankney

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that a prisoner must have been convicted of the death-resulting enhancement element of 21 U.S.C. section 841(b)(1)(C) before that enhancement may be applied under 18 U.S.C. section 3632(d)(4)(D)(lviii) to make a prisoner ineligible for time …

by Chuck Sharman

Admitting to a federal judge that he “made some mistakes,” a self-described jailhouse lawyer said that one mistake “was being overly optimistic on a few occasions and sharing that optimism with clients.” But since he wasn’t licensed to have legal clients, Christopher Reese, 57, was …

by Chuck Sharman

Two legal challenges to forced labor for minimal or no pay, which were mounted by detainees held for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), were gaining steam when Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) was re-elected on November 5, 2024. But as his administration ramped up …

by Chuck Sharman

Claims filed over a trio of detainee murders at the Oklahoma County Detention Center survived motions to dismiss in March 2025. As PLN reported, the lockup was stripped from control of the Sheriff’s Office in 2020, operating since under the County Criminal Justice Authority (CJA). …

Tasha Grant, a 39-year-old double amputee, was being detained at the Cuyahoga County Jail in Cleveland, Ohio. On May 2, 2025, after 15 days in the jail, Grant—whose legs were amputated years earlier—complained of chest pain and was taken to the MetroHealth Medical Center. Several days later, as Grant …

by Michael Thompson

In 2022, Stephen James was being held in the St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana Jail while awaiting his trial. At his intake interview, he notified the medical staff of the prosthetic eye he had possessed for 55 years. On June 1, he visited the medical provider, …

On September 23, 2025, lawmakers in South Dakota approved the construction of a new state prison in Sioux Falls at the cost of $650 million. The future men’s prison, once built, will replace the South Dakota State Penitentiary, which is known as “the Hill” for its location overlooking the …

by Matt Clarke

On August 14, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ordered the issuance of a preliminary injunction compelling the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) to reinstate a program that teaches “authentic” manhood based upon biblical principles that the DOC said conflicted …

by Douglas Ankney

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled on January 29, 2025 that Michigan’s tolling provision codified in Mich. Comp. Laws section 600.5856 is not inconsistent with the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA).

On March 2, 2018, prisoner Lamont Bernard …

by Michael Thompson

In a remarkable 78-page complaint stemming from a four-year investigation, the California Attorney General’s office has sued Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, et al. over the harsh and inhumane conditions at the various jails within the county. Attorney General Rob Bonta …

by Chuck Sharman

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on September 30, 2025, to issue a Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to relax the current ban on using cellphone “jamming” technology in prisons and jails. The Commission’s target: nearly 500,000 contraband cellphones used by 25% of U.S. …

by Chuck Sharman

On September 15, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction ordering the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to immediately begin complying with a state law that bars holding mentally ill prisoners in solitary …

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced on October 29, 2025, that he fired five high-ranking guards, following two separate instances of abuse toward detainees locked up at the county jail.

According to Gualtieri, one incident involved a woman detained for disorderly intoxication who was placed in a cell …

by Chuck Sharman

The small Seattle suburb of Issaquah (pop. 39,664) paid a whopping $5.5 million for a pair of withdrawal deaths at the city lockup, according to settlement agreements completed in September and October 2024. The latest agreement was completed with a release from the Estate of …

by Douglas Ankney

Between 2022 and 2025, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) held between 17,164 and 18,476 prisoners and detainees, according to data from the agency’s website. During that same period, just 120 of those prisoners were transgender, either male-to-female or female-to-male. But …

by Michael Thompson

In 2020, Abre Jackson was involved in a physical altercation with prison guards at Illinois’ Stateville Correctional Center when he stuck his arm through a small “chuckhole” in his cell door. As a result, he was confined to disciplinary segregation for three months, along with …

by Matt Clarke

On June 30, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that an Alabama prosecutor practiced purposeful discrimination in violation of federal law, clearly established by Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), when she used peremptory strikes in a racially …

by Douglas Ankney

On February 13, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit declined to extend to summary judgment proceedings based on Bank v. Pitt, 928 F.2d 1108 (11th Cir. 1991), which requires district courts to sua sponte notify pro se litigants to amend …

More than 30,000 federal prison guards lost collective bargaining rights when, on September 25, 2025, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) announced it was canceling its union contract with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the umbrella union that represents the agency’s employees.

As PLN previously reported, …

by Chuck Sharman

A jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado returned a verdict on April 9, 2025, awarding $4 million to the Estate of Jackson Maes, a detainee whose cries for help allegedly went largely ignored by staffers at the Saguache County Sheriff’s …

by Chuck Sharman

When he was sentenced to prison on July 3, 2025, former federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) guard Mikael Rivera, 48, received an eight-year term for sexually assaulting three prisoners at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Aug., 2025 p.62.] …

by Chuck Sharman

In a frustrating series of court rulings, three Texas prisoners seeking redress for a guard’s blatant sexual abuse saw their last claims dismissed on April 15, 2025. Though devastating for them, the case offers an important warning to other prisoners that they need to keep …

by Chuck Sharman

Two suits filed by victims of guard rapes at Kansas’ Sedgwick County Adult Detention Center were concluded in April 2025, with three women taking $527,979.50 from Sheriff Jeff Easter for the sexual predations of a pair of his guards.

The …

On August 27, 2025, DeAndre Brown, the executive director of the Shelby County Office of Reentry, was arrested after being indicted by a grand jury on 12 felony charges related to the alleged misuse of more than $625,000. DeAndre Brown and his wife, Vinessa Brown, led the nonprofit Lifeline …

On October 20, 2025, a jury convicted a former prison guard of second-degree murder in the 2024 killing of Robert Brooks, a 43-year-old prisoner at the Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate New York. David Kingsley, the convicted guard, went to trial with two other guards, Mathew Galliher and Nicholas …

Derrick Groves, the last of the 10 detainees who escaped from a New Orleans, Louisiana jail in May of this year, was captured five months later, on October 15. Groves, 28, was found hiding in a crawl space in a home in Atlanta. According to police, Groves’ apprehension led …

On October 13, 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signed off on a raise for incarcerated firefighters, bringing their pay rate up to $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage. Before the bill (AB 247) became law, the firefighters only earned between $5.80 and $10.24 per day, Cal Matters …

by Douglas Ankney

On December 5, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed an order of the district court permitting Plaintiffs Tati Abu King and Toni Heath Johnson (collectively “Plaintiffs”) to proceed under the doctrine expounded in the U.S. Supreme …

by Chuck Sharman

Officials in Minnesota’s Ramsey County agreed on April 9, 2025, to pay $3.6 million to settle claims filed for the Estate of Dillon Bakke, a 32-year-old hemophiliac who suffered a brain hemorrhage that went undiagnosed and untreated for three days at the county jail before …

by Douglas Ankney

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled on December 23, 2024 that a district court erred in dismissing, without a hearing, prisoner-plaintiff Henry Jones’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 complaint (“Complaint”) for failure to exhaust administrative remedies where a factual dispute existed as …

by Chuck Sharman

Backtracking from new rules passed just a year ago that would have lowered phone call rates in prisons and jails to $0.06 to $0.12 per minute, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on October 28, 2025, to hike those rate caps to $0.10 to $0.18 …

Alabama: A civil rights lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Alabama by Paulette Tennison on August 29, 2025, blamed Morgan County jailers for the death of her son, John Scott Jr., on April 22, 2025, just one week after he was arrested by Priceville Police during an …