by Katya Schwenk

The yacht is moored at the mouth of the Miami River, in the long shadows of the city’s luxury hotels and high-­rises. It is of Italian design: sleek, imposing, with a flybridge and sundeck and five cabins, and a price point of about $10 million. …

by Paul Wright

This is the last issue of Prison Legal News (PLN) for 2025. It has been an eventful year all the way around. Two years ago, no one thought a convicted felon would be elected president of the United States, much less take office. Or that …

by Chuck Sharman

A prison case filed in Louisiana by the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) has languished since new leadership was appointed in January 2025 by Pres. Donald J. Trump (R). Filed by the DOJ just before Trump took office, the case sought to hold the state …

For years, the Adams County Detention Facility in Brighton has prohibited in-person visits. But in late October 2025, a group of three children—with the youngest just four years—are suing the Adams County Sheriff and HomeWAV, a telecommunications company, in hopes of lifting the ban and getting to visit their …

In October 2025, New Jersey broke ground on the construction of a new 420-­bed, $330 million prison for women that will replace a crumbling 112-­year-­old facility that shuttered in 2021. The Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women will retain the same name as the prison it is being …

by Chuck Sharman

In one of the largest verdicts ever returned in a suit over an American jail death, a federal jury in Louisiana awarded $42.75 million on October 20, 2025, to the Estate of Erie Moore, Sr., who died almost 10 years earlier while detained at …

by Chuck Sharman

A 50-­page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California on October 30, 2025, seeks “some measure of justice” for the prisoner who filed it, identified in the complaint as “J.M.” and in the accompanying claim under the Federal Tort …

by Jo Ellen Nott

As part of the ongoing legal proceedings in the death of 22-­year-­old New York state prisoner Messiah Nantwi, Mid-­State Correctional Facility guard Francis Chandler pled guilty in Oneida County Court to second-­degree gang assault on October 16, 2025, according to Nexstar Media Group …

The Tennessee Department of Correction (DOC) is asking Gov. Bill Lee (R) to increase the state’s contract with private prison profiteer CoreCivic, Inc. by $13 million.

On November 4, 2025, DOC head Frank Strada presented an annual budget request for the agency that nearly doubled the amount of …

by Chuck Sharman

Under terms of a settlement reached on October 15, 2025, Washington’s Pend Orielle County agreed to pay $1.9 million to the Estate of Jacob Mitchell, a detainee who died at the County jail in 2023 of complications from untreated diabetes. The County also agreed …

by Chuck Sharman

On May 22, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit refused a request by officials with the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) for a rehearing before the full Court en banc of their challenge to a ruling, which came down in …

by Chuck Sharman

The Board of County Commissioners of Ohio’s Montgomery voted on September 30, 2025, to pay $7 million to the Estate of Christian Black, who died at the county jail the previous March after being violently extracted from his cell and placed in a restraint …

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) announced on November 7, 2025 that the private health records of more than 1,700 prisoners and former prisoners had been mistakenly shared. The data breach, which the DOC claimed was done “in error,” was discovered through a public records request, according to …

by Chuck Sharman

In an ruling on August 25, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia found officials with the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) in contempt of an injunction issued three months earlier, when a state prisoner’s request was …

by Chuck Sharman

In an agreement finalized with the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) on January 14, 2025, District Attorney Todd Spitzer (R) of California’s Orange County committed to a series of reforms in the use of “jailhouse snitches.” The DOJ conducted a lengthy investigation beginning in …

When the Iowa Department of Corrections (DOC) announced in July 2025 that it was beginning to seek proposals from private companies to take over health care services in state prisons, it prompted a mass exodus of staff. Over the course of several months, more than 60 of the roughly …

by Michael Thompson

On September 17, 2025, the Hawai’i State Supreme Court affirmed a ruling allowing a warden who was fired in 2014 over a litany of accusations, including sexual harassment, to be reinstated. The warden’s reversal of fortune became quite literal as the state is now …

On November 13, 2025, just moments before Tremane Wood, 46, was scheduled to be killed via lethal injection, Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt, a Republican and staunch supporter of the death penalty, spared the prisoner’s life by reducing his sentence to life without parole. Hours later, Wood was found …

by Chuck Sharman

People not intimately familiar with prison life struggle to comprehend the level of casual cruelty that must be endured. Yet even the most hardened prisoner would be stunned by the allegations in a case pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District …

by Chuck Sharman

It sounded like a jail from a 19th century novel: “infestations of insects, spiders and rodents”; “extreme and dangerous heat and humidity” in warm weather; exposure to “extreme cold” in winter months; “broken and missing windows”; “broken fixtures including showers, toilets and sinks”; “frequent …

by Chuck Sharman

On August 5, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed that damages claims may proceed to trial against Rhode Island Department of Corrections (DOC) officials who kept state prisoner Jerry Cintron in solitary confinement for 450 days, as punishment for …

by Chuck Sharman

A June 2025 report from the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) called out the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for misuse of restraints on prisoners. The OIG also called on BOP leadership to step up enforcement of policies governing restraint use that …

by Douglas Ankney

On December 30, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated a district court’s judgment that had held that prisoner plaintiff Clint Edwards had: failed to exhaust his administrative remedies; failed to adequately allege a conditions of confinement claim; and failed …

by Chuck Sharman

In a settlement reached on October 22, 2025, the Arkansas Department of Corrections (DOC) agreed to repatriate a state prisoner shipped to a federal lockup in West Virginia, restoring his job upon return in the law library at the Larry B. Norris Unit outside …

by Matt Clarke

On October 7, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a Texas civil rights lawsuit challenging conditions of confinement at the Texas Civil Commitment Center (TCCC) in Littlefield, Texas.

Richard A. Dunsmore was …

by Chuck Sharman 

On September 2, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted class certification to a complaint filed by disabled state prisoner Eugene Westmoreland against Cook County and its Sheriff, Tom Dart. It was at Dart’s jail where Westmoreland claims he …

On November 7, Julie Myhre-­Schnell, 65, the former wife of Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell, was sentenced to three years for trying to kill their disabled adult son. Myhre-­Schnell’s sentence arrived three months after she pleaded guilty to first-­degree attempted murder in relation to a botched …

by Chuck Sharman

“We’re spending millions on prison health care,” Mississippi House Corrections Committee Chairwoman Becky Currie (R-­Brookhaven) told Mississippi Today, “and we’re not getting any.”

That charge was made on the news outlet’s political podcast, The Other Side, on November 3, 2025, when …

by Chuck Sharman

Finding that the “library” at Tensas Parish Detention Center (TPDC) “is nothing more than a nominal designation,” the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana granted a prisoner’s request for a preliminary injunction on February 19, 2025, forcing Warden Nolan Bass “to …

by Chuck Sharman

After securing an order for the release of settlement records from Centurion of Florida in a state prisoner’s death, the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), nonprofit publisher of PLN and Criminal Legal News, was awarded $222,134.84 in legal costs and fees on November …

Cecil Michael Stratton, 46, a detainee held at the Berwick Police Department Jail, was apprehended on November 15, 2025, after escaping from the facility earlier that week. 

Around the time he was initially booked, Stratton fought with guards as the jailers were “securing [detainees] during lockdown procedures,” …

Progressive non-­profit Jobs to Move America (JMA) is suing carmakers Hyundai and Kia over unethical labor practices, including the use of prison labor and child labor. 

On November 13, 2025, JMA announced its lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, allegeding a …

by Chuck Sharman

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reached a settlement with the Arkansas Division of Correction (DOC) on September 5, 2025, resolving violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12131–12134, at the prison system’s Ouichita River Unit in Malvern. …

by Chuck Sharman

A federal prisoner filed a Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) complaint against the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which the district court dismissed. Before he got notice of the dismissal, the prisoner was transferred. By the time the notice caught up with him, his appeal …

by Chuck Sharman

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky granted final approval on September 17, 2024, to a $6.49 million settlement of a class-­action complaint filed on behalf of almost 600,000 prisoners in four states whose personal information was exposed in a 2022 …

by Jo Ellen Nott

The New York Times reported that Leon Wilson, 51, a veteran guard at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, was convicted on October 28, 2025, in the borough’s Federal District Court for a vigilante pursuit and shooting. Wilson, 51, was found guilty of …

by Chuck Sharman

On March 3, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona granted dismissal to a group of cases filed by federal prisoner Jeremy “Grace” Pinson, 39, after she agreed to accept a $95,000 settlement from the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), resolving …

by Chuck Sharman

In a tough ruling for some California prisoners, the state Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, said on July 28, 2025, that a 2016 voter initiative explicitly authorized the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to award “good time” credits to state prisoners …

by Chuck Sharman

A jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana returned a verdict on April 2, 2025, awarding $27.75 million in damages to former state prisoner Nathaniel Lake, after finding that staff of private prison giant CoreCivic failed to protect him from a …

by Chuck Sharman

In a ruling on August 15, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit offered important guidance for prisoners relying on expert medical testimony, affirming dismissal of claims by North Carolina prisoner Manuel Moreno for neglect he suffered while incarcerated. The U.S. …

An aging wastewater plant that serves two of Arkansas’s largest prisons regularly runs afoul of its federal water permit, having exceeded the amount of discharge that it’s allowed to release for over a decade. 

In 2022, the state Department of Corrections (DOC) was levied with a consent …

by Douglas Ankney

On June 24, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a district court’s denial of qualified immunity to two registered nurses, Diana Snow and Christina Watson, who were employed by the Lake County Detention Center (“Jail”) when prisoner Randy Wiertella …

by Michael Thompson

On December 16, 2016, James Breyley, a prisoner at the New Lisbon Correctional Institute in Juneau County, was punched in the face “ten times, severely fracturing his nose.” A doctor subsequently instructed him to see a specialist within a week to check its progress. Medical …

On November 5, 2024, Cornelius Kelly, 39, a prisoner at the Dixon Correctional Institute (DCI) in East Faliciana Parish, was fatally stabbed three times in the chest and abdomen by another prisoner in the facility’s yard. According to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his mother, Joyce Kelly, on …

by Chuck Sharman

In January 2025, at the conclusion of a year-­long investigation into the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center (ASGDC) in South Carolina’s Richland County, the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) reported that it found “reasonable cause to believe that ASGDC violates the Eighth and Fourteenth …

by Michael Thompson

Jose Montanez was incarcerated in Pennsylvania on August 28, 2021 when he suddenly collapsed in his cell. His body was numb from the chest down and he was unable to move his legs and, he soon discovered, he became incontinent.

He alerted a guard …

by Chuck Sharman

When Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) guards failed to provide prisoner Jess Richard Smith with the required notice of his disciplinary sanction, he didn’t serve it—and a DOC hearing officer meted out additional punishment, accusing Smith of attempting to play “both sides of the line” …

In November 2025, the state of New York announced that it will close the Bare Hill Correctional Facility (BHCF), a prison near the Canadian border, by March of next year. The closure of the facility, which has a staff of 293 and incarcerates 709 people, comes amid severe …

Conditions at the Shelby County Jail (SCJ) were abysmal before a task force ordered by Pres. Donald Trump (R) descended on Memphis, the seat of the county and Tennessee’s second-largest city, in late September 2025. Since then, issues at the jail have only gotten worse.

Over a period …

On November 25, 2025, federal Bureau of Prisons director William K. Marshall III told staff that the agency will shutter the Federal Correctional Institute, Terminal Island due to structural failures, including falling concrete that could disable the facility’s heating system. Located south of Los Angeles, FCI Terminal Island …

by Chuck Sharman

It took over 15 months, but PLN finally received documentation that the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) paid $5,000 to state prisoner James Spann to settle claims that he was retaliated against by Jefferson City Correctional Center guards for filing grievances.

As PLN reported, …

When a water pipe broke at the Montana State Prison (MSP) in the city of Deer Lodge, prisoners were unable to shower or even wash their hands for at least a week. 

The break was first discovered at 6 a.m. on October 10, 2025, and within an …

In 2023, prison telecom company Securus Technologies began building AI tools using its expansive database of prisoners’ recorded phone calls. The idea was to create an AI model that could not only monitor live prison phone calls but actively detect discussion of potential criminal activity. As reported by the …

Five prison guards at two facilities in upstate New York were charged for faking illnesses and workplace injuries to defraud the state’s workers’ compensation system. The five guards were arrested following an 18-­month investigation by the state Office of the Inspector General at prisons in Ulster and Wallkill counties. …

The Gulf Coast of the United States stretches across five states in the Southeast. Within that region, more than 270,000 people are incarcerated in jails, prisons, and other detention facilities. For the prisoners and detainees who are locked up in at least 322 correctional facilities in Texas, Louisiana, …

On December 1, 2025, state prosecutors announced that ten people—including three jail guards—were indicted on criminal charges related to three separate alleged smuggling schemes at the Jesup Correctional Institution (JCI) in Anne Arundel County.

The first of the schemes was a drug smuggling operation led by Awungjia Rita …

A major investigation conducted by New Hampshire Fish and Game officials found not only an extensive illegal poaching ring but a trove of evidence of guards at a state prison abusing prisoners, falsifying records, and potential drug trafficking. Yet, despite the evidence, the state has so far declined to …

In late November 2025, reporters at Mississippi Today uncovered two videos taken inside the Rankin County jail that showed guards mocking a disabled detainee; just days earlier, the guards had filmed the same detainee being shocked in an electrical vest as punishment for asking for a Coke.

The …

by Michael Thompson

In August of 2016, Jerry Lee King was involved in an altercation with guards at the Kern Valley State Prison in California. According to King, he was attacked by the guards while in restraints. He was then placed in Administrative Segregation and found guilty …

by Douglas Ankney

In a class-action suit, the Kennebec Superior Court of Maine ordered commissioners of the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services (“MCPDS Defendants”) to create a plan to remedy the systemic failure to timely appoint counsel to indigent defendants. The Court also outlined its paradigm for …

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Harold Pretel announced in late October 2025 that he will allow an outside agency to investigate the homicide of Tasha Grant, a 39-year-old double amputee who died in a hospital while being restrained in May of this year. Grant was detained at the Cuyahoga County …

by Chuck Sharman

Under an agreement signed on September 17, 2025, California’s Ventura County agreed to pay $8.5 million to Patricia and Anthony Garcia, the wife and son of Tony Garcia, 70, who was murdered by a fellow detainee at the County’s Todd Road Jail (TRJ) in …

Alabama: A former Blount County Jail guard received a decade behind bars on October 21, 2025, for a brutal assault that was captured on security video, according to WVTM in Birmingham. Joseph Ray Snow, 45, was sentenced for assaulting detainee Jonathan Calloway in 2022. Calloway, who was arrested …