by Chuck Sharman

A February 2026 review by PLN of mail policies at 250 of the largest U.S. jail systems, which together hold over half the country’s detainees, reveals that almost 62% have instituted policies banning physical mail, except for legal mail. The findings indicate that jails are …

Armor Health, the company that held a $24 million contract to provide healthcare at the Lee County Jail, gave local Sheriff Carmine Marceno a $50,000 donation four months before the medical contract was terminated, according to the The News-Press in Fort Myers. On February 23, 2024, Armor health made …

by Paul Wright

The ongoing effort to censor, control and surveil prisoners’ access to information is the topic of this month’s cover story. It is also providing a convenient means to deprive prisoners of access to most information and publications—especially anything that is related to minorities, whether political, …

by Chuck Sharman

On January 6, 2026, federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials were lambasted by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the BOP’s parent agency, the federal Department of Justice, in a report cataloguing a cascade of bumbling failures that cost prisoner Frederick Mervin Bardell …

Just days after the Colorado legislature’s Joint Budget Committee (JBC) blocked a request from the state Department of Corrections (DOC) for hundreds of new prison beds, lawmakers backtracked and voted to approve the additional beds in a 5-1 vote on January 28, 2026. The DOC will now receive $2.4 …

by Chuck Sharman

The U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota granted preliminary approval on December 3, 2025, to a settlement resolving a putative class-action challenge to Pennington County’s policy of diverting defendants to its 24-7 Sobriety Program and then jailing them when they can’t afford …

by Chuck Sharman

In an amended complaint filed under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa on December 17, 2025, state prisoner Nersius Adonliel Artisani, also known as Roger Joseph Hoffert, Jr., accused officials with the state Department of Corrections …

by Michael Thompson

In 2018, Colorado lawmakers unanimously passed a law designed to relieve overcrowded state prisons. It was set to trigger whenever the total vacancy rate for state prison beds drops below 2% for more than 30 days. That happened in August 2025, yet the law has …

On January 31, the recently elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) announced the appointment of Stanley Richards, who was locked up at Rikers Island multiple times in his youth, as the commissioner of the city’s Corrections Department (DOC). Richards turned his life around in the early 1990s …

by David Reutter

On July 29, 2025, the Court of Appeals of the State of Washington, Division II, affirmed the conviction of a guard who conspired to be shot. The Court rejected the guard’s defense that because he was the victim of an assault and drive-by shooting he …

by Chuck Sharman

On January 16, 2025, a grand jury in Georgia’s Richmond County reported that its inspection of the County jail revealed serious overcrowding, with mattresses on the floor pressing many cells into double-occupancy. As if to underscore the problem’s seriousness, a detainee was violently assaulted and …

by Sam Rutherford

On December 2, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a $3,840,000 jury verdict for the Estate of a San Bernardino County jail detainee who died from untreated symptoms from acute alcohol withdrawal.

William Enyart’s family members called 911 on …

by Jo Ellen Nott

Leaked surveillance and body-camera footage from the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla exposed a brutal August 2, 2024, assault on incarcerated women, many of whom were elderly or mobility-impaired. CCWF is the state’s largest women’s prison, with an intended capacity of 2,000 …

by Chuck Sharman

On December 23, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana granted class certification to a suit challenging the constitutionality of the “farm line” work program at the Louisiana State Penitentiary (LSP) at Angola. The ruling allows claims from the seven named …

by Chuck Sharman

The Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) ruled on February 6, 2026, that federal prisoners seeking habeas corpus relief are not bound by the statute that limits state prisoners to one shot at their claims. The result seems only fair for federal prisoner Michael Bowe, …

by Matt Clarke

On January 13, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the denial of a federal prisoner’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus claiming he was unlawfully denied time credits he was entitled to pursuant to the First Step Act …

by Chuck Sharman

Analyzing population data at the overcrowded Fulton County Jail (FCJ) in Atlanta, a report from the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on January 27, 2026, found that detainees endure “a crisis with a cascade of public health and safety problems.” An …

by Chuck Sharman

Under terms of a settlement reached in September 2025, Washington agreed to pay $6 million to the surviving daughter of a state prisoner who accused the state Department of Corrections (DOC) of failing to treat his liver cancer, allowing it to progress and kill him …

by Chuck Sharman

In a ruling on September 30, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit found not one but two errors in a lower court’s dismissal of a Michigan prisoner’s excessive force claim against two guards who tackled him after an altercation with a …

by Michael Thompson

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has released a new report describing a two-year investigation into the endemic culture of violence and abuse in Florida prisons, especially that of the Gulf Correctional Institution (“Gulf”) in the Panhandle region. While Gulf is likely the worst case, …

by Chuck Sharman

On January 9, 2026, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma made a massive $9,544,375 award to the Estate of Jennifer Crowell, agreeing that her 2020 death was the result of federal civil rights violations and state-prohibited negligence inflicted …

by Chuck Sharman

On December 1, 2025, the Washington Court of Appeals found that conditions at the state’s toughest juvenile prison violated state law. The case was remarkable for using a habeas corpus action—known in Washington as a personal restraint petition (PRP)—to challenge a prisoner’s conditions of confinement. …

by Chuck Sharman

In a letter to PLN dated January 19, 2026, Alaska prisoner Donovan Taylor, 56, provided documentation of a disturbing incident in which he was disciplined for violating a state Department of Corrections (DOC) rule that had been judicially invalidated. Alhough he kept a copy of …

by Jo Ellen Nott

On January 21, 2026, the Dallas County Commissioners Court formally declared Tommy Lee Walker innocent of a 1953 rape and murder, 70 years after the State of Texas wrongfully executed him.

According to the Innocence Project of Dallas, Walker was just 19 when …

by Michael Thompson

Officials at the McPherson Unit in the Arkansas Department of Corrections turned a blind eye as Chaplain Kenneth DeWitt sexually abused several prisoners for years. The chaplain has since pled guilty to sexual assault in the third degree for 50 counts, for which he was …

by Chuck Sharman

On February 10, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted approval to a settlement resolving claims against Alameda County for unconstitutional conditions of confinement imposed upon a Class of detainees at its Santa Rita Jail (SRJ). The agreement included a …

Illicit drugs have become so widespread at New Jersey’s prisons that staff administered Narcan, an overdose-reversing drug, an average of more than once a day in recent years, according to an annual report released by the state Department of Corrections in February 2026. In 2025, guards and medical staff …

by Chuck Sharman

On January 7, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana refused to dismiss claims against a doctor with the Department of Public Safety & Corrections (DPSC), who allegedly ignored broken surgical screws in a prisoner’s ankle when approving a status change …

On February 8, 2026, two detainees facing charges including murder, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery escaped from the Sumter County Jail. Detainees Rickey Martin, 20, and Kentravious Holmes, 21, reportedly fled through a faulty maintenance door on the jail’s ceiling that led to the HVAC system. After climbing outside, …

by Jo Ellen Nott

Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) is reeling from a surge in fatalities, with seven prisoner deaths recorded in just two months.

Per reporting by The Baltimore Sun, this spike follows a grim 2025, when the state saw a four-year …

by Chuck Sharman

According to a report by the nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) published on January 8, 2026, arrests on “failure to appear” warrants account for over 13.6% of some 7.6 million annual jail bookings in the U.S. About half of those people have no other charges, …

by Kwaneta Harris and Leigh Goodmark

This article was originally published by Truthout.

Most true crime media is consumed by women, some of whom may be watching because they relate to the true crime genre’s victims. But another group of true crime junkies has different …

by Matt Clarke

On January 6, 2026, a Missouri circuit court struck the defenses of the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) as a sanction in a lawsuit over the suicide of a DOC prisoner. The reason for the sanction was the failure of the Assistant Attorney General (AAG) …

by Michael Thompson

Prospective mental health patients struggle to find beds in psychiatric hospitals across the nation. Most mental health hospitals are short-staffed and turn away patients who battle to find treatment options. The hospitals have too few beds and the ones they have are increasingly consumed by …

Grant Hardin, a former police chief who was convicted of rape and murder, received an additional 13-year sentence after pleading guilty to charges related to a prison escape in May 2025. Hardin had planned his escape for six months, according to a 900-page review compiled last year by the …

by David Reutter

On July 23, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed dismissal of a pretrial detainee’s civil rights complaint that alleged he was served “rotten and unsafe food” and denied the ability to engage in Jum’ah (Friday prayer). The matter was remanded …

by Michael Thompson

Norberto Torres spent three months confined in administrative segregation under harsh, filthy conditions because officials in his Illinois prison believed him to be engaged in gang activity. He sued, arguing that officials failed to provide him constitutional safeguards. In a ruling on October 17, 2025, …

by Chuck Sharman

The death of a pair of parole reform bills in the New Jersey legislature highlights a persistent problem plaguing prisons across the country: 10% of new prison admissions are not for new crimes but for technical violations of parole that reincarcerate released prisoners. While addressing …

In 2022, when Utah opened a new prison, the Utah State Correctional Facility, it was the largest construction project in the state’s history and cost more than $1 billion to build. Now, lawmakers are asking for an additional $130 million to increase the prison’s capacity. If approved, the funding …

by Matt Clarke

In 1995, the Texas Legislature created the state jail system as a place to send prisoners convicted of minor crimes in order to relieve the overcrowding in the Texas prison system. Because the majority of people sent to state jails had been convicted of drug …

by David Reutter

On August 6, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed the dismissal of a prisoner’s medical Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) and Eighth Amendment claims for the failure to exhaust administrative remedies. The district court erred in finding the prisoner responsible …

by Chuck Sharman

On February 4, 2026, a federal indictment was unsealed against California state prison guard Matthew L. Madsen, 39, alleging that he accepted over $100,000 in bribes to smuggle contraband cellphones and tobacco into the Salinas Valley State Prison. The guard had been relieved of duty …

by Michael Thompson

Statistics provided by the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) show that 39 people died in state prisons in 2024. The annual death rate rose during the COVID-19 pandemic and has stayed high since. And while the DOC has been required since 2021 to report when …

by David Reutter

On August 4, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed the denial of qualified immunity to two jail guards who refused to assist a pretrial detainee after he fell out of his wheelchair and requested medical assistance.

Ralph M. Hardy …

by Rudi Keller

This article was originally published in the Missouri Independent.

Whether prisoners die while in state custody is not used to measure the performance of Missouri’s private prison health care contractor, the state’s top corrections official told lawmakers on January 14, 2026.

…

On January 11, 2026, just days before New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) left office, he signed an executive order that restores jury duty service rights to state residents with felony convictions. As Bolts magazine reported, the policy will affect around 350,000 New Jerseyites—close to 4% of the state’s …

by Michael Thompson

The Journal of General Internal Medicine recently published an open access study that looked at health conditions for people in Minnesota who had recently experienced homelessness or incarceration and compared them to the state’s general adult population.

The study was expansive. It examined the …

In yet another recent jail escape in Louisiana, eight detainees fled from the River Bend Detention Center in East Carroll Parish, a rural area that borders Arkansas and Mississippi. The detainees ranged in age from 19 to 31, and most were being held on pretrial charges that include second-degree …

by Emma Davis

This article was originally published by Maine Morning Star.

Incarcerated Mainers can get college degrees, earn wages through remote work and vote. There’s universal access to medication for opioid use disorder in the state’s prisons, along with mental health services, collaborations with …

The Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), a jail on the outskirts of Albuquerque, was found in a recent medical audit to have failed to provide adequate medical care to the detainees it cages. Forty-one detainees have died at MDC, the state’s largest jail holding roughly 1,803 on average, …

The Oklahoma County jail, a 13-story building located in downtown Oklahoma, is running out of money. Managed since 2020 by the Oklahoma County Justice Authority (OCJA), a jail trust, officials announced on February 19, 2025 that they’re facing a $5.4 million budget hole—and that, unless additional funding is found …

On January 22, 2026, city officials told residents of New York City’s Chinatown that construction on a jail had recently begun in the neighborhood and that it would take six years to complete.

Expected to cost $3.9 billion, the jail is part of an effort by New York …

In late February 2026, reporting on the Dilley Immigration Processing Center revealed harrowing details about the conditions under which families are being detained at the facility.

Dilley received public attention last month following the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest in Minneapolis of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old …

by Nayanika Guha, Prism

This article was originally published in Prism.

Kenneth “Swift Justice” Traywick has been incarcerated in Alabama and separated from his family for over 16 years. But things took a turn for the worse when he was placed in isolation at Bullock …

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning to vastly expand its network of detention centers as it ramps up its arrest of immigrants whom it claims are undocumented. As Republican Pres. Donald Trump continues to crack down on immigration, recent reporting from The Washington Post and other outlets …

On February 6, 2025, a Dane County Circuit judge ruled that the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) must immediately provide incarcerated mothers with the opportunity to participate in a nursery program that allows them to continue parenting their children under the age of one.

The order came about …

The state Department of Corrections (DOC) spent $24 million more than the Alaskan legislature approved last year, a historic high. According to Alaska Public Media, $20 million of the additional budget request was earmarked to pay overtime for guards at the 13 prisons and jails that the state …

by Brett Wilkins

This article was originally published in Common Dreams.

Private prison company GEO Group on February 12, 2026 reported a company record of $254 million in profit last year—a roughly 700% increase over 2024—driven by asset sales and contracts with theTrumpadministration …

In the wake of the killing of Robert Brooks by guards at the Marcy Correctional Facility in December 2024, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a slew of initiatives designed to reign in the state’s murderous prison system [See: PLN, Apr. 2025, p.9.] These measures included $2 million …

Data from the state Department of Adult Correction (DAC) shows that 14 facilities, roughly one in four prisons across the state, operate with half or more of their guard positions vacant, according to reporting by North Carolina Health News.

Throughout North Carolina’s 55 state prisons, vacancy rates …

In September 2025, inspectors from the American Correctional Association (ACA) visited the Buzz Westfall Justice Center in Clayton for an audit. In compiling their 92-page report, three inspectors toured the jail—which locks up an average of 1,340 people (108 more than its stated capacity)—and interviewed guards and detainees.

…

Prisoners in Illinois can face decades of medical neglect, as in the case of Johnnie Flournoy, a 74-year-old prisoner locked up at the Pinckneyville Correction Center around five hours south of Chicago. Imprisoned since the early 1990s, Flournoy was diagnosed with glaucoma in 2002. But, according to reporting by …

News in Brief

Alabama: The Alabama Reflector reported that state lawmakers authorized $800,000 in contracts on February 5, 2026, to defend the state Department of Corrections (DOC) against civil rights lawsuits accusing guards of brutalizing prisoners. $200,000 each will be paid to Capell & Howard in Montgomery …