by Chuck Sharman
On April 14, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana granted the latest in a series of extensions that have added more than 17 years to a settlement agreement in which the Monroe County Sheriff promised to alleviate overcrowding causing unsafe …
by Paul Wright
Welcome to our 36th anniversary issue of Prison Legal News. In May 1990, we published the first issue of PLN. In an industry where publications rarely make it into the double digits, it is amazing we have lasted 36 years and continuously published, reaching …
Loaded on
May 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2026, page 11
On April 24, 2026, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson (D) fired the head of the state’s independent prison watchdog, the Office of the Corrections Ombuds (OCO). The office’s director Jeremiah Bourgeois was notified of an investigation into alleged ethical misconduct on April 20 of this year, after being ordered in …
by Chuck Sharman
The Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) announced new procedures on March 18, 2026, to “strengthen suicide prevention, clinical coordination, and safety operations across the correctional system.” The changes came in response to an audit ordered after a spate of six prisoner suicides in 2025; the …
Loaded on
May 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2026, page 13
If the stipulations of a 2025 law proceed according to plan, Idaho will switch to using firing squads as its primary method of performing executions by July 1 of this year. Governor Brad Little (R) signed HB 37 into law in March 2025, cementing executions by firing squad as …
by Chuck Sharman
After more than two decades of wrongful incarceration, Texas state prisoner Carmen Mejia, 54, was exonerated and released from the Travis County Correctional Complex by the state Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) on March 11, 2026. Two days earlier, Travis County District Court Judge P. …
by Chuck Sharman
In a report issued on February 20, 2026, Geogia’s Fulton County and Sheriff Pat Labatt touted improvements made at the County lockup in Atlanta since entering a consent decree a year earlier with the federal Department of Justice (DOJ). The claims were issued in response …
by Chuck Sharman
On February 17, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned a lower court’s grant of qualified immunity (QI) to three North Carolina prison guards who allegedly failed to keep a prison door closed—because they found doing so too inconvenient—thereby allowing a …
Loaded on
May 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2026, page 17
On August 16, 2023, detainee Daniel Foard, 32, died on the floor of his cell at the La Plata County Jail. Foard died from a perforated duodenal ulcer that, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his family in 2025, was “highly treatable.” The lawsuit—which listed defendants including …
Loaded on
May 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2026, page 17
In 2025, Paul Scot Kunch was working as a full-time dentist at the Iowa State Penitentiary in the town of Fort Madison. His salary at the time, according to the Iowa Capitol Dispatch, was $95,694. Now, Kunch is facing disciplinary action based on charges of improper, lewd or …
by Douglas Ankney
"The value of human life in prison and jail is worth less—including for these children, because of who their parents are. They are born with a stigma or they are not even born at all because they are viewed as not worthy of life,” said …
by Chuck Sharman
On March 23, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina approved a $3.8 settlement paid by Richland County for the death of Lason Butler, during his incarceration in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center (ASGDC). Despite evident symptoms of a mental …
by Chuck Sharman
Incarcerated in New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex to await sentencing, 19-year-old Christopher M. recalled that he was not mistreated, with “regular access to daily schooling, religious services, organized recreational outlets, including a basketball team, unrestricted bathroom access, and liberal access to telephones,” …
by Douglas Ankney
Evidence uncovered by InvestigateWest released in an exposé entitled “Guarded by Predators” revealed rampant sexual abuse of prisoners by staff at three women’s prisons—a condition denied by Idaho Department of Corrections (DOC) Director Bree Derrick.
As previously reported by PLN, the DOC paid former …
by Michael Thompson
The River North Center had been on lockdown for three months as of February 2026 due to the murder of a guard. Following the murder, John Holomon Russell was charged with aggravated murder, as well as the attempted murder of two other prison guards, and …
by Laura A. Bischoff, USA Today Network, and Doug Livingston, The Marshall Project
This article was originally published in The Marshall Project.
Jayson Murphy lit the speck of paper and inhaled, holding the smoke in his lungs as long as he could.
His cellmate, …
by Chuck Sharman
In an agreement signed on March 26, 2026, private prison and jail medical contractor NaphCare paid an $875,000 fine to the state of New York to settle charges that the company violated state licensing laws and was operating illegally. As part of the settlement, the …
Loaded on
May 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2026, page 30
Conditions at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord have been deteriorating for years. During a recent tour of the facility, Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill found rats in the kitchen, a reception area covered in tarps to cover up leaks, and maggots falling from the ceiling. …
by Douglas Ankney
In a settlement agreement that took 15 months for PLN to obtain, Illinois’ Will County Adult Detention Facility (WCADF) agreed to reverse policies challenged in a suit by a group of pretrial detainees at the jail, which prohibited them from receiving copies of materials printed …
by Chuck Sharman
During a trial in the federal court hearing a challenge to excessive heat in state prisons on March 31, 2026, new Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) Director Bobby Lumpkin testified that the cost to fully air condition every cell for all 132,250 state prisoners …
by Chuck Sharman
The South Carolina Court of Common Pleas for Charleston County approved a settlement on February 26, 2026, paying $2,135,000 to the Estate of D’Angelo Dontrel Brown, a schizophrenic detainee who died in December 2022 after being found unresponsive in his cell at the County’s Al …
by Douglas Ankney
In a case of first impression, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma held that a Jail Trust is not a law enforcement agency and cannot withhold requested records under the law enforcement exemption of Oklahoma’s Open Records Act (ORA), 51 O.S. 2022 §§ 24A.1 et seq.
…
by Matt Clarke
On March 6, 2026, the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico granted the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC)—the publisher of Prison Legal News, Criminal Legal News, and several books—a preliminary injunction (PI) against Bernalillo County, New Mexico. The PI prohibits the …
by Matt Clarke
On March 3, 2026, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to approve a motion by Supervisor Janice Hahn to require the Sheriff’s Department to increase access in the jail to Naloxone (an opiate-overdose-reversing drug), more closely monitor the jail’s cameras, and improve …
by Michael Thompson
Everett Palmer Jr. died in the York County Prison (YCP) in Pennsylvania as a direct result of attempts to extract him from his cell in 2018. Palmer was suffering a severe mental health crisis that was later attributed to a combination of methamphetamine toxicity and …
Loaded on
May 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2026, page 37
In early March 2026, Pennsylvania closed Rockview state prison, the state’s second-oldest, which had been in operation for 111 years in Centre County. The proposal to close Rockview was first floated last February, and since then, all of the prisoners have been moved to other facilities. The administration of …
by Matt Clarke
On February 19, 2026, an Arizona federal court issued an order that will result in medical care for prisoners in the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Re-entry (DCRR) being placed under a court-appointed receiver. This rare and drastic measure amounts to a takeover of …
by Jo Ellen Knott
The death toll within the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carceral system reached a sad milestone with the April 12, 2026, passing of Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, 27, at a detention center in Miami. Carbonell-Betancourt, a Cuban national, was found in his cell, with suicide …
by Chuck Sharman
Texas’ Harris County agreed to pay $1.25 million to the surviving mother of Fred Harris, a teen suffering from diminished mental capacity who was fatally beaten by a cellmate at the county lockup in Houston in 2022. The November 2025 agreement was approved by County …
Loaded on
May 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2026, page 41
Last year, prison guards working beyond their standard hours accounted for close to half of all overtime spending for state employees in Oklahoma, according to an analysis of payroll data by Tulsa World. Throughout 2025, the state Department of Corrections (DOC) paid guards $35.5 million in overtime, due to …
by Chuck Sharman
On March 30, 2026, the Arkansas Board of Corrections (BOC), which manages and oversees the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC), gave up its fight against two new laws that severely limit its power and authority over state prisons.
In a vote conducted after seating …
by Chuck Sharman
Massachusetts prisons are not going to meet a December 2026 deadline to achieve substantial compliance with the terms of a 2022 settlement agreement covering the provision of mental healthcare to state prisoners. That was the key takeaway from the most recent progress report delivered on …
by Chuck Sharman
In its 41st semiannual report on staff investigations by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), the state Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that prison officials adequately handled complaints against prison staff in just 10 of 89 cases reviewed—a little over 11%. …
Loaded on
May 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2026, page 45
The prison on Alcatraz Island, which is in San Francisco Bay, has not been used as a prison for more than 60 years. While Alcatraz looms large in American pop culture, the federal prison located on the island was only in operation for 29 years, before being closed due …
by Chuck Sharman
For bloodying a state prisoner and then deleting video of his teary account to cover up the assault, the last of six Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) guards involved was sentenced in federal court on April 21, 2026.
The assault …
Loaded on
May 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2026, page 46
On April 24, the administration of Pres. Donald Trump (R) approved the use of firing squads as a method of killing federal prisoners slated for execution. The Department of Justice (DOJ), in an accompanying 48-page report entitled “Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty,” outlined both the reauthorization of …
by Matt Clarke
On February 26, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld a jury’s finding of liability against an Illinois warden and prison investigator who used an unknowing prisoner as bait in an unsuccessful attempt to catch the counselor who was raping …
by Michael Thompson
Ohio’s weak oversight of its jails has left the state nearly powerless to effect change as the Cuyahoga County jail continues to experience a string of largely preventable deaths. The deaths have mostly been caused by natural causes or drug overdoses, but as was apparent …
Loaded on
May 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2026, page 48
Jon Ponder, the CEO of non-profit organization Hope for Prisoners, is under investigation for alleged misconduct, the Nevada Current reported.
Ponder was convicted three times for bank robbery in 2005; after his release from prison in 2009, he founded Hope for Prisoners, which offers re-entry programming like job …
by Chuck Sharman
After a spate of deaths at the Onondaga County Justice Center (OCJC), the New York Attorney General’s office found the jail’s private medical contractor, NaphCare, Inc., in violation of state medical licensing laws, leading to an $875,000 fine and a five-year ban on practicing in …
by Robert Haughn
On March 31, 2026, the Human Right Defense Center (HRDC), nonprofit publisher of PLN and Criminal Legal News (CLN), filed suit in the U.S. District Court of Colorado against the Weld County Jail (WCJ) in Greeley, Colorado, Sheriff Steven Reams, Undersheriff Donnie Patch, Captain Marcy …
by Chuck Sharman
On January 20, 2026, the Connecticut Office of Correction Ombuds (OCO) released its first annual report on conditions in state prisons, finding them so deplorable that Ombuds DeVaughn L. Ward could only conclude the state Department of Corrections (DOC) “is operating in a state of …
by Michael Thompson
The number of unhoused people in Albuquerque doubled between 2022 and 2025. During that same period, the number of unhoused people jailed by the city more than tripled, according to a report by ProPublica.
The Bernalillo County Jail, which marks those whom do not …
by Chuck Sharman
On February 27, 2026, an Indiana court found the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) in violation of its Access to Public Records Act (APRA), granting summary judgment to the Indiana Capital Chronicle in its challenge to the DOC’s refusal to divulge the amount paid for …
by Robert Haughn
A federal jury awarded a $307.6 million verdict to a former Michigan prisoner who said he suffered for two years in prison because Corizon Health Inc., the prison’s private the healthcare contractor, refused to give him an essential surgery to reverse his colostomy. It is …
Loaded on
May 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2026, page 56
In late April of this year, the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC) announced it had terminated its 5-year, $1 billion contract with prison healthcare profiteer YesCare. According to reporting by the Alabama Reflector, the contract was axed because the company could not meet payroll to pay its employees. The …
by Jo Ellen Knott
Inhumane conditions within the Kentucky Department of Corrections (DOC) were outed in state records detailing a “hostile and toxic environment” at the Southeast State Correctional Complex in Floyd County, according to reporting by the Lexington Herald-Leader.
The misconduct, shielded by a corrupt internal …
Loaded on
May 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2026, page 57
Data from the Michigan Department of Corrections (DOC) shows that, like many state prison systems across the country, chronic guard vacancies are on the rise. While all of the DOC’s 26 prisons are under-staffed, the problem is much more pronounced in one region in particular: the Upper Peninsula (UP), …
by Michael Thompson
The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) has released its newest report on how many people are locked up in prison across the country and the reasons for their incarceration. After breaking down the carceral numbers, the report addresses some of the myths associated with America’s mass …
by Matt Clarke
Recent legislation has helped Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) challenge federal court-ordered misdemeanor bail reform that expanded the availability of personal recognizance (PR) bonds.
Texas was never friendly toward PR bonds. The general rule was that, once arrested, you pay or you stay—in …
by Michael Thompson
Robert L. Brooks, Sr., 43, was murdered by guards moments after arriving at the Marcy Correctional Facility in New York in 2024. Both then and now, Daniel F. Martuscello III was the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) for New York. …
by Aleks Kajstura
This article was originally published by the Prison Policy Initiative.
Upon coming home from prison, people face the same—and rising—costs of living as the rest of us. But they have to bear additional costs imposed by the criminal legal system as well, …
Loaded on
May 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2026, page 62
Alabama: A Barbour County Sheriff’s deputy arrested two men for attempting to smuggle contraband into Ventress Correctional Facility on March 18, 2026—after they called 911 to report that they were “cold and their ride had left them” outside the state Department of Corrections (DOC) lockup. WSFA in Montgomery …
