by Matt Clarke
Brentwood, Tennessee-based CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America) operates the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center (TTCC), the state’s largest prison, and three other Tennessee prisons for the state Department of Corrections (DOC). But despite the company’s large footprint in Tennessee, its legacy is dismal at best …
by Paul Wright
This month’s cover story reports on the ongoing issues with pioneering private prison company CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), in its home state of Tennessee. In 1983, CCA was started in Tennessee as the first American for-profit privately-owned prison company in …
by Chuck Sharman
In a document copied to PLN by California state prisoner Richard Carrasco, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) agreed on February 18, 2026, to pay $15,000 to settle claims that he was targeted for violence by guards at California State Prison in Los …
by Douglas Ankney
On November 20, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit revived the 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit of Juliana Swink, Administrator of the Estate of David Ray Gunter, that alleged, inter alia, claims of deliberate indifference under Monell v. Dept of Soc. …
by Matt Clarke
The death rate at the Dallas County jail increased around 50% during the first eight years of Sheriff Marian Brown’s tenure, according to investigative reporting by The Dallas Morning News. Many of the deaths could have been easily been prevented with timely and competent medical …
by Chuck Sharman
In a Facebook post on May 21, 2026, Albert Pugh reported hearing news from both prisoners and guards at Alabama’s Bullock Correctional Facility that Facility Administrator Jermaris Porter was arrested and walked off the job the day before by Law Enforcement Services Division (LESD) agents …
by Douglas Ankney
In February 2024, Commissioners Lina Khan, Chair; Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, and Alvaro M. Bedoya of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) determined that the facts substantiated the allegations made against Respondents Global Tel Link Corporation (“GTL”); Telmate, LLC; and TouchPay Holdings, LLC (collectively “ViaPath” or “Respondents”). …
Loaded on
June 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2026, page 14
Across Indiana, hundreds of prisoners who have already received sentences are stuck in jails without a timeline for transfer to a prison. Some of these prisoners, WFYI Indianapolis reported, were promised treatment programs once moved to an Indiana Department of Corrections (DOC) facility. Transfers that were supposed to happen …
by Chuck Sharman
Five former officials at Louisiana’s Catahoula Parish Correctional Center (CPCC)—including the former warden, assistant warden and chief of security—were indicted on May 7, 2026, by a federal grand jury that charged them with civil rights violations for using an electrified riot shield to brutalize 13 …
by Chuck Sharman
On April 29, 2026, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky awarded exonerated state prisoner Jeffrey Dewayne Clark $24,350,000 from Meade County officials, after finding that they fabricated evidence to wrongfully convict him and fellow exoneree Garr Keith Hardin …
by Chuck Sharman
After New Mexico’s Otero County agreed to pay a $1,050,000 settlement, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico granted dismissal on January 20, 2026, to a suit filed over the death of Jacob Gutierrez, 27, who committed suicide while he was detained …
by Douglas Ankney
“Many of the risk factors for suicide are overrepresented in the population of people who come into contact with the criminal justice system every year, (including) high rates of psychiatric illness, high rates of substance use, trauma exposure, people living in unsafe environments. So we …
by Matt Clarke
On March 27, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit failed to grant an en banc rehearing of a panel decision holding that small deposits of money from outside sources that gradually accumulated in a federal prisoner’s trust fund account are …
Loaded on
June 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2026, page 19
Racial disparities in Wisconsin prisons are among the worst in the country, according to a report recently published by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, a public policy think tank. The report found that Black Wisconsinites were 12 times more likely than white residents to be locked up in state prisons, …
by Chuck Sharman
Under the terms of a settlement reached on April 16, 2026, Colorado’s La Plata County agreed to pay $5 million to the estate of Daniel Foard, 32, whose death in the County lockup was both “gruesome and preventable,” according to the complaint filed on his …
Loaded on
June 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2026, page 21
The Kansas Department of Corrections (DOC) announced on May 14, 2026 that it would drop its troubled healthcare contractor and replace it with a separate company. In a bidding process that included seven other prison healthcare profiteers, Kansas decided to replace its current contractor Centurion Health with VitalCore Health …
Loaded on
June 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2026, page 21
On May 14, 2026, the state of Texas executed its 600th prisoner with the killing of Edward Busby Jr., a man that experts for both prosecutors and defense attorneys testified to be intellectually disabled, via lethal injection.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, …
by Chuck Sharman
On May 14, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a jury verdict awarding $10 million in damages to exonerated Michigan prisoner Alexandre Ansari, who served six and a half years in a state prison for murder before his conviction was …
by Matt Clarke
On March 17, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the summary dismissal of a prisoner’s civil rights claims against prison dental staff for deliberate indifference to his serious need for dental care. It let stand the district court’s ruling …
by Michael Dean Thompson
The Tulsa Municipal Jail holds just 70 people. For a jail that size, according to a 2021 Department of Justice study, national data suggests that a person might die every 10 to 15 years. It is possible the Department of Justice undercounted national deaths, …
by Douglas Ankney
On November 26, 2025, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled that Columbiana County Sheriff Brian McLaughlin did not violate Ohio’s Public Records Act (“Act”), RC 149.43 and declined to award sanctions to prisoner Terry Brown.
In August 2023, Brown requested numerous records from McLaughlin …
by Chuck Sharman
The Maine Department of Corrections (DOC) agreed to pay $250,000 to former state prisoner Zachary Swain on February 26, 2026, settling his claims that he was subjected to excessive and debilitating solitary confinement during his six-year incarceration at Maine State Prison (MSP). The payout is …
Loaded on
June 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2026, page 27
Gerald Merril, 64, was sentenced on May 12, 2026 to 10 years in prison, with all but 5 years suspended, and 3 years on probation for taking a bribe and spending nearly $2.4 million in stolen money. Merril was also ordered to pay $502,130 in restitution to the state …
by Chuck Sharman
In a one-paragraph opinion issued on May 14, 2026, the Arkansas Supreme Court declined to review a lower court’s ruling that invalidated two new laws transferring much of the prison oversight authority formerly held by the state Board of Corrections (BOC) to Gov. Sarah H. …
by Chuck Sharman
A former New Mexico prisoner’s excessive force complaint against guards morphed into a public records suit over his stonewalled demand for documentation of the incident before the state agreed to a settlement on March 4, 2026. Under its terms, $112,500 was paid to the former …
Loaded on
June 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2026, page 28
Calls for emergency health care at the Nashua Street Jail (NSJ), a Boston jail with a capacity of approximately 700 detainees, shot up to 328 last year, a nearly 50% increase from 2024. And since 2010, The Boston Globe reported, ambulance calls to the jail have tripled.
While …
by Matt Clarke
On April 15, 2026, Nebraska State Penitentiary (NSP) Warden Barb Lewien issued a memo stating that “NSP will resume the Native American religious land use schedule in effect prior to the suspension period.” This cut short a 60-day suspension that effectively prevented many followers of …
by Chuck Sharman
A massive six-year-old class-action challenge to conditions of confinement in the San Diego County jail system moved a step closer to resolution on March 12, 2026, when the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California granted preliminary approval to a partial settlement resolving …
by Matt Clarke
On March 31, 2026, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida reluctantly granted a federal prisoner early release after the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) dropped the ball multiple times in scheduling an urgently needed appointment with a breast surgeon to …
Loaded on
June 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2026, page 33
Economic inequality has paved the way to a prison closure in Asheville. North Carolina Department of Adult Correction (NCDAC) officials announced on May 14, 2026, that the agency would be permanently shuttering the century-old Craggy Correctional Center due to short staffing. When the facility closes later this summer, the …
by Chuck Sharman
Manhattan District Attorney (D.A.) Alvin Bragg (D) announced on April 27, 2026, that his office had successfully moved a state judge to vacate the conviction of and dismiss the indictment against Harry Ruiz, 57, who served 25 years in a state prison for murder before …
Loaded on
June 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2026, page 34
On May 13, 2026, the former warden of Smith State Prison in Glennville was indicted for taking part in a contraband smuggling operation tied to a gang inside the prison he was tasked with overseeing. As PLN reported, Brian Dennis Adams, now 52, was fired and arrested in February …
by Matt Clarke
On March 13, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit dismissed as moot a federal prisoner’s appeal of a district court’s dismissal of his habeas action under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 challenging the calculation by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) …
by Michael Dean Thompson
Prison healthcare profiteer NaphCare is a private company based in Alabama with over $300 million in revenue that is expected to exceed $1 billion within ten years. The company recently announced it is withdrawing operations from more Washington jails. In a statement, NaphCare said, …
by Matt Clarke
On December 3, 2025, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted partial final judgment to the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) for its implementation of Senate Bill (S.B.) 185, a state law prohibiting …
Loaded on
June 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2026, page 37
Washington state officials asked a federal judge on April 28, 2026 to force The GEO Group to let health inspectors into the Northwest ICE Processing Center, an immigrant detention center the private company runs in Tacoma for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Washington has received over 3,500 complaints …
by Chuck Sharman
Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County Council voted on April 28, 2026, to pay $75,000 to Jerome Williamson, a former prisoner in the county lockup who accused a guard of shoving him to the floor and breaking his wrist.
The incident unfolded in September 2023 at the …
by Chuck Sharman
New York City has reached nearly $5.2 million in settlements resolving two suits that accused staffers at the Rikers Island jail complex of ignoring detainees suffering fatal methadone overdoses. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an order on May …
by Matt Clarke
On February 19, 2026, a federal jury awarded $2,500 in punitive damages to a Wisconsin prisoner who was sexually assaulted by a female guard.
Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) prisoner Nate A. Lindell was incarcerated at the Columbia Correction Center when, in November 2020, …
by Jo Ellen Knott
The fate of the at least ten guards involved in a brutal beating death of a prisoner in 2025 is moving towards its inevitable end with two more guards facing prison time.
Former Midstate Correctional Facility prison guard Caleb Blair accepted a plea …
by Chuck Sharman
On February 17, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland granted dismissal to the mother of a detainee who committed suicide five years earlier at the Dorchester County Detention Center (DCDC), after she accepted $1 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit …
by Michael Dean Thompson
Derek Batton, 34, died from an overdose of heroin he ingested in 2018. He was in the custody of the Grant County Jail at the time for DUI and traffic warrants. Batton, who had struggled with addiction, acquired the drugs from Jordan Tebow. Tebow …
by Jo Ellen Knott
The Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) overhauled oversight protocols on May 6, 2026, following a disturbing use-of-force incident at the Washington Corrections Center for Women.
According to KING-TVin Seattle, a September 2024 altercation led to a state investigation after video showed guards deploying …
Loaded on
June 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2026, page 43
Manuel Portillo, a former warden with the state Department of Corrections (DOC), agreed to undergo impulse control counseling in exchange for dropping charges related to biting an employee’s ear at a holiday party earlier in 2026. As part of that deal, Portillo, who previously headed Southern Desert Correction Center …
by Phillip Luna
This article was originally published in Prison Journalism Project.
Last October, Dylan Sanchez received some of the most exciting news one can receive in prison: He would become a free man sooner than expected. Instead of leaving his Oregon prison in 2030, …
by Jo Ellen Knott
The incarceration of Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell at the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp (FPC) near Bryan in east central Texas has sparked intense controversy regarding “preferential treatment” and the suppression of prisoner speech.
Per reporting by CNN on May 7, 2026, legal …
Loaded on
June 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2026, page 46
On April 29, 2026, Susan Hutson, the sheriff of Louisiana’s Orleans Parish, which is home to New Orleans, was indicted just days before her term ended. The indictment came after an investigation into her office spurred by a 10-person jailbreak last year. Hutson, whose role oversees the Orleans Justice …
by Raquel Rutledge
This article was originally published in ProPublica.
To the narcotics agents investigating drug smuggling in Puerto Rico prisons, it seemed at first like a typical scheme: associates of a prisoner gang sneaking drugs into the prison, gang members distributing them inside and …
by Jo Ellen Knott
A stark example of prisoner preferential treatment was laid bare in a May 7, 2026, multicounty grand jury report detailing the “rank political favoritism” afforded to Sara Polston, 43, at the Cleveland County Jail. Polston, who was arrested for drunk driving and released early, …
by Douglas Ankney
Following the murders of prisoners Robert Brooks and Messiah Nautwi in two facilities of the New York Department of Corrections and Community Services (DOCCS), the state legislature passed landmark legislation aimed at enhancing prisoner and staff safety, security training, and accountability.
Senate Bill 8415 …
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that, because Tennessee’s parole statutes created no liberty interest in parole, prisoner Michael Hester could not state a claim of violation of his right to due process even though he was held in prison beyond …
Loaded on
June 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2026, page 55
The auditor for Mississippi announced on April 13, 2026 that Management & Training Corporation (MTC), a Utah-based private prison company, owes the state $7.4 million. MTC operates two prisons in Mississippi—East Mississippi Correctional Facility in Meridian and Wilkinson Correctional Facility in Woodville—as well as 19 facilities in seven other …
by Michael Dean Thompson
Before this year, the last governor of Wisconsin to issue commutations was the Republican Tommy Thompson, who served from 1987-2001. Gov. Thompson issued just seven commutations along with 202 pardons during his tenure. On April 3, 2026, Gov. Tony Evers (D) signed two executive …
by Christopher Santiago
This article was originally published in Prison Journalism Project.
Jason Pope couldn’t believe what he saw on his ViaPath prison tablet inside South Carolina’s Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center in October 2024: Someone had placed $230 worth of fraudulent orders from his …
by Douglas Ankney
A January 2026 report (“Report”) released by Andrea Sapone, Virginia’s first Corrections Ombudsman from the Office of Inspector General (OSIG), did not rule out claims of racism and retaliation at Red Onion State Prison (ROSP) in rural southwestern Virginia. The Report was released after an …
by Douglas Ankney
Stonewalling by the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) in providing treatment to people convicted of sexual offenses has allowed some of those people to be released without any treatment and at the same time delayed parole consideration for others. In 1998, Colorado lawmakers overhauled the …
by Chuck Sharman
A Pennsylvania judge vacated the murder convictions of Jermal Shuler, Marc Brittingham and Rasheed Smith on May 26, 2026, after they spent 28 years in state prisons for the brutal 1997 killing of Essie Thomas, 73, in her Philadelphia home.
The Conviction Integrity Unit …
by Mike Ludwig
This article was originally published in Truthout.
In a ruling that is notably silent on Louisiana’s history of slavery and white supremacy, a federal judge sided with the Louisiana State Penitentiary on May 26, rejecting a request to end the prison’s notorious …
Loaded on
June 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2026, page 62
Alabama: The Decatur Daily reported that Ashlee Michelle Brown, 30, was arrested on May 6, 2026, and booked into the Morgan County Jail, where she was being held on a $50,000 bond for helping her boyfriend escape from custody at a hospital where he’d been taken by deputies …
