Skip navigation

Search

27100 results
Article • September 15, 2026 • from PLN October, 2025
Indiana Supreme Court Announces Whether Defendant’s Actions Were “Objectively Reasonable” Justifying Self-Defense Can Be Considered in Hindsight by Sagi Schwartzberg by Sagi Schwartzberg In a case of first impression, the Supreme Court of Indiana held that the state’s self-defense statute justifies the use of force necessary for self-protection, even if …
Article • December 1, 2025 • from PLN December, 2025
The Succession Battle for a Prison Empire by Katya Schwenk 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, …
America’s Deadliest Jails: Tarrant County Edition by Anthony Accurso 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 …
Article • October 1, 2025 • from PLN October, 2025
Filed under: Death Penalty, Death Row
In the Killing Chamber by Doran Larson by Doran Larson The Texas state death house in Huntsville is a squat brick building fronted by a few square yards of struggling grass and knee-­high shrubs. Gleaming chain link fencing surrounds a concrete ramp that rises to the door to accommodate shackled …
Article • September 15, 2025 • from PLN October, 2025
Filed under: News in Brief
NEWS IN BRIEF by Alaska: Alaska Public Media reported that former Anchorage Police Department Off. Nathan Keays, 45, convicted of conspiring with a ConocoPhillips employee to embezzle over $3 million from the firm, is seeking a new trial, alleging his conviction was tainted by a secret romantic relationship between two …
Help Wanted: 31,000 Prison Guard Jobs Open Nationwide by David Reutter The efficiency and functionality of every enterprise rests largely upon the staff put in place to carry out its operations. But at the heart of the most dysfunctional prisons PLN has reported on over the last 35 years is …
Article • August 1, 2025 • from PLN August, 2025
From the Editor by Paul Wright   After 35 years of publishing Prison Legal News, one thing that has become clear is that when it comes to the American criminal justice system, not all stories have an ending; some are fairly characterized as never-ending stories. We have reported on Rikers Island …
Now Under Federal Receivership, New York City’s Rikers Island Jails Still Have No Plan to Improve, No Firm Date to Close by Chuck Sharman With its sixth and seventh detainee deaths of the year coming just minutes apart on June 20, 2025, New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex eclipsed …
Fifth Circuit Greenlights Federal Takeover of Mississippi Jail by David Reutter The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit approved the appointment of a receiver to oversee operations of the Raymond Detention Center (RDC) in Hinds County, Mississippi. The district court’s action was a contempt sanction imposed for the …
PLN Publisher Wins Settlement Records from Centurion in Florida Prisoner’s Wrongful Death by Chuck Sharman On June 24, 2025, Florida’s Seventh Judicial Circuit Court for Putnam County ruled that Centurion of Florida, LLC was acting as the functional equivalent of a state agency when it contracted with the state Department …
HRDC Wins $480,000 in Legal Fees from Centurion for Denied New Mexico Records by Chuck Sharman On February 17, 2025, Paul Wright, Executive Director of the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), signed an agreement accepting a $480,000 payment to resolve claims for records made in a suit filed in state …
Article • August 1, 2025 • from PLN August, 2025
Review: “Reforming the Shadow Carceral State” by In an academic paper published in the November 2024 issue of Theoretical Criminology, researchers Brittany Friedman, Gabriela Kirk-Werner, and April D. Fernandes examined efforts to reform what they termed the “shadow carceral state.” While the carceral state encompasses the criminal legal system—jails, prison, …
After Judge’s Letter, at Least 22 Former FCI Dublin Prisoners Granted Compassionate Release by Matthew Clarke In May 2024, California federal District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers took the unusual step of writing a letter to numerous other judges who had sentenced women formerly incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Dublin and …
Suit Filed Over Fatal Beating of New York Prisoner That Sparked Massive Guard Strike by Chuck Sharman A federal civil rights complaint filed on January 15, 2025, accused the New York Department of Corrections and Community Services (DOCCS) and over a dozen of its officials of violating the Eighth Amendment …
Article • August 1, 2025 • from PLN August, 2025
Tenth Circuit Ruling Paves Way for $2.7 Million Settlement for Intellectually Disabled Jail Detainee Raped by Sheriff by David Reutter In a settlement reached on December 20, 2024, Colorado’s Sedgwick County agreed to pay $2.7 million to Peatinna Biggs, an intellectually disabled former detainee in the county jail who was …
Article • August 1, 2025 • from PLN August, 2025
Nebraska Supreme Court Clarifies Award of Time Served Credit for Non-Citizen Awaiting Extradition by Matthew Clarke On December 6, 2024, the Supreme Court of Nebraska clarified when a sentencing court is required to award credit for time served while incarcerated in a foreign country awaiting extradition. It held that crediting …
News in Brief by Alabama: On Sunday, June 15, 2025, state Department of Corrections (DOC) guard Airika Dorsey was arrested for allegedly smuggling food to a prisoner at St. Clair Correctional Facility, according to WABM in Birmingham. The DOC confirmed that Dorsey was caught in the act and subsequently booked …
DOJ Finds Unconstitutional Conditions in Texas Juvenile Detention by Chuck Sharman Texas lawmakers took steps in opposite directions toward solving a crisis in state juvenile detention centers, after all five lockups operated by the state Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) were found to be violating the civil rights of youthful offenders …
Ninth Circuit Agrees That Former Guantanamo Detainee Lacks Grounds to Sue for Waterboarding by David Reutter On June 30, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a complaint filed by Abu Zubaydah, 52, a falsely accused Al-Qaeda conspirator captured after the terrorist attacks on …
Article • August 1, 2025 • from PLN August, 2025
$815,000 Settlement in Nevada Class-Action Suit Over Debit Release Cards by A Nevada federal district court has approved a $815,000 settlement in a class-action case challenging the use of fee-laden debit cards that prisoners receive upon release, containing the balance from their inmate trust accounts. The lawsuit, filed by former …
Page 1 of 1355. | 1 2 3 4 5 ... 1351 1352 1353 1354 1355 | Next »