News in Brief by Alabama: A civil rights lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Alabama by Paulette Tennison on August 29, 2025, blamed Morgan County jailers for the death of her son, John Scott Jr., on April 22, 2025, just one week after he was arrested by Priceville Police …
Two Re-Entry Non-Profit Leaders in Tennessee and Massachusetts Accused of Criminal Charges by On August 27, 2025, DeAndre Brown, the executive director of the Shelby County Office of Reentry, was arrested after being indicted by a grand jury on 12 felony charges related to the alleged misuse of more than …
$6.75 Million Settlement Reached in Suit Accusing Massachusetts Guards of Retaliatory Assaults on Prisoners by Chuck Sharman Under an agreement reached on May 21, 2025, Massachusetts will pay $6.75 million to settle claims by a group of some 150 current and former state prisoners who accused guards at Souza-Baronowski Correctional …
$340,000 for Former Massachusetts Prisoner Whose Baby Was Stillborn by Douglas Ankney On February 3, 2025, a former Massachusetts prisoner dismissed claims arising from a stillbirth she suffered while incarcerated at Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center (MRWCC). In return, Lidia Lech agreed to dismiss all claims over the tragedy that …
Free Calls in Massachusetts Lead to Defunded Prison Programs by In December 2023, Massachusetts became the fifth state to provide free phone calls in its prisons and the first in all local jails. Video calling and e-messaging were also made available at no cost [See: PLN, Mar. 2024, p. 15]. …
Massachusetts High Schooler Detained by ICE Caught in “Collateral Arrest” by A Massachusetts high school student, Marcelo Gomes da Silva, was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while driving to volleyball practice in June 2025. The teenager, who was released on bond after six days amid community …
$13 Million Awarded to Exonerated Massachusetts Prisoner for Wrongful Conviction by David M. Reutter In November 2024, a Massachusetts jury awarded $13 million to former state prisoner Michael Sullivan, 64, as compensation for his wrongful conviction for a 1986 armed robbery and murder. Sullivan’s case involved false laboratory test results, …
$1.3 Million for Massachusetts Prisoner Stabbed by Guard in Connecticut Lockup by Douglas Ankney On October 21, 2024, after a trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, judgment was entered awarding former state prisoner Justin C. Mustafa $1.3 million on his claim that he was repeatedly …
News in Brief by Alabama: A Jefferson County Jail guard was briefly abducted and assaulted by detainee Reontay Harley, 33, on January 13, 2025. WBMA in Birmingham said that after Harley took the unnamed guard hostage inside a cell, responding jail Extraction Unit guards rescued their fellow guard and restrained …
Trans Federal Prisoner in Massachusetts Wins Temporary Halt to Trump Order Removing Her From Women’s Lockup by In an executive order issued just after his inauguration on January 20, 2025, Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) ordered the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), parent agency of the federal Bureau of …
News in Brief by Alabama: Clarke County Jail guard Larissa Thompson was arrested on December 5, 2024, for plotting to smuggle drugs into the lockup, the Thomasville Times reported. An investigation by state law enforcement, the office of County Sheriff DeWayne Smith, and Jackson Police uncovered evidence that Thompson planned …
News in Brief by Australia: Brisbane Correctional Center prisoner Jack James Peterson, 29, was sentenced to an additional 18 months in January 2023 for assaulting a guard with a squash racket, the Courier reported. Peterson struck the unnamed 34-year-old during a confrontation involving a riot response team, leaving him with …
Lech v. Von Goeler, MA, Settlement, Medical Neglect, 2025 EGAN FLANAGAN &COHEN John J. Egan Maurice M. Cahillane Thomas E. Day' Timothy J. Ryan Lauren F. Olanoff Michael G. McDonough 0 Kevin D. Withers Katherine A. Day 0 Michael J. Capozza Rachel T. Woods Paul M. Bromwich Kylie P. Brown' …
News in Brief by Alabama: Wiregrass Daily News reported that Mobile Metro Jail guard Timothy Lee Scarbrough, 39, was arrested on September 9, 2024, and charged with first-degree sodomy for the alleged sexual assaulting of a detainee who was still under the effects of anesthesia after eye surgery. Scarbrough had …
News in Brief by Alabama: Former state Department of Corrections (DOC) guard Henry Guice, Jr., 46, was sentenced to 75 months in federal prison on September 9, 2024, for his role in a drug smuggling conspiracy at Staton Correctional Facility. The Birmingham News reported that a fellow guard was inspecting …
Massachusetts Appeals Court Revives Prisoners’ Challenge to DOC Trust Account Policy Change by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney When the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (DOC) changed its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in January 2019 to prohibit prisoners from sending money from their trust accounts to private individuals, it didn’t promulgate …
News in Brief by Arizona: State prisoner Brigido Montoya made the briefest of escapes from the State Prison Complex in Eyman on August 10, 2024, before he was recaptured 48 minutes later by Florence Police, the Florence Reminder & Blade-Tribune reported. The state Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (DCRR) …
First Circuit Affirms Qualified Immunity for Massachusetts Officials Who Held Prisoner in Solitary for Two Years Without Hearing by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney In a maddeningly byzantine decision on February 21, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit dismissed a claim by Massachusetts prisoner Jwainus Perry …
Solitary Confinement Prompts Lawsuit in Massachusetts, Hunger Strike in Maine by A suit filed by six Massachusetts prisoners on July 1, 2024, alleges that conditions in what the state Department of Corrections (DOC) calls a “Secure Adjustment Unit” (SAU) are no different from solitary confinement—something state legislators outlawed in 2018. …
News in Brief by Alabama: On June 24, 2024, Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith told the Birmingham News that county jail guard Tony Dewayne Jackson, 29, had been arrested for smuggling “non-­drug” contraband into the lockup. Jackson was no longer working at the jail, but Smith didn’t say how or …
