News in Brief by California: In a ruling that highlights the complexities of holding corrupt staff financially accountable, the California Court of Appeal recently restored the pension of former San Francisco jail guard April Myres, 61, on December 26, 2025. Bloomberg Law reported that federal prosecutors charged Myres in 2017 …
North Carolina Parole Commission Agrees to Stop “Moving Goalposts” for Prisoners Who Committed Crime as Juveniles by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman A settlement reached on September 15, 2025, moved the North Carolina Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission a step closer to finally realizing changes that it was ordered to …
North Carolina Prison Officials Run Out the Clock On Trans Prisoner’s Vulvoplasty by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman Even as some states successfully move to strip hormone therapy and other gender-related care from trans prisoners, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina twice ruled against state …
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 …
Guaranteed Basic Income Programs for Prisoners Reduce Food Insecurity and Homelessness by Anthony Accurso The cities of Gainesville, Florida, and Durham, North Carolina, experimented with providing guaranteed basic income (GBI) to prisoners who were reentering the community, and have released information about the outcomes created by the program. Both programs …
$550,000 Settlement After Juvenile’s Suicide at Charlotte Jail by David Reutter On January 2, 2025, a settlement was signed by the Plaintiff in a lawsuit over the suicide of a juvenile pretrial detainee held at the lockup in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County. Under the terms of the agreement, the County …
$7.75 Million Settlement for Exonerated North Carolina Prisoner by David M. Reutter The city of Durham, North Carolina agreed on May 20, 2024, to pay $7.75 million to resolve the wrongful conviction claim of exonerated prisoner Darryl Howard. He spent almost 24 years in prison before a federal jury agreed …
News in Brief by Alabama: Kadarius Shermaine Todd, 28, a new guard still on probationary status at the Madison County Jail, was fired on April 4, 2025, after allegedly attempting to smuggle contraband into the lockup. He was apprehended upon arrival to meet a contact with a package containing Suboxone, …
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 …
North Carolina Reimburses Prisoner $2,500 for Law Books Destroyed by Guards by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso A prisoner, who said that he was inspired by what he read in PLN, fought for over three years to obtain compensation from North Carolina for property lost when prison officials failed …
News in Brief by Alabama: Former Crenshaw County Jail Administrator Christian Alexander Porter, 33, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of excessive force, falsifying records and witness tampering on January 28, 2025. According to the Washington Post, the charges stem from an October 2021 incident in which …
$25.75 Million for Exonerated North Carolina Prisoner’s 44 Stolen Years by Justice delayed is justice denied. But for Ronnie Long, 68, who served over four decades in North Carolina prisons for a rape and burglary that he didn’t commit, the long wait to be proven innocent and released from prison …
Fourth Circuit Reverses Denial of Counsel for “Low IQ” North Carolina Prisoner by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso In an opinion decided July 22, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed a district court’s denial of a motion for appointment of counsel by a North …
Not Just Another Shared House: North Carolina Farm Eases Re-entry for Released Prisoners by Nestled in central North Carolina’s Alamance County, Benevolence Farm offers a unique reentry program: a holistic approach to supporting formerly incarcerated women. The 13-acre farm serves as their residence, a hub for social advocacy and a …
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 …
Fourth Circuit Reinstates North Carolina Prisoner’s Failure-to-Protect Claim Against Guard in Stabbing by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney On July 2, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated the grant of summary judgment to one of several North Carolina Department of Corrections (DOC) officials accused …
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 …
$1.2 Million Settlement Reached in HRDC Censorship Suit Against North Carolina Prison System by On September 25, 2024, North Carolina’s Department of Adult Correction (DAC) settled a federal civil rights suit filed by the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC) over censorship of PLN and HRDC’s other monthly publication, Criminal Legal …
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) …
North Carolina Expands Supervision for Mentally Ill Probationers by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso By the end of 2024, North Carolina’s Division of Community Supervision (DCS) will expand its Specialty Mental Health Probation (SMHP) to 56 of the state’s 100 counties. Employing 78 specially trained probation officers and 58 …
