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 …
Georgia Jail Sued by Local Bookstore Banned from Sending Detainees Reading Materials by When the Avid Bookshop mailed several book orders to prisoners at the Gwinnett County Jail outside Atlanta in May 2023, the Athens retailer likely didn’t expect to become embroiled in a lawsuit almost a year later. Then …
Sprawling Indictment Targets Two Smuggling Networks Run by Georgia Prisoners by Two federal indictments unsealed on August 21, 2024, charged 23 current and former Georgia prisoners and their accomplices in a conspiracy using drones to distribute methamphetamine, marijuana and cellphones at two lockups in the southeastern part of the state. …
Georgia Deputy Warden and Guard Fired for Prisoner Sex Assaults, Second Guard Sentenced to 25 Years by David Reutter by David M. Reutter On November 4, 2024, former Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) guard Larenzo Cheeks, 25, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for having sex with three prisoners …
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 …
Two Hurricanes in Two Weeks Threaten Prisoners and Jail Detainees in Six States by Hurricane Helene left a trail of disaster across six states after making landfall in Florida on September 26, 2024. Less than two weeks later, Hurricane Milton reached Florida’s Gulf Coast on October 9, 2024, causing more …
Two Former Georgia Sheriffs Sentenced for Misconduct, Related $5 Million Settlement Approved by David Reutter by David M. Reutter Sheriff Chad K. Nichols (R) of Georgia’s Rabun County was sentenced on September 13, 2024, to five years of probation and fined $1,000 after pleading guilty to violation of oath by …
After $750,000 Settlement, Georgia Guard Sued Second Time For Letting One Prisoner Murder Another by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney On July 26, 2024, the Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) was sued by the surviving parents of murdered state prisoner Joseph Walter Brown, 36, who was killed in July 2022 …
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) …
Georgia Guard Gets 15 Years for Using One Prisoner to Assault Another by Former Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) guard Daniel Farmer, 33, was sentenced to 15 years in state prison on July 10, 2024, after pleading guilty to allowing one prisoner to attack another at Augusta State Medical Prison …
News in Brief by Alabama: Mobile Metro Jail guard Robert Aaron Small was fired and arrested for assault on June 27, 2024, one day after he allegedly used excessive force against an unnamed detainee. WKRG in Mobile said that the guard had worked at the lockup since 2019. Mobile County …
Georgia Prison Education Program Shuttered by Georgia State University announced on March 21, 2024, that it was pulling the plug on its eight-­year-­old Prison Education Program (PEP), in which 60 prisoners at two state prisons and one federal lockup were working toward college associate degrees. PEP alumni include nine men …
Former Detainee Sues “Disgusting” Atlanta Jail Where He Was Stabbed 13 Times by A lawsuit filed in Georgia’s Fulton County on May 1, 2024, blames poor conditions at the county jail for an assault by fellow detainees on Michael Horton, in which he was stabbed 13 times. As PLN reported, …
Georgia Prison Warden Fired, Seven Guards Arrested in Prisoner’s Massive Drug Operation by The Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) took the extraordinary step of firing a prison warden on July 1, 2024. Warden Ralph Shropshire was walked off the job after just 16 months at Valdosta State Prison (VSP). During …
Georgia Jail Detainee Released After 10-Year Wait for Trial by When he was freed on March 27, 2024, Maurice Jimmerson described how it felt to see his daughter, now 14, for the first time since she was three: “Blessed.” Jimmerson spent over a decade in jail before he was convicted. …
Intellectually Disabled Georgia Prisoner Executed After SCOTUS Denies Appeal by Georgia executed Willie Pye, 59, on March 20, 2024, despite last-­minute appeals questioning his mental competency and the adequacy of his legal representation. The execution sharpened debate over capital punishment in the treatment of intellectually disabled prisoners. Pye was convicted …
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 …
Eleventh Circuit Denies Qualified Immunity to Georgia Jailers Who Housed White Detainee With Black Cellmate Held for Racially Motivated Attack by On January 5, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court’s finding that defendant guards and a nurse at Georgia’s Muscogee County Jail …
Fifth Savannah Jail Employee Arrested for Smuggling in Just Over a Year by A guard at Georgia’s Chatham County Detention Center (CCDC) in Savannah was arrested on March 5, 2024, after she admitted taking bribes to smuggle drugs to detainees. Sheriff John Wilcher said he then fired Megan Barbee for her …
Georgia Guard Fired, Charged With Setting Up Assault that Left Prisoner Dead by A Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) guard was fired and arrested on May 25, 2024, for allegedly letting three August State Medical Prison (ASMP) prisoners into the cell of a fourth to carry out an assault, during which …
