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 …
Fired Missouri Guards Charged with Murder in Prisoner’s Suffocation Death by Five former Missouri prison guards were charged on June 28, 2024, in the death of prisoner Othel Moore, Jr. at Jefferson City Correctional Center in December 2023. Four guards were charged with second-­degree murder and a fifth with accessory …
Missouri Prisoner Executed After Making—and Losing—New Plea Deal by On September 13, 2024, a Missouri judge rejected an unusual request by St. Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell to overturn the conviction of condemned state prisoner Marcellus Williams, just weeks after accepting a new plea deal that the state Supreme Court then …
Missouri Prisoners Losing Reentry Money to “Incarceration Reimbursement” by A little-known Missouri law allows the state to confiscate money from prisoners to pay for the costs of their incarceration. That alone is sadly not unusual; most states have some sort of “pay-to-stay” policy. But the severity of such laws—and how …
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 …
Missouri DOC Chief Held in Contempt of Court for Keeping Exonerated Prisoner Locked Up by On August 7, 2024, the head of Missouri’s Department of Corrections (DOC) was held in contempt by a state court judge for refusing to release Howard Roberts, 82, after the prisoner’s conviction was overturned. State …
Missouri Prisoner’s Excessive Force Claim Proceeds Against Guards After Court Excuses Missed Deadlines Under “Unavailable” Grievance Procedure by David Reutter On February 12, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri denied a motion to dismiss a prisoner’s pro se lawsuit by Defendant officials with the state …
Missouri Sheriff Removed from Office for Using Detainee Labor on His Own Properties by David Reutter by David M. Reutter When Sheriff Scott Childers lost his reelection bid in Missouri’s Ray County on August 6, 2024, he had already been out of office for five months. That’s because the county …
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 …
Missouri Warden, Four Guards Out After Prisoner’s Fatal Beating by Missouri’s Department of Corrections (DOC) is fighting hard to keep details secret about the departure of five employees—including a prison warden—after the brutal death of prisoner Othel Moore at Jefferson City Correctional Center on December 8, 2023. A cellphone search …
Missouri Muslim Prisoners Advance Suit Against Guards For Assault During Prayer by Douglas Ankney by Doug Ankney On December 14, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri granted only part of a motion by defendant state prison officials to dismiss a complaint filed by Muslim …
Missouri DOC Models Re-entry Program on Norwegian Prisons by Dressed in maroon shirts—not prison jumpsuits—three prisoners joined the “Dynamo” program at Missouri’s Northeast Correctional Center in November 2023. That brought total enrollment to 17 since the state Department of Correction (DOC) launched the initiative in April 2023, modeling it after …
Eighth Circuit Upholds Key Parts of Missouri Parole Reform by On October 5, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed key parts of a lower court’s ruling instructing the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) to revise its system for revoking parole in order to protect prisoners’ …
Eighth Circuit Says Lower Court “Tilted the Scales Too Far” for Jailers in Missouri Detainee’s Fatal Overdose by David Reutter by David M. Reutter On October 19, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed denial of qualified immunity (QI) to officials at St. Louis’ “Workhouse” jail …
Was There a Plot to Discredit Former Missouri Sheriff Investigating Corruption? by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney Jeff Burkett resigned as Sheriff of Missouri’s Iron County on January 31, 2024, saying if he stayed to defend a civil suit filed to remove him from office, his testimony might undermine his …
Missouri Expands Prison Mail Ban to Include Books Sent by Family, Friends by After banning state prisoners from receiving physical mail the year before, the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) extended the ban on September 25, 2023, to include books sent to prisoners from family or friends. The rule change …
Missouri Moms Jailed After Kids Miss Too Much School by “Truancy” sounds old-­fashioned. But after two mothers were convicted of letting their kids miss too much school, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld their incarceration sentences for the misdemeanor on September 15, 2023. The Court’s ruling came in the consolidated appeals …
Eighth Circuit Affirms Qualified Immunity for Missouri Prison Chief in Sexual Abuse Claims Against Former Guard by David Reutter by David M. Reutter On August 23, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed denial of qualified immunity (QI) to Anne Precythe, Director of the Missouri Department …
Hynes v. Missouri Dept of Corrections, MO, Complaint, Wrongful Death, 2024 IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF MISSISSIPPI COUNTY STATE OF MISSOURI WILLA HYNES, Individually, and as Personal Representative of the Estate of Jahi Hynes, deceased, Plaintiff, Case Number: v. JURY TRIAL DEMANDED MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Serve: 2729 Plaza Drive …
Eighth Circuit Issues Primer on Informal Due Process Procedures to Missouri Prisoner by David Reutter by David M. Reutter On April 24, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed a lower court and granted qualified immunity (QI) to officials with Missouri’s Department of Corrections (DOC) in …
