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Prisons Don’t Fix Rural Poverty—They Make It Worse

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Rural Prisons

Prisons Don’t Fix Rural Poverty—They Make It Worse by In a report published on August 27, 2024, the nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative, Senior Editor Brian Nam-Sonenstein and University of Minnesota Researcher Eric Seligman tackled one of the primary arguments used by politicians over the past 30 years to locate new …

BOP Shutters “Rape Club” in California, Director Peters Quits

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Staff-Prisoner Assault, Guard Misconduct, DOC/BOP misconduct, Bureau of Prisons (BOP)

BOP Shutters “Rape Club” in California, Director Peters Quits by The troubled federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) lost Director Collette Peters on January 20, 2025, when she resigned just as incoming Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) was sworn into to office. Peters held the job for just 30 months, and …

Louisiana Prisoner Charged With Running Sports Gambling Operation

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Gambling Crimes, Tainted Funds

Louisiana Prisoner Charged With Running Sports Gambling Operation by On December 18, 2024, Louisiana State Police (LSP) arrested Elayn Hunt Correctional Center prisoner Broderick Scott, 48, on charges that he operated a large-scale sports gambling operation from his cell. LSP said that a year-long investigation had identified over 30,000 transactions …

Arizona To Resume Executions

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Death Row, Lethal Injection Method of Execution

Arizona To Resume Executions by On November 26, 2024, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) dismissed David Duncan, the head of the state Independent Death Penalty Review committee that she appointed in January 2023 to review execution procedures after a series of state killings that Hobbs called “botched.” But when executions …

U.S. Navy Exonerates Wrongly Convicted Black WWII Sailors

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Wrongful Conviction, Military, Racial Profiling, Racial/Ethnic Bias/Profiling

U.S. Navy Exonerates Wrongly Convicted Black WWII Sailors by The United States Navy exonerated 256 former prisoners on July 17, 2024, all of them Black sailors convicted of refusing to return to work after a deadly 1944 explosion at the Port Chicago naval weapons station in San Francisco. On the …

Florida Prisoners Sue Over Deadly Heat

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Exposure to Heat, Failure to Protect (Wrongful Death)

Florida Prisoners Sue Over Deadly Heat by A group of Florida prisoners held at Dade Correctional Institution near Miami sued the state Department of Corrections (DOC) on October 31, 2024, alleging that sweltering conditions were leading to serious health risks and deaths. Filed by attorneys with the Florida Justice Institute, …

Michigan Allows More Releases for Medically Frail Prisoners

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Compassionate Release

Michigan Allows More Releases for Medically Frail Prisoners by Michigan prisoners considered medically frail now have a better chance of early release under a newly amended law. On July 23, 2024, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed Senate Bill 599 and expanded the definition of “medically frail” in a 2019 statute …

Among World Nations, Individual U.S. States Near Top of List for Per Capita Incarceration

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Statistics/Trends, Prisoners-International, Effects of Mass Incarceration

Among World Nations, Individual U.S. States Near Top of List for Per Capita Incarceration by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke In June 2024, the nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) ranked world incarceration rates as if each state in the United States was a separate country. The shocking but sadly unsurprising …

DOJ Directs BOP, U.S. Marshals to Improve Suicide Prevention

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Suicides, Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Civil Rights Violations

DOJ Directs BOP, U.S. Marshals to Improve Suicide Prevention by On December 3, 2024, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco issued a directive updating suicide prevention protocols and improving mental health assessments for federal prisoners and detainees. The reforms apply to the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the U.S. …

Oregon Holds BLM Protestor in Solitary Confinement for 250 Days

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Protests, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Racial Profiling, Prison Classification

Oregon Holds BLM Protestor in Solitary Confinement for 250 Days by On November 29, 2024, Malik Muhammad, 25, ended a nine-day hunger strike protesting nearly 250 days that he was held in solitary confinement at the Oregon State Penitentiary. His time in solitary exceeded the state Department of Corrections’ (DOC) …

California Prisoner Allegedly Ran Alaska Drug Ring from His Cell

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Organizing, Prison Gangs, Drug Laws/Offenses

California Prisoner Allegedly Ran Alaska Drug Ring from His Cell by At a status conference in federal court for the District of Alaska on December 9, 2024, prosecutors obtained a six-month continuance for “voluminous discovery and scheduling” in the case of Heraclio Sanchez Rodriguez, a California state prisoner who allegedly …

Prison Profiteers Ready to Help Trump Make Good on Deportation Threats

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: GEO Group/Wackenhut, Government Misconduct, Deportation/Removal/Exclusion, Police/Govt Misconduct

Prison Profiteers Ready to Help Trump Make Good on Deportation Threats by Because incoming Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) vowed during his campaign to launch “the largest deportation operation in American history,” the stocks of private prison companies, including The GEO Group and CoreCivic, spiked after his election victory on …

Oregon DOC Investigation Puts Top Medical Officials on Leave

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Systemic Medical Neglect, Malpractice, Staffing, Mental Health, Official Investigation

Oregon DOC Investigation Puts Top Medical Officials on Leave by A mid an investigation into complaints about prisoner medical care, the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) put two top healthcare officials on leave on December 5, 2024. Assistant Director of Health Services Joe Bugher and Chief of Medicine Dr. Warren …

California Governor Pardons Former Prisoner Podcaster of “Ear Hustle”

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Pardons/Clemency, Prisoner Media

California Governor Pardons Former Prisoner Podcaster of “Ear Hustle” by One of 17 pardons granted by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on November 27, 2024, went to former San Quentin prisoner Earlonne Woods, 53, a host of the popular Ear Hustle podcast that he helped start from his cell in …

Tennessee Finalizes New One-Drug Execution Protocol

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Death Penalty/Death Row, Drugs - Determination of, Lethal Injection Method of Execution

Tennessee Finalizes New One-Drug Execution Protocol by No executions have been carried out by the Tennessee Department of Corrections (DOC) since May 2019, while the state reviewed its three-drug lethal injection protocol. That review was completed on December 27, 2024, when DOC announced a new protocol with just a single …

Nearly 800 California Prisoners Battle Huge Los Angeles Wildfires—for About $1 an Hour

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Prison Labor, Emergency Aid Doctrine, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

Nearly 800 California Prisoners Battle Huge Los Angeles Wildfires—for About $1 an Hour by As the Santa Ana winds fanned an unprecedented number of wildfires that destroyed or damaged nearly 10,000 Los Angeles homes by January 10, 2025, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said that firefighting crews …

Thousands Freed from Syrian Prison

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Political Prisoners (International)

Thousands Freed from Syrian Prison by Hours after former Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad fled rebels who then took control of Damascus on December 8, 2024, prisoners were freed from Sednaya Prison, a lockup known as a “human slaughterhouse” where an estimated 30,000 enemies of the al-Assad regime were killed since …

DOJ Settles Complaints About Conditions for Disabled Detroit Jail Detainees

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Disabled Prisoners, Systemic Medical Neglect, Malpractice, Conditions of Confinement, Americans with Disabilities Act

DOJ Settles Complaints About Conditions for Disabled Detroit Jail Detainees by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On July 11, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) approved an agreement with Michigan’s Wayne County that promised to improve conditions at its jail in Detroit for prisoners with physical and mental disabilities. …

Arkansas Moving Some State Prisoners from County Jails… to a Former County Jail

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Out of State Transfers, Rural Prisons

Arkansas Moving Some State Prisoners from County Jails… to a Former County Jail by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders (R) announced on December 27, 2024, that the state Department of Corrections (DOC) had added 1,500 beds to ease overcrowding in state prisons. Sanders crowed that she had “stopped kicking the can …

Indiana Resumes Executions

Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025

Filed under: Death Penalty/Death Row, Lethal Injection Method of Execution

Indiana Resumes Executions by On December 18, 2024, Indiana ended a 15-year execution hiatus with a fatal injection of pentobarbital given to state prisoner Joseph Corcoran, 49. Though state law does not provide for journalists to witness executions, Corcoran’s family invited an Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter to join them as …