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North Carolina Renames Prisons Whose Names Honored Enslavers

Article • February 1, 2022 • from PLN February, 2022

Filed under: Racial Discrimination, Rural Prisons

North Carolina Renames Prisons Whose Names Honored Enslavers by Matthew Clarke by Matthew Clarke On September 30, 2021, over 156 years after the end of the Civil War, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (DPS) announced the renaming of four prisons and a drug addiction treatment facility whose previous …

$2 Million Paid by North Carolina Jail for Prisoner’s Wrongful Death; Undisclosed Amount Paid by Southeastern Medical Services

Article • January 1, 2022 • from PLN January, 2022

Filed under: Private Contractors, Settlements, Medical Neglect/Malpractice

$2 Million Paid by North Carolina Jail for Prisoner’s Wrongful Death; Undisclosed Amount Paid by Southeastern Medical Services by Jacob Barrett by Jacob Barrett On January 8, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina approved a $2 million settlement to be paid by Buncombe County, …

News in Brief

Article • January 1, 2022 • from PLN January, 2022

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Alabama: On November 17, 2021, a former Alabama state prison guard was sentenced in federal court in Birmingham to 87 months in prison. As reported by the Birmingham News, a search found the guard, Gary Charles Dixon, Jr., 36, with 497 grams of methamphetamine when he …

News in Brief

Article • November 1, 2021 • from PLN November, 2021

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by California: A guard at San Quentin State Prison and one of two outside co-conspirators were arraigned on September 8, 2021, on federal charges they smuggled cellphones to an unnamed prisoner on death row at the California lockup. According to a statement by the U.S. Department of …

News in Brief

Article • October 1, 2021 • from PLN October, 2021

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Alabama: On August 19, 2021, twoconvicted robbers were convicted of murder in the death of a fellow prisoner they and two others attacked in 2017 at Bibb Correctional Facility in Brent, Alabama. According to a report by Montgomery TV station WSFA, Dominique Covin and Roderick DeLaune …

Neville v. Wellpath LLC, NC, Complaint, Wrongful Death-Medical Neglect, 2021

Brief • September 28, 2021

Filed under: Medical Neglect/Malpractice

Neville v. Wellpath LLC, NC, Complaint, Wrongful Death-Medical Neglect, 2021 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA 1:21-CV-758 SEAN NEVILLE, AS ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE OF JOHN ELLIOTT NEVILLE, Plaintiff, v. COMPLAINT WELLPATH LLC; MICHELLE L. HEUGHINS, RN, in her individual and official capacity; …

Edwards v. Hooks, NC, Complaint, Shackling Pregnant Prisoners, 2021

Brief • September 2, 2021

Filed under: OB/GYN, Restraints, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Restraints While Giving Birth

Edwards v. Hooks, NC, Complaint, Shackling Pregnant Prisoners, 2021 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA TRACEY EDWARDS, Plaintiff, v. ERIK HOOKS, in his official capacity as Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, BENITA WITHERSPOON, in her personal capacity, CLAUDETTE EDWARDS, in her …

News in Brief

Article • September 1, 2021 • from PLN September, 2021

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Alabama: A former guard at the Mobile Metro Jail was scheduled to be arraigned on May 19, 2021, after being indicted for his role in an alleged scheme to smuggle cellphones into the Alabama lockup in exchange for bribes. According to a report by local TV …

Woodward v. North Carolina Dept of Public Safety, NC, Brief, Censorship, 2021

Brief • August 2, 2021

Filed under: Censorship

Woodward v. North Carolina Dept of Public Safety, NC, Brief, Censorship, 2021 NORTH CAROLINA INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION I.C. FILE NO. TA-27840 A.G. FILE NO. 19-02246 ROBERT E. WOODWARD, Plaintiff, v. NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) DEFENDANT'S BRIEF TO THE FULL COMMISSION …

News in Brief

Article • August 1, 2021 • from PLN August, 2021

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Alabama: On June 9, 2021, a former guard at the Federal Correctional Institution in Aliceville, Alabama, agreed to plead guilty to federal charges that he had sexual intercourse with a prisoner in the laundry room at the women’s prison west of Tuscaloosa. According to the Birmingham …

North Carolina Prisons Underreport COVID Related Deaths

Article • July 1, 2021 • from PLN July, 2021

Filed under: COVID-19

North Carolina Prisons Underreport COVID Related Deaths by Kevin Bliss by Kevin Bliss Vice News and North Carolina Health News (NCHN) completed a study of the North Carolina Department of Corrections (NCDOC) to examine COVID-related deaths and published an article based on the results. It said that the number of …

News in Brief

Article • July 1, 2021 • from PLN July, 2021

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Alabama: According to a report by the Alabama Political Reporter, a state prisoner was fatally stabbed by another man incarcerated with him at Fountain Correctional Facility in Atmore on May 4, 2021—just one day before his scheduled release, which would also have been his twenty-fourth birthday. …

Rural Citizens in North Carolina Resisting New Jail

Article • June 25, 2021

Filed under: Protests, Rural Prisons

Rural Citizens in North Carolina Resisting New Jail by Edward Lyon by Ed Lyon   Haywood County, North Carolina is a conservative, rural political entity located in a mountainous region in the state’s west. Trump won his 2020 reelection bid there by 30 points with staunch republican Madison Cawthorn being …

NC Prisoner Survives Summary Judgment for Two Excessive Force Claims

Article • June 1, 2021 • from PLN June, 2021

Filed under: Excessive Force, Summary Judgment

NC Prisoner Survives Summary Judgment for Two Excessive Force Claims by David Reutter by David M. Reutter The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found a prisoner’s material facts in an excessive use of force claim were sufficient to overcome the defendants’ motion for summary judgment. The court’s January 4, 2021, …

Prisoners Released Without COVID Tests Face Difficult Reentry

Article • June 1, 2021 • from PLN June, 2021

Filed under: COVID-19, Post-release, ex-offender, re-entry

Prisoners Released Without COVID Tests Face Difficult Reentry by Jayson Hawkins by Jayson Hawkins Early in the pandemic, safety watchdogs called for state and federal prisoners to be released in order to reduce the spread of the coronavirus in cramped lockups. Social distancing is simply not possible in most prisons, …

Draconian Use of Solitary Confinement in North Carolina

Article • June 1, 2021 • from PLN June, 2021

Filed under: Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement

Draconian Use of Solitary Confinement in North Carolina by Keith Sanders by Keith Sanders Compared to other experiences inside American prisons, spending time in solitary confinement is the harshest and most dehumanizing. Between 50,000 and 60,000 individuals languish in concrete boxes no larger than a closet for 22-plus hours a …

HRDC v. Hoekstra, NC, Complaint, Censorship, 2021

Brief • 2021

Filed under: Publications/Books, Censorship, Prison Mail

HRDC v. Hoekstra, NC, Complaint, Censorship, 2021 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA CASE NO. _____________________ HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE CENTER COMPLAINT Plaintiff, vs. CASANDRA SKINNER HOEKSTRA, ERIK A. HOOKS, TIM MOOSE, DOUG PARDUE, DARCELL CARTER, LARRY DUNSTON, GARRY BLEEKER, ZACHARY KENDALL, individually and …

Woodward v. North Carolina Dept of Public Safety, NC, Decision and Order, Censorship, 2021

Brief • May 20, 2021

Filed under: Censorship

Woodward v. North Carolina Dept of Public Safety, NC, Decision and Order, Censorship, 2021 NORTH CAROLINA INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION I.C. NO. TA-27840, ROBERT WOODWARD, Plaintiff v. NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY, Defendant. DECISION AND ORDER BY: THEODORE S. DANCID, Deputy Commissioner. Filed: 20 May 2021 The above-captioned matter came on …

News in Brief

Article • May 1, 2021 • from PLN May, 2021

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Alabama: In February 2021, Huntsville TV station WHNT reported a delay in the trial on theft and ethics charges of Mike Blakely, sheriff of Limestone County, Alabama. According to the report, retired Colbert County Circuit Judge Pride Tompkins, who had been appointed to hear the case …

Broad Support for North Carolina Bill to Bar Shackling Pregnant Prisoners

Article • May 1, 2021 • from PLN May, 2021

Filed under: OB/GYN, Restraints

Broad Support for North Carolina Bill to Bar Shackling Pregnant Prisoners by Daniel Matheson by Daniel Matheson On April 20, 2021 a bipartisan bill entitled the “Dignity for Women Who Are Incarcerated Act” was filed in the North Carolina state legislature. The bill would end the degrading act of shackling …