News in Brief by Alabama: On February 13, 2026, Jarvis Moore, a former guard at the Morgan County Jail, turned himself in to face seven counts of felony extortion lodged against him following an August 2025 investigation. According to WAFF in Huntsville, Sheriff Ron Puckett accused Moore of threatening prisoners …
News in Brief by News in Brief Alabama: The Alabama Reflector reported that state lawmakers authorized $800,000 in contracts on February 5, 2026, to defend the state Department of Corrections (DOC) against civil rights lawsuits accusing guards of brutalizing prisoners. $200,000 each will be paid to Capell & Howard in …
U.S. District Court in Arizona Grants Summary Judgment in Favor of Prisoner Denial of Forms for Challenging 455 Days of Solitary by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney On November 22, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona sua sponte granted summary judgment to transgender prisoner Oscar Contreras …
$95,000 Settlement for Trans BOP Prisoner Assaulted by Cellmate in Arizona Lockup by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman On March 3, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona granted dismissal to a group of cases filed by federal prisoner Jeremy “Grace” Pinson, 39, after she agreed to …
News in Brief by Alabama: A civil rights lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Alabama by Paulette Tennison on August 29, 2025, blamed Morgan County jailers for the death of her son, John Scott Jr., on April 22, 2025, just one week after he was arrested by Priceville Police …
Ninth Circuit Finds No Bivens Extension Needed for Federal Prisoner Prescribed Water and Exercise for Thyroid Storms by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman The federal government’s immunity from lawsuits for damages might provide cover for mistreating prisoners to any employee of the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), if it wasn’t …
NEWS IN BRIEF by Alaska: Alaska Public Media reported that former Anchorage Police Department Off. Nathan Keays, 45, convicted of conspiring with a ConocoPhillips employee to embezzle over $3 million from the firm, is seeking a new trial, alleging his conviction was tainted by a secret romantic relationship between two …
Ninth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Arizona Challenge to Private Prisons by In 2020, the Arizona chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and two state prisoners filed a federal class-action suit, challenging the state’s use of privately-operated prisons on a variety of constitutional grounds. The …
Ninth Circuit Reinstates Religious Exercise Claim from Arizona “Christian-Israelite” Prisoner Denied Passover Meal by Michael Thompson In 2017, a prisoner describing himself as a “Christian-Israelite” was denied access to his Arizona prison’s Passover meal after the unit chaplain challenged his religious beliefs. Michael Ray Fuqua was incarcerated at the Arizona …
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, …
Four Arizona Prisoners Dead After Being Celled with Leader of 2004 Standoff by Three Arizona prisoners were murdered at the state prison complex in Tucson on April 4, 2025, by fellow prisoner Ricky Wassenaar, 61. He claimed to have a fourth victim, too, who died in November 2024, but state …
Tucson Program Slashes Pretrial Misdemeanor Incarceration by Writing to the Board of Supervisors of Arizona’s Pima County on November 7, 2024, County Administrator Jan Lesher reported striking results from first-year operations of its Transition Center in Tucson: Since it opened in September 2023, the share of those held at the …
Ninth Circuit: Posting Jail Mugshots on Arizona County’s Website Violates Substantive Due Process by Like many jurisdictions, Arizona’s Maricopa County maintained a website where mugshots were posted of those arrested and booked into the county jail. The photos were accompanied by personal identifying information, including names and birthdates. But after …
Ohio Pauses Executions, Louisiana and Arizona Race Ahead by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) reprieved three condemned state prisoners on February 13, 2025, pushing their execution dates years down the road to give the state time to fix its broken supply chain of lethal injections drug. But Louisiana Gov. Jeff …
14 Overdoses in Two Weeks Leave One Dead at Phoenix Jail by Two detainees overdosed at the Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix on February 18, 2025, joining another dozen who overdosed the week before—one of whom later died. Deputies of newly elected Sheriff Jerry Sheridan suspected that one or more …
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 …
Federal Withdrawal of Single-Drug Execution Protocol Follows Challenges in Indiana, Arizona by On January 16, 2025, days before Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) returned to office for a second term, outgoing U.S. Attorney General (AG) Merrick Garland withdrew the Department of Justice (DOJ) protocol under which condemned federal prisoners are …
Failures Brought to Light in Arizona Prison System’s COVID-19 Response by The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Re-entry (DCRR) has faced bitter criticism for the healthcare provided to state prisoners, which a federal judge in 2022 called “plainly, grossly inadequate,” as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Dec. 2022, p.1.] So …
The Grift That Keeps on Giving: $33 Million for State Prisons Generated by Seized Native Land by In 2024, land trusts in 10 states generated an estimated $33 million in revenue for their prison systems. The figure was estimated from reports by Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, …
“Happy Mother’s Day”: $1,353,000 Settlement Approved for Migrant Parents Separated from Minor Kids at Border by Matthew Clarke by Matthew Thomas Clarke On July 2, 2024, the federal court for the District of Arizona approved settlement of a lawsuit brought against the United States by former immigration detainees under the …
