HRDC Sues Minnesota DOC Over Censorship Policy by Robert Haughn by Robert Haughn On January 7, 2025, the Human Right Defense Center (HRDC), nonprofit publisher of PLN and Criminal Legal News, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, accusing Commissioner Paul Schnell of the Minnesota …
Eighth Circuit Orders Preliminary Injunction Requiring Minnesota to Reinstate Program Teaching Biblical “Authentic Manhood” by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On August 14, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ordered the issuance of a preliminary injunction compelling the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) to reinstate …
$3.6 Million Paid by Minnesota County After Hemophiliac Jail Detainee Died from Brain Bleed by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman Officials in Minnesota’s Ramsey County agreed on April 9, 2025, to pay $3.6 million to settle claims filed for the Estate of Dillon Bakke, a 32-year-old hemophiliac who suffered a …
News in Brief by Alabama: Elmore County Jail guard Lita Williams, 57, was arrested and charged with first-degree promoting prison contraband on May 21, 2025, the Wetumpka Herald reported. Her arrest followed discovery of a cellphone in a jail cell during a routine search two weeks prior. Data from the …
Nearly $2.6 Million Paid to Former Minnesota Jail Detainee for Injuries from Delayed Withdrawal Treatment by David Reutter On February 12, 2025, attorneys for a former detainee jailed by Minnesota’s Anoka County stipulated to dismissal of his claims for injuries suffered when he was denied withdrawal treatment while incarcerated. In …
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, …
$3.4 Million Settlement for Minnesota Jail Death Called “Real-Life Nightmare” by When Lucas John Bellamy, 41, was booked into jail in Minnesota’s Hennepin County on July 18, 2022, he informed staff that he had swallowed a bag of drugs shortly before his arrest. He was taken to a hospital, where …
Nurse Charged, $2.6 Million Settlement Reached in Minnesota Jail Death by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) filed manslaughter charges on March 7, 2025, against a former nurse at the Beltrami County Jail in the 2018 death of detainee Hardel Sherrell. His mother previously collected a $2.6 million settlement from …
News in Brief by Alabama: State Department of Corrections (DOC) guard Arianna Kimberly Slater faces life in prison after she was arrested while attempting to smuggle contraband into Ventress Correctional Facility on February 24, 2025. According to the Birmingham News, a routine employee screening of Slater’s food container found unspecified …
Minnesota High Court Restores Voting Rights of Former Felons by On August 7, 2024, the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld the 2023 Restore the Vote Act (RVA), which returned the right to vote to individuals with felony convictions upon completion of their prison sentences. The law had been challenged a summer …
State Forces Minneapolis Jail to Ship Out Detainees by Facing persistent and critical short staffing, commissioners in Minnesota’s Hennepin County voted on December 3, 2024, to spend $5.4 million to ship 266 of over 800 detainees from the county jail to lockups in other Minnesota counties. The state Department of …
Minnesota Supreme Court Says Randy Guard Must Face Prisoner’s Sexual Harassment and Assault Claims by The Supreme Court of Minnesota held on June 20, 2024, that a state Department of Corrections (DOC) prisoner plausibly stated a claim under the Minnesota Tort Claims Act (TCA) when he alleged that a guard …
News in Brief by Australia: Brisbane Correctional Center prisoner Jack James Peterson, 29, was sentenced to an additional 18 months in January 2023 for assaulting a guard with a squash racket, the Courier reported. Peterson struck the unnamed 34-year-old during a confrontation involving a riot response team, leaving him with …
Two-Week Lockdown at BOP Women’s Prison in Minnesota After Nine Overdoses, Two Deaths by The Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Waseca, a women’s prison on the former campus of a University of Minnesota technical school, was locked down for over two weeks after a mass drug overdose sent prisoners to …
Minnesota Prisoners Getting Scanned Mail, Kept Waiting 18 Months for Tablets by Starting November 1, 2024, prisoners held by the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) stopped getting physical mail, which is now diverted to Baltimore for electronic scanning by private contractor TextBehind. Printed copies of the scans—complete with all the …
Childhood Trauma Incidence Higher Among Those Incarcerated by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso A study released in March 2024 by the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) found that incidence of childhood trauma was higher among state prisoners than those not incarcerated. The rate rose even further when limited to …
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 …
Minnesota Judge Spanked For Ignoring Law Restoring Felon Voting Rights by Just over a year after Minnesota restored voting rights to former felons, the state Board on Judicial Standards (BJS) reprimanded Mille Lacs County District Judge Matthew Quinn on June 27, 2024, for attempting to disenfranchise formerly incarcerated people. Minnesota’s …
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 …
Eighth Circuit Upholds Denial of Qualified Immunity to Minnesota Guard Accused of Assaulting Restrained and Compliant Prisoner by Matthew Clarke by Matthew T. Clarke On May 6, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld a district court’s denial of qualified immunity (QI) to a Minnesota Department …
