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News in Brief
Article • February 1, 2026 • from PLN February, 2026
News in Brief by California: In a ruling that highlights the complexities of holding corrupt staff financially accountable, the California Court of Appeal recently restored the pension of former San Francisco jail guard April Myres, 61, on December 26, 2025. Bloomberg Law reported that federal prosecutors charged Myres in 2017 …
County Jail in Oklahoma Accused of Coercing Detainees to Convert to Christianity
Article • February 1, 2026 • from PLN February, 2026
Filed under: Jail Misconduct, Religious Practices, First Amendment, rights, Religious Freedom/Worship
County Jail in Oklahoma Accused of Coercing Detainees to Convert to Christianity by The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Madison, Wisconsin, claims that it received a complaint from a community member in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, that the local sheriff’s office was promoting religion in …
Tenth Circuit Reverses Summary Dismissal of Claim Over Prisoner’s Suicide in Oklahoma Jail
Article • February 1, 2026 • from PLN February, 2026
Filed under: Failure to Train/Supervise, Failure to Protect (Wrongful Death), Suicides, Staff Training, 42 U.S. Code § 1983, civil action for deprivation of rights
Tenth Circuit Reverses Summary Dismissal of Claim Over Prisoner’s Suicide in Oklahoma Jail by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On November 26, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed the summary dismissal of a failure-to-train claim in a federal civil rights lawsuit over the suicide …
Oklahoma Prisoner Who Escaped Through Hole Killed by Sheriff
Article • February 1, 2026 • from PLN February, 2026
Filed under: Escapes, Plumbing, Jail Specific, Security Systems
Oklahoma Prisoner Who Escaped Through Hole Killed by Sheriff by Joshua Butler—a prisoner serving a life sentence who escaped from the Okfuskee County Jail in Okemah, Oklahoma—was shot and killed by state troopers during a traffic stop on December 31, 2025. Butler had escaped on December 20, but none of …
Oklahoma County Jailers Lose Bids to Derail Three Suits Over Detainee Murders
Article • November 1, 2025 • from PLN November, 2025
Filed under: Failure to Protect (General), Overcrowding, Staffing, Municipal Liability, Deliberate Indifference
Oklahoma County Jailers Lose Bids to Derail Three Suits Over Detainee Murders by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman Claims filed over a trio of detainee murders at the Oklahoma County Detention Center survived motions to dismiss in March 2025. As PLN reported, the lockup was stripped from control of the …
SCOTUS Overturns Oklahoma Prisoner’s Death Sentence After More than 25 Years on Death Row
Article • November 1, 2025 • from PLN November, 2025
Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, Mental Health, Ineffective Assistance of Counsel, False Statements or Testimony, Withholding Evidence, Evidence - Destruction/Fabrication/Manipulation of
SCOTUS Overturns Oklahoma Prisoner’s Death Sentence After More than 25 Years on Death Row by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney On February 25, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) reversed Oklahoma prisoner Richard Eugene Glossip’s death sentence. This is the second time a death sentence imposed upon …
Oklahoma Prisoner’s Execution Was Expedited 
by the Trump Administration
Article • August 1, 2025 • from PLN August, 2025
Filed under: Death Penalty, Death Row, Lethal Injection
Oklahoma Prisoner’s Execution Was Expedited by the Trump Administration by John Hanson, 61, received a three-drug lethal injection on the morning of June 12, 2025, and was pronounced dead by 10:11 a.m., reported USA TODAY. Hanson—who received a life sentence for carjacking, kidnapping, and killing Mary Bowles in Tulsa in …
Prison Gerrymandering 
Alive and Well in Oklahoma
Article • August 1, 2025 • from PLN August, 2025
Filed under: Racial Discrimination, Census
Prison Gerrymandering Alive and Well in Oklahoma by Chuck Sharman As states across the country push to end “prison gerrymandering”—the U.S. Census practice of counting prisoners in the typically rural and white areas where they are held, thereby diluting the voting power of the urban and non-white areas that they …
Oklahoma Supreme Court Kills One Jail Death Suit, 
Threatening Settlement of Another
Article • June 1, 2025 • from PLN June, 2025
Filed under: Systemic Medical Neglect, Private Contractors, Medical Neglect/Malpractice
Oklahoma Supreme Court Kills One Jail Death Suit, Threatening Settlement of Another by In a case with enormous implications for Oklahoma jail detainees, the state Supreme Court ruled on March 11, 2025, that a jail’s subcontracted medical providers are “employees” for the purposes of the Oklahoma Governmental Tort Claims Act …
News in Brief
Article • May 1, 2025 • from PLN May, 2025
Filed under: News in Brief
News in Brief by Alabama: A Jefferson County Jail guard was briefly abducted and assaulted by detainee Reontay Harley, 33, on January 13, 2025. WBMA in Birmingham said that after Harley took the unnamed guard hostage inside a cell, responding jail Extraction Unit guards rescued their fellow guard and restrained …
Cruelty Is Now the Point for BOP
Article • May 1, 2025 • from PLN May, 2025
Filed under: Conditions of Confinement, Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Lethal Injection Method of Execution
Cruelty Is Now the Point for BOP by Just before leaving office in January 2025, outgoing Pres. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D) removed 37 federal prisoners from death row, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Jan. 2025, p.16.] But incoming Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) immediately directed his new Attorney General …
$7.15 Million for Oklahoma Prisoner Exonerated After Nearly 50 Years
Article • April 1, 2025 • from PLN April, 2025
Filed under: Settlements, Wrongful Conviction
$7.15 Million for Oklahoma Prisoner Exonerated After Nearly 50 Years by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso An Oklahoma prisoner who was exonerated after nearly 50 years in prison has received over $7 million in compensation so far. Glynn Ray Simmons, 71, now holds the dubious distinction of serving more …
News in Brief
Article • March 1, 2025 • from PLN March, 2025
Filed under: News in Brief
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 …
Four Escapes in Eight Months from Oklahoma Jail
Article • March 1, 2025 • from PLN March, 2025
Filed under: Escapes
Four Escapes in Eight Months from Oklahoma Jail by After slipping away from Oklahoma’s Caddo County courthouse January 22, 2025, detainee Levi Yeahpau spent a day on the run until he was recaptured. His uncle, Daron Highwalker, said that the detainee “basically [] walked out both front doors, and he …
News in Brief
Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025
News in Brief by Alabama: Clarke County Jail guard Larissa Thompson was arrested on December 5, 2024, for plotting to smuggle drugs into the lockup, the Thomasville Times reported. An investigation by state law enforcement, the office of County Sheriff DeWayne Smith, and Jackson Police uncovered evidence that Thompson planned …
Turn Key Health Walks Away From Oklahoma County Jail
Article • January 15, 2025 • from PLN January, 2025
Filed under: Contractor Misconduct, Private Contractors, Contractor Liability
Turn Key Health Walks Away From Oklahoma County Jail by On October 9, 2024, Turn Key Health Clinics ended its contract to provide healthcare at the Oklahoma County Jail in Oklahoma City. The firm gave notice 30 days earlier, after winning just a one-year $7.4 million extension to the contract …
GEO Group Just Wants to Be a Landlord for Oklahoma DOC
Article • December 15, 2024 • from PLN December, 2024
Filed under: GEO Group/Wackenhut, Cost of Prison Systems, Rural Prisons, Fines
GEO Group Just Wants to Be a Landlord for Oklahoma DOC by In June 2024, after Oklahoma failed to meet a $3 million pay hike demanded by The GEO Group, Inc., the private prison operator gave notice to terminate its contract to run Lawton Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility (LCRF), the …
Prisoners Reportedly Locked in Showers in Oklahoma, Florida
Article • October 15, 2024 • from PLN October, 2024
Filed under: Guard Misconduct, Showers, Restraints
Prisoners Reportedly Locked in Showers in Oklahoma, Florida by David Reutter by David M. Reutter According to a lawsuit removed to federal court for the Western District of Oklahoma on May 1, 2024, prisoners at Great Plains Correctional Center (GPCC) were confined in a tiny shower stall for days on …
At Oklahoma Lockup: Deputy Warden Fired and Arrested in Smuggling Scheme, Guards Charged in Prisoner’s Assault
Article • October 15, 2024 • from PLN October, 2024
At Oklahoma Lockup: Deputy Warden Fired and Arrested in Smuggling Scheme, Guards Charged in Prisoner’s Assault by Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections (DOC) fired Lexington Assessment and Reception Center (LARC) Deputy Warden Tasha Parker on May 9, 2024, one day before her arrest for smuggling contraband into the prison. Within a …
News in Brief
Article • September 15, 2024 • from PLN September, 2024
Filed under: News in Brief
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 …
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