Virginia Prisoners Stuck Waiting for Education Programs by Anthony Accurso by Anthony Accurso On November 10, 2025, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) of the Commonwealth of Virginia released a report detailing the long wait prisoners can expect when trying to participate in educational programming in the state’s …
Federal Court Strikes Much of Virginia’s Felony Voting Restriction by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman On January 22, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found the state’s felony disenfranchisement law ran afoul of the power granted by Congress when the state was readmitted to the …
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 …
Former Prisoners’ Challenge to Virginia Constitution’s Felony Disenfranchisement Clause Allowed to Proceed by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney On December 5, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed an order of the district court permitting Plaintiffs Tati Abu King and Toni Heath Johnson (collectively …
Multiple Prisoner Suits Accuse Guards of Violence at Virginia BOP Lockup by Chuck Sharman A group of cases pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia paint a picture of senseless violence and petty retaliation by officials with the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) at the …
SCOTUS Clamps Down on Bivens Extension to Prisoner Beaten by BOP Guards at Virginia Lockup by Chuck Sharman On June 30, 2025, a federal prisoner lost his last chance at recovering damages for injuries suffered when he was repeatedly shackled and beaten by guards at the U.S. Penitentiary (USP)—Lee in …
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 …
Trump Pardons Virginia Sheriff Convicted of a Bribes-for-Badges Scheme by On May 27, 2025, President Donald Trump (R) issued an unconditional pardon for Scott Jenkins, 53, a former Northern Virginia sheriff who was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for 12 counts of conspiracy, fraud, and bribery. The pardon …
$1.6 Million Class-Action Settlement for Virginia Prisoners Subjected to Delayed Release by In an amended agreement filed in the federal court for the Eastern District of Virginia on January 28, 2025, state Department of Corrections (DOC) Director Chadwick Dotson and his predecessor, Harold Clarke, promised to pay a total of …
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, …
Rural Virginia Jury Refuses to Hold Guards Liable for State Prisoner’s Death by On April 10, 2025, a jury in tiny Abingdon, Virginia (pop. 8,295) refused to assign liability to a half-dozen state Department of Corrections (DOC) employees accused in the death of mentally ill prisoner Charles Givens, 52, at …
Virginia Bribes Prisoners Not to Set Themselves On Fire by At Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison, a new “Inmate Safety Agreement” uncovered through a public records request on February 9, 2025, revealed that the state Department of Corrections (DOC) has offered incentives like a quarterly fish fry to prisoners for …
Second Circuit Revives Connecticut Prisoner’s Challenge To Conditions In Virginia Lockup Where He Was Transferred by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney On October 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed dismissal of Connecticut prisoner’s complaint over an assault he suffered in a Virginia lockup where …
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 …
Biden Clemency Recipients Included Virginians Sentenced for “Acquitted Conduct” by Of 2,500 nonviolent drug convictions commuted just before the end of his term by Pres. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D) on January 17, 2025, two went to Virginia prisoners Terence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne, who spent decades behind bars for …
$42 Million Jury Award for Detainees Tortured by U.S. Military at Abu Ghraib Prison by In November 2024, a federal jury in Virginia awarded $42 million to three former prisoners held and tortured at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003 and 2004. The case, filed in 2008, …
Three Former Virginia Jailers Charged After Detainee Dies in “WRAP” Restraint by Three former Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Department (VBSD) deputies were indicted on January 3, 2025, in the death of Rolin Hill, who suffocated in a “WRAP” restraint device at the city jail in June 2024. Charged with second-degree murder …
Suboxone Manufacturer’s Delayed-Release Buprenorphine Injections Show Promise at Maine Jail by The stock price of Richmond, Virginia-based Indivior PLC was down 20% in the first 12 days of February 2025, after delayed approval from the federal Food & Drug Administration (FDA) of label changes on its Sublocade medication—a single injection …
Virginia Parole Board Skirts New Transparency Rules, Governor Walks Back Expanded Sentence Credits—Again by Parole-eligible Virginia prisoners face one of the nation’s stingiest boards. So state lawmakers made parole decisions more transparent with passage of two new laws, the most recent signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) on April 4, …
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 …
