Search | Prison Legal News

News in Brief

Article • October 15, 2024 • from PLN October, 2024

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Arizona: State prisoner Brigido Montoya made the briefest of escapes from the State Prison Complex in Eyman on August 10, 2024, before he was recaptured 48 minutes later by Florence Police, the Florence Reminder & Blade-Tribune reported. The state Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (DCRR) …

Pro-Navalny Hackers Breach Russian Prison Computers, Lower Commissary Prices

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Computer Searches, Computers, Commissary, Internet

Pro-Navalny Hackers Breach Russian Prison Computers, Lower Commissary Prices by Hours after Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny died in prison on February 16, 2024, anti-government hackers took revenge, breaching information systems of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) and posting personal data of some 800,000 prisoners online. Prices at prison …

Russian Opposition Leader Dies in Prison

Article • April 1, 2024 • from PLN April, 2024

Filed under: Political Prisoners (International)

Russian Opposition Leader Dies in Prison by Aleksei Navalny, 47, a Russian attorney who led opposition to Pres. Vladmir Putin, died on February 16, 2024, in a penal colony inside the Arctic Circle. The country’s Federal Prison Service said he collapsed after a walk, just a day after appearing healthy, …

Imprisoned Putin Critic Claims He’s Subjected to “Re-Education”

Article • November 15, 2023 • from PLN November, 2023

Filed under: Political Prisoners

Imprisoned Putin Critic Claims He’s Subjected to “Re-Education” by Alexei Navalny, the incarcerated political rival of Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin, alleged on May 30, 2023, that he was forced to listen to pro-war and anti-Semitic songs as part of “re-education” efforts at the IK-6 prison, where he is serving a …

News in Brief

Article • July 15, 2022 • from PLN July, 2022

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by   Alabama:The Birmingham News reported that a jail guard in Mobile was arrested on May 17, 2022, for smuggling adult movies intoMobile County Metro Jail. The guard, Fredrick Johnson, 37, was charged with 21 counts of promoting contraband that included a camera, phone chargers, and flash drives, …

Russia Drops Charges Against Prison Torture Whistleblower

Article • July 14, 2022 • from PLN July, 2022

Filed under: Whistleblowing, Guard Brutality/Beatings

Russia Drops Charges Against Prison Torture Whistleblower by Edward Lyon by Ed Lyon Here’s a story with a familiar ring to it: A massive prison bureaucracy, which regularly clears its staff when prisoners are brutally abused, is forced by leaked video to finally hold someone to account—so it goes after …

News in Brief

Article • July 1, 2020 • from PLN July, 2020

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Arizona: A Maricopa County grand jury indicted Daniel Davitt, 60, on January 14,  2020 on charges of second-degree murder in the death of Lower Buckeye Jail guard Gene Lee on October 30. Buckeye Jail video shows Davitt talking to Lee on October 29, then suddenly grabbing …

Large Scale Releases and Public Safety

Article • June 1, 2020 • from PLN June, 2020

Filed under: COVID-19, Compassionate Release

Large Scale Releases and Public Safety by Peter Wagner Can governments safely release hundreds or thousands of people from prison? We offer 14 historical examples to show that, in fact, they already have. by Peter Wagner, Prison Policy Initiative https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/04/09/large-scale-releases/ To protect the American public from COVID-19, schools have closed, …

Institute for Criminal Policy Research - World Prison Population List, 2018

Publication • January 1, 2018

Filed under: Statistics/Trends

Institute for Criminal Policy Research - World Prison Population List, 2018 World Prison Population List twelfth edition Roy Walmsley Introduction This twelfth edition of the World Prison Population List gives details of the number of prisoners held in 223 prison systems in independent countries and dependent territories. It shows the …

News in Brief

Article • August 2, 2016 • from PLN August, 2016

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Arkansas: Two guards were placed on paid leave after they shot and killed prisoner Christopher Wilson during an April 7, 2016 escape attempt from the Varner Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction. According to DOC spokesperson Solomon Graves, “Officers gave [Wilson] a demand to cease …

News in Brief

Article • May 5, 2016 • from PLN May, 2016

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Australia: An anal-retentive prisoner in the supermax unit at the Goulburn Jail claimed for 12 days that a metal object detected inside his body was a fragment of a surgical instrument, but his claims were proven false when his bowels finally moved on February 24, 2016 …

News in Brief

Article • March 31, 2016 • from PLN April, 2016

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Arizona: On October 28, 2015, Maricopa County youth detention guard Patrice Dawson was arrested on felony charges of sexual misconduct. Dawson, who supervised juvenile offenders, was accused of having sexual relations with an underage prisoner; she was fired from the department after confessing to the relationship. …

News in Brief

Article • February 29, 2016 • from PLN March, 2016

Filed under: News, News in Brief

News in Brief by Arizona: On December 3, 2015, Brama Koroma walked into a Westwood bar wearing a black-and-white striped Maricopa County jail uniform that he had purchased online. Krystina Smith was at the bar and thought it was a delayed Halloween costume. “He was acting normal,” she said. Phoenix …

News in Brief

Article • December 31, 2015 • from PLN January, 2016

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Alabama: Former Dale County jail prisoner Trawick Redding, Jr. filed a federal lawsuit on July 28, 2015 claiming guards Zeneth Glenn and Ryan Mittlebach tortured and assaulted him, and inflicted cruel and unusual punishment, by using a large Burmese python to intimidate him during his jail …

News in Brief

Article • December 1, 2015 • from PLN December, 2015

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by California: On May 13, 2015, attorneys for Carlos Carasquilla and his wife filed a $15 million lawsuit against Tulare County alleging that guards opened a cell door to allow and encourage Carasquilla’s fellow prisoners to viciously beat him. Carasquilla had been jailed on a warrant for …

Russian Prison Officials Sentenced for Torture and Rape of Prisoners

Article • January 15, 2012 • from PLN January, 2012

Filed under: Staff-Prisoner Assault, Excessive Force, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Prisoners-International

Russian Prison Officials Sentenced for Torture and Rape of Prisoners by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke In March 2011, Lt. Colonel Vyacheslav Tippel, former head of the prison department for the St. Petersburg region in Russia, received a seven-year sentence for ordering the rape and torture of a prisoner. Six …

European Court of Human Rights Awards Russian Prisoner $20,060 For Overcrowding

Article • December 15, 2007 • from PLN December, 2007

Filed under: Overcrowding, International, International Law

European Court of Human Rights Awards Russian Prisoner $20,060 For Overcrowding by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On March 29, 2007, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, awarded a Russian prisoner 15,000 Euros ($20,060) in damages for incarcerating him in extremely overcrowded conditions. On November 26, 2001, …

U.S. and Russia Reaching Record Levels of Incarceration

Article • December 15, 1997 • from PLN December, 1997

Filed under: Reviews, Crime/Demographics, Crime, Prisoners-International

U.S. and Russia Reaching Record Levels of Incarceration by A new 59-nation study by The Sentencing Project reveals that Russia and the United States have reached record levels of incarceration and are far ahead of other nations in their use of imprisonment. The study also found that a 92% increase …

World Criminal Justice Systems: A Survey

Article • February 15, 1997 • from PLN February, 1997

Filed under: Commentary/Reviews, Reviews, Prisoners-International

World Criminal Justice Systems: A Survey by by Richard Terrill is a 472 page book examining the criminal justice systems of France, England, Sweden, Russia and Japan. In that respect the title is misleading as all five countries are industrialized bourgeois democracies that have more in common with each other …

Russian Jails in Crisis

Article • December 15, 1994 • from PLN December, 1994

Filed under: Overcrowding, International, Prisoners-International

Russian Jails in Crisis by For decades the United States government used its propaganda machine to rail about the former Soviet Union's prison system. That the American government is silent about the new Russian prison system is more an indication of the fact that Russia has formally restored capitalism and …