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North Carolina Parole Commission Agrees to Stop “Moving Goalposts” for Prisoners Who Committed Crime as Juveniles by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman A settlement reached on September 15, 2025, moved the North Carolina Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission a step closer to finally realizing changes that it was ordered to …
Dissenter Excoriates SCOTUS for Denying Certiorari in Challenge to Constitutionality of Nitrogen Hypoxia Execution by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On October 23, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) denied certiorari in a federal civil rights action challenging Alabama’s use of nitrogen hypoxia for executions. Justice Sonia …
Amnesty International Report Claims Torture and Enforced Disappearances at “Alligator Alcatraz” by A recently released report from the humanitarian group Amnesty International found that conditions at two migrant detention centers in Florida amounted to “cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment,” with some practices rising to the level of torture. In September …
Article • January 1, 2026 • from PLN January, 2026
Wisconsin Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal of Detainee’s Jail Food Lawsuit by Michael Thompson by Michael Thompson James Clubb was incarcerated in the Marinette County Jail on September 13, 2018, when he bit down on something hard and broke a tooth. At the time, for-­profit provisions company Aramark held “the exclusive …
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 …
Article • December 1, 2025 • from PLN December, 2025
Guards at an Infamous Mississippi Jail Mocked a Disabled Detainee by In late November 2025, reporters at Mississippi Today uncovered two videos taken inside the Rankin County jail that showed guards mocking a disabled detainee; just days earlier, the guards had filmed the same detainee being shocked in an electrical …
Eighth Circuit: Former Prisoner’s Amended Complaint Filed After Release Not Subject to PLRA Exhaustion Requirement by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman On May 22, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit refused a request by officials with the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) for a rehearing before …
Fifth Circuit Dismisses Sex Abuse Claims Filed by Three Texas Prisoners Against Guard by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman In a frustrating series of court rulings, three Texas prisoners seeking redress for a guard’s blatant sexual abuse saw their last claims dismissed on April 15, 2025. Though devastating for them, …
Trans Kentucky Prisoner Loses Bid to Block State’s New Ban on Hormone Replacement Therapy by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman On September 12, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky rejected a desperate plea from a transgender state prisoner who had been receiving hormone replacement therapy …
Seventh Circuit Affirms Liberty Interest in Harsh Solitary Confinement Case by Michael Thompson by Michael Thompson In 2020, Abre Jackson was involved in a physical altercation with prison guards at Illinois’ Stateville Correctional Center when he stuck his arm through a small “chuckhole” in his cell door. As a result, …
Missouri Blocks Spiritual Advisors from Prison Pastor’s Execution by Jo Ellen Nott by Jo Ellen Nott On October 14, 2025, at around 6 p.m. in the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri, Lance Shockley, 48, was executed by lethal injection after Governor Mike Kehoe (R) denied him clemency. The state …
Florida Sheriff Fires Five Guards for Two Cases of Detainee Abuse by Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced on October 29, 2025, that he fired five high-ranking guards, following two separate instances of abuse toward detainees locked up at the county jail. According to Gualtieri, one incident involved a woman …
$2.4 Million Paid to Indiana Prisoners Sickened With Legionnaire’s Disease by Contaminated Water by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman In a letter dated September 10, 2025, attorneys for a group of more than 500 prisoners at Indiana’s Pendleton Correctional Facility announced a $2.4 million settlement of claims arising from an …
Seventh Circuit Rules Against Prisoner’s Deliberate Indifference Claim Over Wexford Health’s Poor Psychiatric Care by Michael Thompson by Michael Thompson Cordell Sanders spent eight years in segregation housing at the Pontiac Center in Indiana after committing multiple disciplinary offenses. While being held apart from others, he suffered from severe mental …
Date of Firing Squad Execution Vacated for Utah Prisoner with Dementia by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman With just a week to go before his scheduled execution by firing squad, attorneys for Utah prisoner Ralph Menzies, 67, won a stay from the state Supreme Court on August 29, 2025, after …
Article • June 1, 2025 • from PLN June, 2025
Death Row Prisoners Challenge New Tennessee Single-Drug Lethal Injection Protocol by Nine condemned Tennessee prisoners filed suit in state court on March 14, 2025, accusing the state Department of Corrections (DOC) of subjecting them to a “risk of torturous death” with a lethal execution protocol utilizing pentobarbital. Kevin Burns, Byron …
Texas Prison Heat Declared Unconstitutional by In a ruling on March 26, 2025, the federal court for the Western District of Texas agreed that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) was likely violating the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment by holding most state prisoners in cells …
Texas Courts, Legislature at Odds over Executing Potentially Innocent Death Row Prisoner by Robert L. Roberson III was sentenced to death in Texas in 2003 for killing his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, whose death the previous year was attributed to “shaken baby syndrome.” Since then research has found symptoms attributed to …
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 …
Study Finds Just 1% of Prisoner’s Eighth Amendment Claims Succeed by In a report published on December 19, 2024, Business Insider found just 1% of prisoners succeeded in claims against prison officials for violating the Eighth Amendment ban on “cruel and unusual” punishment. To arrive at that figure, researchers combed …
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