Cambodian Union Leader Chhim Sithar to Remain in Prison After Court Rejects Appeal
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Category: Prison
Questions Surround FBI Informant Charged With Stabbing Convicted Cop Derek Chauvin
Tucson, AZ — Federal inmate and former FBI informant, John Turscak, was charged last week with attempted murder by federal prosecutors for the Black Friday stabbing incident of fellow prisoner Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted for the 2020 murder of…
White Vigilante Appeals Murder Conviction, Seeks Release From Jail
Saint Paul, MN — On May 31, Ramsey County District Judge Leonardo Castro sentenced Brian Kjellberg to just 365 days in jail for the December 2, 2021 killing of Arnell ‘AJ’ Stewart. Now, after serving six months of his sentence, Kjellberg is asking for release…
‘Cop City’ Defendant Victor Puertas Has Been Held For Months Without Trial, but His Community Hasn’t Forgotten Him
November 12 marked Victor Puertas’ 46th birthday. But while family and friends throughout the region gathered in his hometown of Salt Lake City, Victor spent the day behind bars.
For more than seven months, Puertas has been in pretrial detention after he was arrested and…
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‘Let Me Pay My Taxes’, Says Incarcerated Industry Worker
From inside a Minnesota prison cell, an incarcerated worker in the state’s Prison Industries Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) is demanding the Department of Corrections (DOC) allow him to pay his taxes. Kashaun Pierce Sr. said for the last seven years he’s been trying to pay…
Torgerson Ruling Prohibits Police Searches in Minnesota Based on Odor of Cannabis
Minneapolis, MN — Last month, the Minnesota Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in State v. Torgerson that the odor of marijuana on its own does not establish probable cause for police in Minnesota to search vehicles.
Criminal defense attorney and 2008 University of St.…
#NoKidsInPrison Art Installation Highlights Youth Incarceration Driven By Target
Saint Paul, MN — The #NoKidsInPrison traveling art installation highlighted artwork from several cities across the U.S. along the theme of abolishing youth imprisonment; including art inspired by youth incarceration in Minneapolis driven by Target Corp.
The Minneapolis based non-profit law firm Legal Rights Center…
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Be Their Voices Presser: ‘No More Jail Deaths!’
St. Paul, MN — Five years after losing her son Hardel Sherrell to medical malpractice and improper care while in a Minnesota jail, Del Shea Perry leads another protest against in-custody deaths. At least 15 people have died this year while inside Minnesota jails and…
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Family Seeks Answers Months After Cristian Rivera-Coba’s Death in Anoka County Jail
Anoka, MN — When Cristian Rivera-Coba died in the Anoka County Jail in July, no one provided answers as to how a beloved 22-year-old son, brother and uncle lost his life while in custody. Months later, his family and advocates are still seeking information about…
Report: Prisoners Strike at Oak Park Heights Canteen
Oak Park Heights, MN — Just days after prisoners at the Stillwater prison staged civil disobedience actions by refusing a staff lockdown, incarcerated workers at the nearby ‘level 5’ MCF-Oak Park Heights prison canteen have staged a work strike, according to activists who regularly stay…
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Prisoners Face Retaliation for Protest at MCF-Stillwater
Bayport, MN — Those incarcerated in the B East living unit at MCF-Stillwater are suffering retribution a week after over 100 prisoners practiced an act of civil disobedience by refusing to go to their cells for a staff-induced lockdown. An email sent to the media…
Civil Disobedience Inside Minnesota’s Stillwater Prison
In the midst of a near-record heat-streak, around 100 people incarcerated in Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater staged an act of civil disobedience by refusing to go back to their cells for a staff-induced lockdown on Sunday, Sept. 3. Men housed in B East expressed grievances over…
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Hundreds Set to Launch Hunger Strike Inside Stewart Detention Center
Lumpkin, GA — Last weekend, hundreds of people detained at the Stewart Detention Center announced plans for a hunger strike in response to inedible food and inhumane conditions inside the notorious Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in rural southwest Georgia. Though detainees have continued…
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‘I Can’t Take This Shit No More’: Alabama Prisoner Takes a Stand
Content Warning: The following article contains graphic descriptions of violence and photographs showing blood.
Bessemer, Alabama — At around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, August 13, Derrol Shaw took an opportunity to get free. Sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for murders he…
Indigenous Climate Activist Victor Puertas Remains in Custody Despite No Indictment
Lumpkin, GA — It has been almost five months since Victor Puertas was arrested at the South River Music Festival in DeKalb County, GA on March 5, and even though no evidence has been levied against him, he has been behind bars ever since. Throughout…
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Limited Funds Stunt Minnesota’s Conviction Review Unit — Families Want Expediency
Minnesota’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU) has received nearly 1,000 applications of wrongful incarceration to review but with only a couple paid staff and four grants in two years, impacted families complain about lengthy waits while the CRU say they lack capacity and funding. Created to…
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Minnesota Inmate Calls on DOC to ‘Value Us as Human’
With at least 69,000 different people being booked into Minnesota jails each year and about 17,500 Minnesota residents locked up in facilities, the state incarcerates a higher percentage of its people than almost any other so-called democracy on earth. According to the Prison Policy Initiative,…
‘Their Overreach is Sowing the Seeds of Their Undoing’: Forest Defender Speaks from Bartow County Jail
Bartow County, GA — Over seven weeks after they were arrested while distributing fliers in a small suburb of Atlanta, Charley Tennenbaum continues to be held in the Bartow County Jail for actions they say are protected by the First Amendment.
On April 28, Charley…
Court Sentences Cambodian Union Leaders to Prison Amid Wave of Repression
Phnom Penh, Cambodia — The Cambodian labor movement received a major blow from their government on May 25 when a judge sentenced the leadership of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees at NagaWorld (LRSU) to prison.
LRSU launched a strike at NagaWorld, the…
Atlanta Solidarity Fund Organizers Granted Bond
DeKalb County, GA — Three Atlanta Solidarity Fund organizers arrested Wednesday were awarded bond in DeKalb County Magistrate Court Friday afternoon.
Marlon Kautz, Adele Maclean and Savannah Patterson were arrested in Atlanta on May 31 after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Atlanta Police Department…
Three Atlanta Activists Arrested, Home Raided Over Bail Fund
Atlanta, GA — Around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, three members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund were arrested during a raid by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the Atlanta Police Department and charged with money laundering and charity fraud.
Marlon Kautz, Savannah Patterson, and…
‘Don’t Forget Us’: Forest Defenders Confront Horrors of Life in DeKalb County Jail
Monica had been locked up in Dekalb County Jail for five days when guards entered her pod and called out her name. She was being released.
Like always, the other women in the pod started clapping and cheering, happy to see anyone freed. Monica got…
Palestinian Khader Adnan Dies on Hunger Strike in Israeli Prison
Magen-Nitzan Prison, Ramla, Israel — On his 87th day of hunger strike protesting administrative detention, Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, 45, was found unresponsive in Israel’s Magen-Nitzan Prison.
Later the same day — May 2, 2023 — political leaders, released prisoners, family members and prisoner’s rights…