A Native American prisoner in the US has gone to court over claims that staff doctored his ID photograph. The altered image allegedly showed him wearing war paint and a feathered headdress.
Dylan Leenheer belongs to the Gun Lake Tribe. His civil rights lawsuit concerns events at Newberry Correctional Facility in Michigan. The news website Michigan Advance reported the case.
The lawsuit claims an officer used digital techniques on a staff computer to change his image. It says the picture then went up on the window of his unit, in view of other prisoners and employees.
Mr Leenheer says the conduct amounted to racial humiliation and breached state civil rights protections. He also claims the department overseeing the facility knew of similar misconduct. It failed, he says, to tackle a wider pattern in the unit.
According to the lawsuit, putting the image on display deepened the humiliation. It also raised safety concerns, as the unit held few Native American prisoners. It also alleges that a staff member refused his request to photocopy the card for a complaint and mocked the picture.
A Michigan Department of Corrections spokesperson said the department investigates all allegations of discriminatory harassment. The spokesperson gave no further comment, citing the ongoing litigation.
Theatre inside a medieval fortress
In Volterra, near Florence in Tuscany, a hilltop fortress built almost 700 years ago now operates as a medium-secure prison. Known as the Fortezza Medicea, or Medici Fortress, parts of it date from 1342. Lorenzo the Magnificent strengthened it after a siege in the 15th century.
The jail hosts one of Europe’s most innovative prison arts schemes. Prisoners serving more than seven years rehearse daily with professional artists. Their theatre company has recently marked four decades of work.
Its founding director, Armando Punzo, set out to foster creativity where few thought it could flourish. The company’s productions question common assumptions about punishment, rehabilitation and the imagination of people in prison.
Visitors watch performances in the fortress courtyard, often with costumes and props that reflect the building’s Renaissance past. Prisoners also cook and serve gourmet meals to paying guests in a restaurant inside the fortress.
Man loses eye in overcrowded Dublin remand prison
A man in his 70s with acute mental illness has lost an eye at Cloverhill prison in Dublin. His cellmate allegedly stabbed him with a pen. The older man was on remand despite having no previous criminal record.
The two men had to share a cell because the prison lacked space. Cloverhill, Ireland’s main remand prison, is running beyond capacity. It routinely puts two people in single cells and four in spaces meant for three.
Ireland’s prison system as a whole stands at 122 per cent of capacity. The Council of Europe recommends a threshold of 95 per cent for safe operation.
Ian O’Donnell, Professor of Criminology at University College Dublin, raised the case in an article for The Irish Times. The victim may yet be found innocent, he noted. In his view, violence like this shows that Ireland urgently needs sentencing reform and a more workable approach to holding people before trial. Three-quarters of remand prisoners in Ireland never receive a custodial sentence.
Lightning strike injures 16 in Ohio
Lightning struck a group of prisoners at a prison in Ohio during a severe storm in August 2026. They were walking between buildings after their evening meal. The staff with them escaped injury.
The state’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction confirmed that 16 prisoners suffered injuries. One went to hospital by air ambulance and seven others stayed in hospital overnight.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said prison policy keeps prisoners indoors during storms. However, officers believed conditions did not point to an imminent threat. They allowed prisoners to walk their normal route from the dining hall back to the housing units. He said the lightning appeared without warning.
