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Willie Cunningham nearly died after his appendix burst while he was incarcerated in Pennsylvania's York County Prison. Nurses working for the jail's for-profit healthcare provider told him he just had heartburn, @elizabethweill.bsky.social reports. theappeal.org/york-county-...
As ICE seeks to turn commercial warehouses across the country into massive detention centers, communities are fighting back, @bdolinar.bsky.social reports: theappeal.org/ice-wants-to...
ICE has jailed journalists as part of its mass deportation campaign. One unintended side effect: firsthand accounts of detention conditions from trained reporters. theappeal.org/ice-incarcer...
And in case you missed it, we cataloged the members of Congress who have taken thousands of dollars from private prison companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group. Find out if your rep is among them: theappeal.org/ice-cold-cas...
In earnings calls earlier today, investors in GEO Group and CoreCivic criticized ICE. Their chief complaint? ICE's detained population, despite hitting record highs, still isn't large enough.
@elizabeth.weill.bsky.social has more: theappeal.org/ice-geo-grou...
Read more at theappeal.org. https://theappeal.org/york-county-pennsylvania-restraint-chairs-everett-palmer/
Read Elizabeth's story to learn more about York County's use of restraint chairs and efforts to ban their use. theappeal.org/york-county-...
We have stories of people who have defecated on themselves, thrown up on themselves, been denied access to toilets, food, water. Restraint chairs are sadistic. Tanisha Long, Abolitionist Law Center
For decades, human rights organizations have condemned restraint chairs as a form of torture. More than twenty-five years ago, the United Nations Committee Against Torture called for the abolition of restraint chairs, concluding that their use ''almost invariably leads to breaches'' of the international treaty against torture.
one company boasted on their website that its chairs “have been used with people as small as 45 lbs.” Restraint chairs have been used on people with mental illness and children as young as 14.
Restraint chairs are disproportionately used on people in the midst of a mental health crisis. “If someone is in acute mental health distress, they might be strapped in and confined in that chair for hours at a time, in plain view of everyone else in the unit. It's a painful and degrading experience.” Noah Barth, Pennsylvania Prison Society
Advocates have widely condemned the use of restraint chairs in U.S. prisons, jails, and other detention facilities. The UN has called their use a form of torture. Nonetheless, many carceral facilities continue the practice, sometimes using them on children as young as 14.
Over the last ten years, at least two people died shortly after they were confined to restraint chairs in york county prison. On April 7, 2018, Everett Palmer, Jr. was picked up on an old DUI charge and booked into York County Prison. Over the next two days, Palmer’s mental health deteriorated. In response, guards tased him, placed a spit hood over his head, and strapped him into a restraint chair. He died shortly thereafter. The County settled with Palmer’s family for $1.5 million.
Haywood dixon begged for medical help. the guards strapped him into a restraint chair. Haywood Dixon was booked into the jail in July of 2023. He repeatedly told guards that he felt ill. When he was unable to comply with the guards’ demands to remove his shoes, they tased and shackled him, and placed a spit hood over his head. They forced him into a restraint chair and cut off his clothes. A short time later, he was dead. Dixon’s mother sued the County last year.
York County paid a $1.5 million settlement to Palmer's family. His case made national headlines. But York County didn't change its practices, and six years later, another man died after being put in a restraint chair during a mental health crisis.
about 30% of jails did not use restraint chairs at all from 2018-2024, including the state’s largest jails Pennsylvania’s two most populous jails did not use restraint chairs at all from 2018 to 2024. The Delaware County jail, which had a monthly population of about 1,200, and Philadelphia’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, which had a monthly population of about 2,200, reported zero uses of the restraint chair.
In 2021, voters in Allegheny County passed a referendum banning the use of restraint chairs. Other large counties in PA, including Philadelphia and Delaware County, haven't used them in years, even without a formal ban.
York County has become an outlier in the state.
A map showing restraint chair usage by county in Pennsylvania. York County is a deep shade of red, while most other counties are gray or light pink. The map is titled "Unrestrained: York County uses restraint chairs more than any other county in the state."
How We Reported the Story The Appeal analyzed data on the use of restraint chairs at Pennsylvania’s county jails from 2018 to 2024. Most people in county jails are awaiting trial and presumed innocent. The data is published on the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections website. As required by state law, counties report data on use-of-force incidents, including the use of restraints, each month to the Department of Corrections. The data is not validated by outside sources.
What We Found In 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, York County used restraint chairs more times than any other county in the state. In 2021, Allegheny County voters passed a referendum that ushered in several reforms, including bans on restraint chairs. Prior to the ban, from 2018 to 2020, Allegheny County used restraint chairs more times than any other county, topping out at about 340 times in 2019, according to The Appeal’s analysis. York County has had the top spot since 2021.
A bar chart with the title "The Outlier: York County uses restraint chairs far more frequently than other jails in the state." A caption adds, "Several of Pennsylvania's most populous jails don't use restraint chairs at all. The others use it much less often than York County."
In her latest story for The Appeal, @elizabethweill.bsky.social analyzed use-of-force data for Pennsylvania's county jails, finding that York County used restraint chairs far more often than any other jail in the state.
YORK COUNTY PRISON USED RESTRAINT CHAIRS 1,295 TIMES According to The Appeal's analysis, from 2018 through 2024, Pennsylvania's York County Prison used restraint chairs a total of 1,295 times—more than any other county in the state.
Everett Palmer, Jr., died after he was strapped to a restraint chair in York County's jail in 2018. A grand jury made recommendations to prevent similar deaths. Instead of implementing them, York County used the chair 1,295 times—more often any other jail in PA. theappeal.org/york-county-...
In February 2021, seven men sat down to pray in a Missouri prison. Within minutes, guards put them in shackles and covered them in pepper spray.
The incident highlights the dangers Muslims face practicing their religion in prison, @khawlanakua.bsky.social reports.
theappeal.org/pepper-spray...
NEW FROM ME: for @theappeal.org. After a year of:
✅ Sifting through more than 200 pages of records.
✅ Sifting through more than 3,000 court document searches.
✅ Interviewing many sources.
✅ And filing many public records requests.
My story is finally published today.
theappeal.org/pepper-spray...
A record number of people died in ICE detention last year, @mludwig.bsky.social reports for @truthout.org
Six more people have died during the first three weeks of 2026 alone.
theappeal.org/ice-deaths-d...
Holly Krig, for @truthout.org: “I don’t want ‘justice’ from the shooters — they have none to give. I’d rather make a demand of the death-making institutions: die, dissolve, decay.”
theappeal.org/ice-renee-go...
New in partnership with @invisible.institute and @phoenixnewtimes.com: Scotty Bach left the Seattle Police Department after an investigation found that he had attended Trump's rally at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Phoenix hired him anyway: theappeal.org/phoenix-poli...
A New Jersey Supreme Court decision ruled that the controversial "Shaken Baby Syndrome" lacked scientific support, barring testimony about SBS in criminal trials. @elizabethweill.bsky.social examines the potential ripple effects of the decision across the country.
theappeal.org/new-jersey-s...
My latest for @truthout.org (co-published with @theappeal.org )
truthout.org/articles/ice...
There's the investigation I did for @theappeal.org that looked into the invasive surveillance tech police bought w/ state $ under the premise it'd help fight against organized retail theft. Including ALPRs, real-time crime fusion centers, and social media surveillance
theappeal.org/shoplifting-...
New Jersey’s highest court has banned testimony on Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) from the state’s courtrooms. The decision could help unravel wrongful convictions throughout the country. New for @theappeal.org @truthout.org theappeal.org/new-jersey-s...
New from Kevin Light-Roth: Tim Ballard promoted the use of sting operations to combat sex trafficking until his own sexual misconduct allegations tore his career to shreds. Now, the families of men he helped send to prison are demanding answers: theappeal.org/net-nanny-wa...
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Policing, surveillance, and incarceration are some of the primary vehicles through which fascism is implemented and enforced. As such, this moment is an absolutely crucial one for The Appeal.
“The Appeal has long played a pivotal role in shining journalistic light on the criminal legal system’s inherent injustices–and illuminating creative paths forward,” said Maya Schenwar, director of the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism.
The good news: The Appeal lives on! The Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism will carry forward and expand our work with a new monthly newsletter and original reporting, including work by incarcerated journalists and deep-dive investigative projects.