Missouri Department of Corrections

In June, a judge overturned Hemme’s conviction for the 1980 murder of a librarian from St. Joseph, Missouri. After five months of legal battles, the same judge signed the final order granting her freedom.

For the first time in more than four decades, Sandra Hemme may get to spend Thanksgiving with her family — not in prison. Hemme was wrongly convicted of murdering a St. Joseph librarian in 1980, but a Missouri judge overturned the charges this year.

The Missouri Department of Corrections had a $14 million budget allocation to install air conditioning at one of its intake facilities. It will take years for the project to be completed.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office is opposing the release of Howard Roberts after a Greene County circuit judge ordered a retrial. This is the third time this summer that Bailey has opposed the release of a prisoner whose conviction was vacated.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey fought for nearly a month to keep Hemme behind bars, after her 1980 murder conviction was overturned in June. Almost from the moment she walked out of prison, she has been with her father in the hospital.

Missouri prisons can house offenders in county jails after they’re convicted for a cost. But counties say they’re spending more than what the state pays.

Jefferson City Correctional Center’s warden was replaced last week without explanation following the investigation of an inmate’s death, causing activists to call for answers.

Othel Moore died at the Jefferson City Correctional Center in December while restrained and in isolation. Four corrections officers were fired in March for their actions related to his death.

Health care services in Missouri prisons are declining, according to a prison reform advocacy group. The nonprofit says providers are leaving, emergency care is getting denied, and 66 residents have died this year.

At the same time when courts are required to dig through decades of non-digitized records for expungements, they are also involved in a large redacting project to make court records accessible online. Missouri courts have granted more than 103,000 expungements so far.

The Missouri woman persuaded her boyfriend to kill her mother, Dee Dee, after she had forced her daughter to pretend for years that she was suffering from leukemia and other serious illnesses.

The Missouri Justice Coalition is crisscrossing the state, with stops already in Kansas City, to raise awareness about conditions inside prisons and build support for reform legislation.