Missouri Department of Corrections

Patricia Prewitt spent decades imprisoned in Missouri for a murder she says she didn’t commit. She was granted clemency in December and compiled a book of letters detailing her experience.

Nearly 20,000 people are released from Missouri prisons each year. Going home is an adjustment — and a relief. Hear from one man who returned home after 37 years. Plus: Get caught up on news from around the metro.

According to the Missouri Department of Corrections, approximately 19,000 people are released from prison every year. For Paige Spears, it took 37 years to walk free.

The lawsuit filed by the MacArthur Justice Center says that in the summer, the lack of air conditioning or heat solutions at Missouri's Algoa Correctional Center violate the constitutional rights of people detained there.

The bill has been introduced for five straight years in the Missouri legislature, but failed to make it to committee hearings until now. It's named after Larry Miller, who was stabbed to death in custody while correctional officers were not around.

Deaths in Missouri prisons have increased in number despite a drop in the number of people incarcerated. The Missouri Department of Corrections says says in-custody fatalities are mainly due to natural causes among an aging, sicker prison population.

The Missouri Department of Corrections is giving few details, but advocates say the removal of the South Central Correctional Center warden occurred after an investigation into how contraband is entering the prison.

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.