prison

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.

A literacy program has helped mothers and grandmothers in prison improve their reading abilities while also giving them the chance to bond with their loved ones.

A criminal complaint alleges that guards at the Jefferson City Correctional Center in Missouri pepper-sprayed Othel Moore Jr., placed a mask over his face and left him in a position that caused him to suffocate. Four former staffers face murder charges in Moore's death.

At the age of 18, Chris Dunn was sentenced to life in prison for a crime he says he didn't commit. It would take two key witnesses recanting and a new state law to free him — even as the Missouri Attorney General worked to keep him behind bars.

Dunn was released from a Missouri prison Tuesday after being wrongfully incarcerated for more than 30 years. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that Attorney General Andrew Bailey did not have the authority to keep him behind bars.

Christopher Dunn's situation is similar to that of Sandra Hemme, who spent 43 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a woman in 1980 before her conviction was overturned. In both cases, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has fought to keep them in prison.

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.

Thousands of people took over the small town of Sedalia, Missouri, on this day in 1974 for the Ozark Music Festival, a party full of nudity, drugs and rock 'n' roll music. Half a century later, people still talk about the lore from that hot wild weekend. Plus: One very fluffy prison resident is changing the men around him in a Missouri correction facility.

Prison can be a lonely, violent place. But one program — or more specifically, one Jefferson City, Missouri, prison resident — is helping change the men around him.

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.

The Kansas Department of Corrections is using opioid settlement funds to pay for a program to reduce opioid overdose deaths. Opioids like fentanyl are a major driver of rapidly rising overdose deaths in Kansas. Also, headlines from across the metro.

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.