He Told the Jail He Felt Suicidal. Eleven Days Later They Moved Him to a Cell by Himself. The State Paid $500,000 and Admitted Nothing.
After trial: A final judgment entered March 31, 2026 by Anchorage Superior Court Judge Dani Crosby on an accepted offer of judgment, so the figure is final by construction. The $500,000 is inclusive of attorney's fees, and the state's offer carried an express non-admission of fault or liability. No cap was applied. Alaska's News Source gives the judgment date as March 13, 2026 and the Anchorage Daily News as March 31; the ADN date is used here. Collectability: the payer is the State of Alaska; Alaska's News Source reported the state has paid, but the payment itself is not documented in the court record we have, so the disclosure stays at not public.
Won by ACLU of Alaska.
James Rider, 31, of Wasilla, told staff at the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility in Palmer that he was having thoughts of suicide when he was booked in August 2022. He was put on precaution for a day, then housed with other inmates, then, about eleven days after booking, moved to a cell alone. Within hours he hanged himself with bedsheets. The ACLU of Alaska sued the Department of Corrections on behalf of his brother and the mother of his child. In March 2026 the state made an offer of judgment for $500,000, with a clause saying it admitted no fault, and the family accepted.
What happened
James Rider was 31, from Wasilla, a father of three. In August 2022 he was arrested for a probation violation and booked into the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility in Palmer. At intake he told staff he was having thoughts of suicide.
According to his autopsy report, he was kept on precaution for one day and then moved into a cell with two other inmates. Five days later he was transferred to Cell 8 in the Charlie Dorm, where he was the only person in the cell. Within hours he hanged himself with bedsheets. He had been seen alive about 20 minutes before a scheduled cell check found him. His brother, Mike Cox, said a neurosurgeon told the family he had gone at least half an hour without oxygen before CPR began.
Rider was one of 18 people who died in Alaska jails and prisons in 2022, a record at the time. The Department of Corrections said it had done everything by the book, with visual checks every half hour. The family could find no documentation of why he had been taken off suicide watch.
In August 2023 the ACLU of Alaska filed suit in Anchorage Superior Court on behalf of his brother and the mother of his child. The complaint said Rider had been placed alone in a cell despite being a known suicide risk, and that isolating a suicidal person contradicted decades of established correctional guidelines. It asked for damages, attorney's fees, and an independent review of the department's suicide-watch protocols, staffing and use of solitary confinement.
The case ended with an offer of judgment. The Department of Corrections offered $500,000, inclusive of attorney's fees, with a clause stating that the offer was not an admission of fault or liability for Rider's death. The family accepted, and on March 31, 2026 Anchorage Superior Court Judge Dani Crosby entered final judgment. The judgment requires no change to how the department operates.
"This hopefully, not only will it bring, hopefully bring awareness, but hopefully it helps the DOC kind of see what was right, what was wrong, and then move forward," Tamara Halliburton, the mother of one of his children, told Alaska's News Source.
The ACLU of Alaska is a nonprofit civil-rights organization rather than a law firm, and it has no directory profile here. It is recorded as counsel because it was.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Anchorage Daily News (Michelle Theriault Boots), 7 May 2026: James Rider's death at the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility about eleven days after booking; his report of suicidal thoughts and the move to a cell alone; the 18 deaths in Alaska custody in 2022; the ACLU of Alaska's complaint and its plaintiffs; Judge Dani Crosby's March 31 final judgment for $500,000 inclusive of attorney fees; and the non-admission clause
- 2.Alaska's News Source (KTUU), 8 May 2026: the autopsy report's account of the one-day precaution, the shared cell and the transfer to Cell 8 in the Charlie Dorm; the department's half-hour check policy; the family's statements; the lawsuit's claims and requested independent review; the offer of judgment and its non-admission clause; and the family's acceptance
- 3.Anchorage Daily News, 31 August 2023: the ACLU of Alaska's filing of wrongful-death suits over Alaska prison suicides, including Rider's
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