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PLRA Physical Injury Requirement Not Applicable to First Amendment Compensatory Damages
Loaded on June 15, 2003
published in Prison Legal News
June, 2003, page 32
PLRA Physical Injury Requirement Not Applicable To First Amendment Compensatory Damages A federal district court in New York has held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act's (PLRA) prohibition against seeking damages for mental or emotional injury without a showing of physical injury does not apply to First Amendment violations nor …
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More from this issue:
- The Crime of Being Poor, by Paul Wright
- Texas Medical Provider Investigated for Mixing, Selling Bodies
- Wichita Kansas Pays $6.2 Million to Settle Detainees' Lawsuit
- From the Editor, by Paul Wright
- No Termination of Special Parole Upon Deportation
- The Shame of Prison Health, by Sasha Abramsky
- Proof of Actual Rights Violation Required for Attorney Fee Award
- Habeas Hints, by Kent Russell
- Ohio Federal District Court Finds RLUIPA Constitutional
- YSI: Another Death, Another Settlement
- New Mexico Supreme court Affirms Dismissal of Phone Rate Suit
- Texas Tries to Hire Incompetent Doctors to Review Medical Care
- Retaliatory Prisoner Transfer for Exercising First Amendment Rights is "Adverse Determination" Under the Privacy Act, by Bob Williams
- Evidence Suppressed in California Ex-Parolee's Warrantless Search, by John E Dannenberg
- PLRA Not Applied to Attorney Fees, $407,635 for Puerto Rican Prisoners
- Texas Prisoners Have Limited Right to Appear at Expungement Hearing
- Washington DOC Settles ADA Suit for $8,000, by Roger Smith
- Seventh Circuit Vacates $1.8 Million Award in BOP Suicide
- Injunction Allows Legal Mail Between Iowa Prisoners
- "Atypical And Significant" Hardship Segregation Claim Cannot Be Dismissed Under §1915(e)(2)
- $345,000 Settlement in Pennsylvania Jail Rape Suit
- $14 Million Settlement in U.S. Corrections Corporation Pension Plan Suit, by Michael Rigby
- Guajardo (Texas Prison Mail) Suit Dismissed
- Alaska Prisoners' Benefits Extended to Arizona
- Washington Women's Medical Care Consent Decree Ended
- Ex-Employee Wins $500,000 Religious Discrimination Award Against TDCJ
- $174,175 Awarded in D.C. Conditions and Medical Suit
- $250,000 Award for Texas Jail Paraplegic Upheld
- Hawaii Adopts "Mailbox Rule" in Prisoner Civil Actions
- New Jersey's Five Percenters an STG and a Religion, by David Reutter
- Mailbox Rule Tolls Statute of Limitations in BOP Medical Suit
- Incarcerated Father Retains Child Visitation Rights
- PLRA Physical Injury Requirement Not Applicable to First Amendment Compensatory Damages
- Third Circuit Holds PLRA Exhaustion Requirement an Affirmative Defense, by Bob Williams
- Deposition Testimony Not Hearsay; Expert Must Satisfy Daubert in BOP Van Accident
- News in Brief
- Beaten Philadelphia Prisoner Gets $125,000, Two Guards and Warden Get Time
More from these topics:
- Michigan DOC Legal Payouts Top $7 Million in FY 2025, Less than One Percent of $2.15 Billion Operating Budget, Sept. 1, 2026. Statistics/Trends, Cost of Prison Systems, Damages, Settlements.
- Colorado Pays $245,000 to Muslim Former Prisoner Shaved by Same Guard Who Cost DOC Earlier Settlement with Jewish Prisoner Denied Kosher Meals, Aug. 1, 2026. Religious Discrimination, Overdetention, Religious Diet, Religious Practices, Immunity - Absolute and Qualified.
- Seventh Circuit Grants Qualified Immunity to Detectives Who Revealed Prisoner Was Informant, Denies Him Anonymity, Aug. 1, 2026. Failure to Protect (General), Physical Injury Rule, Qualified Immunity, Informants (Failure to Protect), 42 U.S. Code § 1983, civil action for deprivation of rights.
- SCOTUS Continues to Hack Away At First Step Act, July 1, 2026. Conditions of Confinement, PLRA, Post-release, ex-offender, re-entry, Sentences - Corrections or Modifications of, Compassionate Release.
- Free Phone Calls Saved Prisoners and Their Families More than $600 Million, Report Finds, July 1, 2026. Conditions of Confinement, PLRA, Prisoner Privileges, Rehabilitation/Recidivism, Telephones.
- Fifth Circuit Kills Louisiana Prison Medical and Mental Health Care Reform, July 1, 2026. Medical, Conditions of Confinement, PLRA, Immunity/Liability, Mental Health.
- Seventh Circuit Upholds Liability but Reverses Damages in Lawsuit Over Illinois Warden and Investigator Using Prisoner as Bait to Catch Staff Member Raping Her, May 1, 2026. Staff-Prisoner Assault, Failure to Protect (General), Damages, Evidentiary Ruling, Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
- ICE Jails Denied Muslim Detainees’ Right to Celebrate Ramadan, April 1, 2026. Religious Diet, Religious Practices, Religious Property, Immigration Detention, Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).
- Ohio Supreme Court Awards Prisoner $1,000 for Denied Records Request, April 1, 2026. Administrative Exhaustion (PLRA), Damages, Public Records, Public Records Act.
- $95,000 Settlement for Trans BOP Prisoner Assaulted by Cellmate in Arizona Lockup, Dec. 1, 2025. Snitch Jacketing, Failure to Protect (General), Physical Injury Rule, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Transgender Medical Procedures, Discrimination (Transgender), Failure to Protect (Transgender).

