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Massachusetts Department of Corrections Sued Over Use of “Fake” Drug Tests on Legal Mail

Loaded on Nov. 1, 2021 by Casey Bastian published in Prison Legal News November, 2021, page 48
Filed under: Jail Misconduct, Drug Testing, Class Notice, Mail. Location: Massachusetts.

by Casey J. Bastian

The Massachusetts Department of Corrections (DOC) has been knowingly using drug tests described by plaintiff’s lawyers as “fake” on legal mail to both interfere with attorney/client communications and impose strict punishments without due process. These claims are the basis of a class complaint recently filed by …

 

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  1. Wrongfully Convicted Man Freed for Murder of Oregon DOC Director, But State Wants Him Back In Prison, by Mark Wilson
  2. From the Editor, by Paul Wright
  3. Indiana DOC Settles HRDC Mail Censorship Suit, by Chuck Sharman
  4. HRDC Represents Wrongfully Convicted Florida Man Who Spent 37 Years in Prison for a Rape Murder He Did Not Commit, by Chuck Sharman
  5. Fifth Circuit Overturns Permanent Injunction Requiring Texas Prison to Observe COVID-19 Precautions, by Matthew Clarke
  6. Arizona Auditor’s Report Finds Underfunding of DOC’s Capital Funding Requests and Unreconciled Prisoner Trust Fund Accounts, by Matthew Clarke
  7. $750,000 Settlement in South Carolina Pretrial Detainee’s Suicide by Southern Health Partners, by David Reutter
  8. Preliminary Injunction Bars Arkansas from Confiscating Prisoners’ COVID Stimulus Money, by David Reutter
  9. Washington State Prison Chief Secretly Forced to Retire, But Why?
  10. Benevolent or Predatory?, by Casey Bastian
  11. Georgia Sheriff Suspended After Indictment on Federal Civil Rights Charges, by David Reutter
  12. Language Matters: Why We Use the Words We Do, by Paul Wright
  13. What’s in a Name?, by Jeffrey Ross
  14. Louisiana Prisoners Used as Slave Labor During Hurricane Ida, Families Left in the Dark for Weeks, by Brian Dolinar
  15. Will Federal Prisoners on Home Confinement Have to Return to Prison?, by Dale Chappell
  16. Seven Guards Fired Over Collins County Texas Jail Death, by Jayson Hawkins
  17. Kentucky’s Prison HCV Policy of Monitoring Without Treatment Constitutional, by David Reutter
  18. All Massachusetts Jails to Provide Prisoners Ten Free Minutes of Phone Calls Per Week and Cap Charges on Additional Minutes at 14 Cents
  19. Federal District Court Orders All CDCR Employees be Vaccinated, by Douglas Ankney
  20. Company Surveils Activists Opposing Construction of Prisons and Jails, by Keith Sanders
  21. Louisville Jail Moves to Have Free Phone Calls for Prisoners by First of the Year, by Kevin Bliss
  22. Hackers Breach Thousands of Security Cameras, by David Reutter
  23. First Prisoner Elected to Hold Public Office in Washington DC, by Kevin Bliss
  24. Wisconsin Feels Effects of Staffing Shortage in State Prisons, by Kevin Bliss
  25. $72,000 Settlement Over Corizon’s Lack of Medical Treatment to Injured Arizona Prisoner, by Matthew Clarke
  26. Eleventh Circuit Upholds Immunity of Federal Prison Guards Under FTCA, Even for Blatant Unconstitutional Acts, by Dale Chappell
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  28. Audit Reveals Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Chaplaincy Services Branch Critically Depleted, by Casey Bastian
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  30. CFPB Hits JPay with $6 Million in Fines and Restitution Over Fee-Heavy “Debit Release Cards”, by Chuck Sharman
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  32. Eleven Guards Fired after Death at Houston Jail, by Brian Dolinar
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  35. $731,000 Jury Award to Illinois DOC Prisoner Held 23 Months Beyond Release Date, Over $210k in Fees Awarded As Well, by David Reutter
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