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$6 Million Settlement in Illinois Detainee’s Gruesome 
Untreated Heroin Withdrawal Death

Loaded on June 1, 2025 by David Reutter published in Prison Legal News June, 2025, page 62
Filed under: Drug/Alcohol Withdrawal, Failure to Treat, Medical Neglect/Malpractice. Location: Illinois.

On December 18, 2024, notice was filed in the federal court for the Central District of Illinois that a $6 million good-faith settlement had been reached resolving a lawsuit seeking compensation for the April 2022 death of pretrial detainee Brian Downs at the Morgan County Detention Facility (MCDF). The complaint …

 

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  1. Washington’s Continuing Competency Crisis Strains Jails
  2. Rejected by Conviction Integrity Unit, 
27 New York Prisoners Exonerated Anyway
  3. From the Editor, by Paul Wright
  4. $2.4 Million Settlement Reached After Elderly Pretrial Detainee Strangled by Cellmate in San Antonio Jail, by David Reutter
  5. Oklahoma Supreme Court Kills One Jail Death Suit, 
Threatening Settlement of Another
  6. Arkansas DOC Settles Retaliation Claim by Prisoner 
Who Also Won Back Confiscated COVID-19 Stimulus
  7. Kansas Supreme Court Revives Prisoner’s Challenge 
to Loss of Parental Rights, by Matthew Clarke
  8. Rural Virginia Jury Refuses to Hold Guards Liable 
for State Prisoner’s Death
  9. French Prisons Targeted 
in Coordinated Attack
  10. Top Rikers Island Jailers Logged Overtime 
Equal to 14-Hour Days With No Days Off
  11. Mississippi DOC Issues Almost $300 Million 
in No-Bid Contracts to VitalCore Health
  12. Fifth Circuit Refuses to Stop Court-Ordered Construction 
of Mental Health Facility at New Orleans Jail, by Boris Bastidas
  13. Ninth Circuit Revives Complaint Over Sloppy Cell Checks 
Before Psychotic Detainee’s Death at L.A. Jail, by Douglas Ankney
  14. $875,000 Award for Illinois Prisoner’s Delay 
in Getting Hernia Surgery, by David M. Reutter
  15. Salvadoran President’s Dark Secret Allegedly Behind Deal 
to Hold Deported Migrants in “Mega” Prison
  16. California Appellate Court: Custody Credits Must be Applied 
to Concurrent Terms in Multiple Open Cases, by David M. Reutter
  17. Over $1.1 Million Recovered for Rikers Island Janitors
  18. Former Centurion Owner Accused of Helping Florida Governor Kill Legalized Weed
  19. Four Arizona Prisoners Dead After Being Celled 
with Leader of 2004 Standoff
  20. $100,000 Settlement Reached For Tennessee Detainee 
Baptized to Get Out of Traffic Ticket, by Boris Bastidas
  21. Sixth Circuit Limits Deliberate Indifference Standard 
in Kentucky Jail Medical Care Challenge, by David M. Reutter
  22. Italy Begins Conjugal Visits 
in Prison “Sex Rooms”
  23. Auburn University’s Prison Education Program ‘Indefinitely Suspended’, by Charlotte West
  24. New Mexico Watchdog Group Sues for Video Allegedly 
Showing Jailers Killing Detainee, by David M. Reutter
  25. Gay Tennessee Prisoner Refuses to Out Himself 
in PREA Classification Hearings
  26. $500,000 for Colorado Detainee Dropped 
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  27. Three New York Guards Plead Guilty to Beating Black Prisoner 
in “George Floyd Challenge”
  28. Ninth Circuit Reinstates Religious Exercise Claim from Arizona “Christian-Israelite” Prisoner Denied Passover Meal, by Michael Thompson
  29. Watchdogs Fault Nebraska Prisons 
for Suicide Response, Overpaid Staff, by Boris Bastidas
  30. Smart Communications Files for Bankruptcy Protection
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in Alleged Smuggling Ring
  35. Fifth Circuit Reinstates Baha’i Texas Prisoner’s Dietary Claim, by Matthew Clarke
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  37. Eighth Circuit Excuses Missouri Prisoner’s Failure 
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  42. California Enacts Counterproductive, 
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  43. Government Quasi-Agency Attempts to Infiltrate Criminal Justice Nonprofit
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  49. Almost $4.4 Million for Illinois Prisoner’s Failure to Protect Claim, by David Reutter
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  70. News in Brief
  71. $6 Million Settlement in Illinois Detainee’s Gruesome 
Untreated Heroin Withdrawal Death, by David Reutter

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