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Oklahoma Supreme Court Kills One Jail Death Suit, 
Threatening Settlement of Another

Loaded on June 1, 2025 published in Prison Legal News June, 2025, page 10
Filed under: Systemic Medical Neglect, Private Contractors, Medical Neglect/Malpractice. Location: Oklahoma.

In a case with enormous implications for Oklahoma jail detainees, the state Supreme Court ruled on March 11, 2025, that a jail’s subcontracted medical providers are “employees” for the purposes of the Oklahoma Governmental Tort Claims Act (GTCA), O.S.Supp.2014, §152(7)(b)(7), and are therefore immune from liability.

That ruling …

 

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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. Mississippi DOC Issues Almost $300 Million 
in No-Bid Contracts to VitalCore Health
  11. Top Rikers Island Jailers Logged Overtime 
Equal to 14-Hour Days With No Days Off
  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. Four Arizona Prisoners Dead After Being Celled 
with Leader of 2004 Standoff
  19. Former Centurion Owner Accused of Helping Florida Governor Kill Legalized Weed
  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 
On His Face by Jailers, by Douglas Ankney
  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
  31. 11th Alabama Sheriff’s Employee Pleads Guilty in Jail Detainee’s Death, Admits Stomping Him in Genitals
  32. Second South Carolina Prisoner 
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  33. Tenth Circuit Upholds Nearly $8.8 Million Judgment 
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  34. Fifth Circuit Reinstates Baha’i Texas Prisoner’s Dietary Claim, by Matthew Clarke
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  36. $62,500 For Idaho Prisoner Raped by Guard 
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  37. Eighth Circuit Excuses Missouri Prisoner’s Failure 
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  42. California Enacts Counterproductive, 
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