by Anthony W. Accurso
At the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on August 22, 2024, a Louisiana prisoner defeated a claim of qualified immunity (QI) by Defendant officials with the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPSC) in his suit to hold them liable for ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
Two recent studies highlight decreased cancer survival rates for those who’ve been incarcerated and their partners, too. The studies effectively connect abysmal prison healthcare to the lack of access to cancer screenings that accompanies poor health insurance after release from prison. Researcher Jingxuan Zhao, M.P.H., senior ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit in federal court for the District of Columbia on December 20, 2024, challenging the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for treating sentence credits earned by prisoners towards early release under the First Step Act (FSA) as “optional.” The ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
An Oklahoma prisoner who was exonerated after nearly 50 years in prison has received over $7 million in compensation so far. Glynn Ray Simmons, 71, now holds the dubious distinction of serving more time in prison for a crime he didn’t commit than anyone else in ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
A prisoner, who said that he was inspired by what he read in PLN, fought for over three years to obtain compensation from North Carolina for property lost when prison officials failed to secure it while he was transferred for extradition to another state.
Robert E. ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
On August 27, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a $500,000 jury award for a Los Angeles Lakers basketball fan shot with a rubber bullet by city cops attempting to “manage” a boisterous crowd after a championship win. Though not ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
The Alabama Department of Finance issued a $250,000 payment on behalf of the state Department of Corrections (DOC) on August 16, 2024, settling a suit filed by the survivors of state prisoner Steven Davis, who was beaten to death by guards in October 2019 in the ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
A settlement filed in federal court for the District of South Carolina on September 3, 2024, brought a resolution to a lawsuit filed by the survivors of a Greenville jail detainee who lost over two pounds a day and died.
After he allegedly fired gunshots into ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
In an opinion decided July 22, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed a district court’s denial of a motion for appointment of counsel by a North Carolina prisoner for his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 complaint, finding that Kenneth Ray Jenkins’ “low IQ,” ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
In an opinion filed on July 31, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld a district court’s denial of qualified immunity (QI) to two Arkansas jailers who ignored a detainee’s swollen arm and hand from a spider bite for three days. ...
