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. ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
On September 26, 2024, voting rights group Millions for Prisoners (M4P) sued New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver (D), alleging that state policies, practices, and procedures substantially denied access to thousands of released state prisoners eligible to vote.
They were re-enfranchised by the New ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
With signing of a settlement agreement on September 11, 2024, Ohio’s Richland County was on the hook for $220,000 to the estate of detainee Maggie Copeland, who died while experiencing withdrawal symptoms at the County lockup on Mother’s Day in May 2022. Under a separate agreement ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
A study released in March 2024 by the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) found that incidence of childhood trauma was higher among state prisoners than those not incarcerated. The rate rose even further when limited to prisoners subjected to discipline. For women prisoners, it was higher ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
Spit hoods are a type of restraint used by prison and jail guards, as well as other law enforcement and custodial healthcare professionals, ostensibly to protect themselves from the bites and spit of detainees. The instructions are simple: place the hood over a detainee’s head to ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
Since reporting a federal Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation was opened in September 2024 into sexual abuse of prisoners at two California lockups, PLN has obtained documentation of $4 million in settlement payouts to five victims of a former guard at Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) ...
by Douglas Ankney and Anthony W. Accurso
Prisoners have lost two chances to rein in abuses of solitary confinement in the past year, most recently with a toothless advisory from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). That followed a refusal by the ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
By the end of 2024, North Carolina’s Division of Community Supervision (DCS) will expand its Specialty Mental Health Probation (SMHP) to 56 of the state’s 100 counties. Employing 78 specially trained probation officers and 58 chief probation officers, SMHP represents the state’s attempt to confront the ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
A federal civil rights suit filed on March 12, 2024, accused a guard at South Carolina’s Marlboro County Detention Center of brutalizing a homeless mentally ill detainee—even stomping on his head. “Stories like this, where men and women are beaten, brutalized, dehumanized and even killed in ...
