by Benjamin Tschirhart
By the time he filed a pro se complaint against the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) in U.S. District Court for the District of West Virginia in May 2020, prisoner Marc Pierre Hall was a “frequent litigant in the federal courts,” as the U.S. Court of Appeals ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
On July 15, 2022, Pennsylvania’s Bedford County agreed to pay $60,000 to a former detainee in the county jail, settling claims that guards purposefully failed to protect him from a vicious assault by a mentally ill detainee incarcerated there with him.
The suit was filed by Jeffrey ...
by Benjamin Tshirhart
On August 22, 2022, as many as half of the prisoners in the maximum-security unit of Rhode Island’s Adult Correctional Institution staged a hunger strike, protesting conditions in the 144-year-old prison. But officials with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) denied it happened.
“There have been no ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
On June 14, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed denial of qualified immunity (QI) to officials with Virginia’s Department of Corrections (DOC) in a suit by a group of state prisoners alleging they were held in solitary confinement too long.
Red Onion ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
On June 17, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision denying qualified immunity (QI) to federal prison wardens in Connecticut, who were accused of unconstitutionally restricting prayer practices for Muslim prisoners.
In 2014, while held by the federal Bureau ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
From payoffs to teachers over biased tests to oversight for excessive force in New York City jails, there’s money in being a federal monitor for New York City agencies. But are the results worth the incredible outlay by taxpayers?
The history of these monitors and “special masters” ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
Wexford Health Sources had been sued over 50 times in just four years when the state of New Mexico terminated the firm’s contract to provide healthcare to state prisons. That was in 2007. So the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was understandably alarmed ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
They knew it was coming: The Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) mandates a yearly inspection of all jail facilities in the state. The goal is to support local governments in maintaining “safe, secure and suitable local jail facilities.”
This is especially important, considering most jail detainees ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
In August 2022, private jail medical provider Advanced Correctional Healthcare (ACH) settled with the estate of a Missouri pretrial detainee who died of lung cancer after being refused medical attention for months. The agreement, which was for an undisclosed sum, came a few months after a jury ...
by Benjamin Tschirhart
On May 25, 2022, a former federal prisoner agreed to accept $300,000 to settle claims he was subjected to unconstitutionally bad treatment for severe Type 1 diabetes while incarcerated by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
From 2004 to 2018, Seifullah Chapman was held in several BOP ...
