by David M. Reutter
On January 12, 2023, California’s Sixth District Court of Appeal concluded that attorney-client privilege did not apply to a state prisoner’s “kites,” even when included in an envelope addressed to his attorney. Written messages sent in violation of jail rules, the kites were ordered turned over ...
by David Reutter
An Arizona prisoner’s civil rights claim is headed to trial in June 2023, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reinstated it, saying his prison’s policy on material he is allowed cannot be applied inconsistently without trampling his First Amendment liberties.
The suit was ...
by David M. Reutter
In a decision reached on August 10,2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit stayed the hand that the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had reached into the pocket of a federal prisoner in Missouri. Though ultimately Anthony Robinson lost nearly all of the ...
by David M. Reutter
On December 14, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit took up the latest in a “slew” of cases by Illinois prisoners alleging they are “housed like cattle” at Menard Correctional Center (MCC), “where cells meant for one person are routinely used to ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Ohio issued a writ of mandamus to a state prisoner on December 15, 2022, awarding $3,000 in statutory damages for records he was denied in violation of the state Public Records Act (PRA) by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC). ...
by David M. Reutter
On December 16, 2022, a jury in federal court for the District of Colorado awarded $3.5 million to state prisoner Jason Brooks, whose complaint alleged simply that the “offer of adult diapers was not a reasonable accommodation” of his disability by the state Department of Corrections ...
by David M. Reutter
Once it begins a lethal injection, the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC) “will attempt to carry out the execution and not stop until it becomes clear that they are likely to run out of time under the death warrant, and during that time, will do anything ...
by David Reutter
Since the 2022 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in Egbert v. Boule, 142 S. Ct. 1793 (2022), there has been no expansion of the federal government’s liability for civil rights claims that was first extended by an earlier, less reactionary high ...
by David M. Reutter
In a January 2022 report by the Fines and Fees Justice Center (FFJC), a national hub for the movement to reform criminal justice fines and fees, researchers documented the costs of private probation and found that “monetary sanctions…create substantial challenges for individuals on private probation.” The ...
by David M. Reutter
On January 13, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to review its dismissal of an appeal from a Maryland prison supervisor to a $700,000 jury verdict for a detainee whom his subordinate ...
