by David M. Reutter
On August 10, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed a district court’s grant of summary judgment to employees of the Michigan Department of Corrections (DOC) in a case accusing them of failing to protect a prisoner who suffered a fatal overdose ...
by David M. Reutter
In an opinion issued on November 22, 2022, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts held that urine is not a “noxious or filthy substance.” Therefore, the Court affirmed dismissal of vandalism charges against a detainee for urinating on a jail’s floor.
Angel O. Perez Narvaez was ...
by David M. Reutter
In a precedential ruling displaying galling cowardice, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ordered summary judgment on November 9, 2022, against a group of sex offenders whose class-action suit claimed their civil rights were violated when the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) denied ...
by David M. Reutter
On November 7, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that a Virginia prisoner successfully pleaded that a policy of the state Department of Corrections (DOC) substantially burdened his religious beliefs. That sent the case back to the district court to determine ...
by David M. Reutter
On May 3, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for defendant jailers in a lawsuit seeking damages for a Utah detainee’s suicide. Not only bad for the survivors of the unfortunate man, the case also offers a lesson in ...
by David M. Reutter
Technology giveth and technology taketh away – even in prison. That was the conclusion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on October 26, 2022, when it reversed dismissal of an Ohio prisoner’s civil rights action, finding a viable dispute regarding exhaustion of ...
by David M. Reutter
On December 16, 2022, the federal court for the Northern District of California entered final approval of a settlement agreement in a class-action suit alleging Santa Clara County continued to hold detainees in jail after the county District Attorney (DA) declined to prosecute them. The agreement ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Montana, in an opinion issued on October 18, 2022, held that the District Court for the state’s Seventh Judicial Circuit issued an illegal sentence when it failed to award credit for time served on two concurrent sentences. In its ruling, the Court ...
by David M. Reutter
On October 25, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the dismissal of a civil rights complaint filed by a former Wisconsin prisoner, who alleged that in 2018 he defecated on himself after being unable to access the handicapped toilet at Racine ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on November 14, 2022, reversed the decertification of a class in a lawsuit alleging that Division 10 of the Cook County Jail does not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. ch.126 § 12101 et ...
