by David M. Reutter
In a decision published on June 21, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held a guard was not deliberately indifferent to a prisoner’s symptoms of heroin withdrawal when the prisoner died from pills she smuggled into Illinois’ Champaign County Satellite Jail (CCSJ). ...
by David M. Reutter
Understanding how the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) impacts prisoner civil rights litigation can be a time intensive undertaking. John Boston’s new book, The PLRA Handbook, makes that undertaking a simple task and answers virtually any question one may have on the topic.
When I first ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has decided that when a prisoner alleges sexual assault by a prison official, the only fact he needs to prove is whether the sexual assault occurred and not that it was also carried out with excessive force ...
by David M. Reutter
On August 20, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed an order finding officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) are immune to civil rights claims for damages resulting from regulations they adopted while exercising authority delegated them by ...
by David M. Reutter
In April 2021, Illinois’ DuPage County Jail (DCJ) and its Psychiatric Services Medical Director agreed to pay $275,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by detainee Dean Fuerstenberg, who attempted suicide at the jail in November 2013, sustaining permanent injuries.
In his amended civil rights complaint, Fuerstenberg ...
by David M. Reutter
Victor Hill, Sheriff of Georgia’s Clayton County, will face a jury trial on September 26, 2022, on seven federal charges of violating the civil rights of jail detainees held in a restraint chair as punishment.
In April 2021, Hill was indicted for the alleged abuse of ...
by David M. Reutter
Holding that the pornography policy at South Dakota State Penitentiary (SDSP) was unconstitutional as applied to a prisoner, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit nonetheless decided it lacked jurisdiction to provide him meaningful relief while also reversing a district court’s finding that the ...
by David M. Reutter
Finding a material dispute of fact exists in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a ban in Iowa prisons on sexually explicit materials and materials featuring nudity, a federal district court in the state denied summary judgment to defendant state and prison officials on September 30, ...
by David M. Reutter
On November 12, 2021, a settlement was reached under which four officials at the Duval County Jail (DCJ) in Jacksonville agreed to pay $6,500 to a detainee who alleged they repeatedly opened his legal mail outside his presence. That followed a decision by the U.S. Court ...
by David M. Reutter
On February 7, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California approved a Consent Decree in a class-action lawsuit filed against the Alameda County Jail in Santa Rita that accused officials there of subjecting “individuals with mental health diagnoses and/or other psychiatric disabilities” ...
