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Articles by David Reutter

$20,000 Paid to Florida Prisoner After Eleventh Circuit Finds PLRA Inapplicable to Claims DOC Removed to Federal Court

by David M. Reutter

On May 17, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997 e, does not apply to an action filed in state court and removed to federal court by the defendants. The Court had ...

COVID-19 Consent Decree Terminated at Florida’s Broward County Jail

by David M. Reutter

On August 14, 2023, the federal court for the Southern District of Florida issued its latest ruling in a long-running case brought by detainees at the Broward County Jail exposed to a risk of COVID-19 infection during the pandemic. Overruling Plaintiffs’ objections, the Court adopted the ...

After SCOTUS Resolves Circuit Split, Maryland Guard Loses Appeal to Prisoner’s $700,000 Verdict

by David M. Reutter

On May 25, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) held that a post-trial motion is required only to preserve findings of fact for appellate review—not a purely legal question resolved at summary judgment. The high court accepted the case on January 13, 2023, ...

Fifth Circuit: 12-Hour Delay in Treating Texas Prisoner’s Stroke Wasn’t Deliberate Indifference

by David M. Reutter

On May 5, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a Texas prisoner’s civil rights complaint that alleged prison staff delayed and impeded his access to emergency medical care after the onset of his stroke symptoms. The Court found the ...

Seventh Circuit Revives Indiana Prisoner’s Claim Over Dismissed Grievance

by David M. Reutter

On May 4, 2023, the U.S. Court of appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the grant of summary judgment against a federal prisoner in Indiana who claimed he was subjected to a physical assault for filing grievances. But the Court affirmed judgment on two other claims ...

Eleventh Circuit Says Florida Prisoner’s Dismissed Complaint Doesn’t Count as a “Strike”

by David M. Reutter

On May 11, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that the moment a prisoner files a motion to dismiss his federal civil rights suit, a district court losses jurisdiction over it. So it therefore has no authority to find the action ...

New Jersey Prisoner’s Suit Survives Seeking to Validate the Nation of Gods and Earth as a Religion

by David M. Reutter

On September 12, 2022, the federal court for the District of New Jersey denied a motion for summary judgment by the defendant New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC) in a state prisoner’s claim alleging that designating the Nation of Gods and Earth (NOGE) a security threat ...

DOJ Reaches Consent Decree with New Jersey Jail to Improve Mental Health Care

by David M. Reutter

On May 17, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed both a federal civil rights complaint and a proposed consent decree to resolve allegedly unconstitutional conditions at New Jersey’s Cumberland County Jail (CCJ). The filing ends a five-year investigation and aims to correct conditions that ...

Suit Against Delaware DOC Advances With 39 Prisoner Plaintiffs and 40 Defendants

by David M. Reutter

On August 17, 2023, lawyers for a group of 39 current and former prisoners at Delaware’s Sussex Correctional Center (SCC) largely beat back a motion brought by defendant prison officials to dismiss their complaint alleging a “systematic pattern” of beatings at the lockup in 2021 and ...

Defining ‘Carceral Deference’

by David M. Reutter

“Carceral deference is a powerful principle built on faulty premises and with troubling and destabilizing effects,” declared Danielle C. Jefferis, an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law, in an article that appeared in the Fordham Law Review.

Deeply ingrained in criminal law ...