by David M. Reutter
On June 29, 2021, a lawsuit against California’s San Joaquin County was dismissed by a former detainee at the county jail, after he agreed to accept $7,500 to settle his claim that guards yanked him off the toilet in his cell and beat him …
by David M. Reutter
On March 29, 2022, the First Circuit Court of Hawaii awarded $1.375 million to the estate of Joseph O’Malley, who committed suicide while incarcerated at the Halawa Correctional Facility (HCF) in July 2017.
O’Malley, 28, was diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorder upon incarceration …
by David M. Reutter
On February 4, 2022, the Supreme Court of Florida held that the state’s First District Court of Appeal erred in not accepting a prisoner’s notice of appeal for lack of a prison date stamp since prison mail logs indicated the notice was timely turned …
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Rhode Island held on March 2, 2022, that the state’s civil death statute is “unconstitutional and in clear contravention of the provisions” of the state constitution.
The Court’s ruling was issued in the consolidated appeals of state prisoners Cody-Allen …
by David M. Reutter
California’s San Luis Obispo County entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on June 23, 2021, resolving alleged violations at the county jailof the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. ch. 126, § 12101 et seq.
DOJ …
By David M. Reutter
Granting qualified immunity (QI) to acting Kentucky Department of Corrections (DOC) Commissioner James Erwin on October 8, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said he did not have supervisory liability for a state prisoner’s death allegedly caused by the negligence …
by David M. Reutter
On January 20, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) may make a post-incarceration decision to reduce benefits retroactively for a veteran imprisoned over the statutory minimum period, which is currently 60 days.
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by David M. Reutter
In a decision reached on February 4, 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court handed the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) a light to shine on the detention of a native U.S. citizen and Marine Corps veteran who was apprehended by federal …
by David M. Reutter
Finding that two guards at Florida’s Bay County Jail (BCJ) did “essentially nothing to prevent” a pretrial detainee from committing suicide, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court’s denial of qualified immunity (QI) to them on February 15, …
by David M. Reutter
In September 2021, after closing out a $10 million settlement in a class-action suit alleging its county jail violated the privacy rights of detainees by making their expunged criminal records available online, Bucks County, Pennsylvania was left with about $80,000 in unclaimed funds when …
