by David M. Reutter
A settlement agreement was reached in a class action lawsuit alleging there was an “uncontrolled outbreak of COVID at the Chesapeake Detention Facility (CDF)” in Maryland. The complaint was filed in federal district court on February 20, 2021.
It alleged that, in less than one month, ...
by Kevin Bliss and David M. Reutter
After a blockbuster report by federal investigators in December 2020 that slammed Florida’s Lowell Correctional Institution (LCI) for subjecting women to serial abuse, two state lawmakers rushed to act.
Rep. Diane Hart filed legislation in January 2021 to create a volunteer Citizens Oversight Council ...
by David M. Reutter
The New Hampshire Supreme Court held a prisoner has standing to pursue a lawsuit alleging breach of contract for the failure to comply with a settlement in a prison conditions lawsuit. The court concluded the State has waived sovereign immunity against suits alleging it has failed ...
by David M. Reutter
An in-person inspection of the Calhoun County Correctional Facility (CCCF) to determine if it is compliant with COVID-19 policies was ordered by a Michigan federal district court.
“Through filings submitted as part of the bail process and supplemental briefing, the Court has repeatedly received information suggesting ...
by David M. Reutter
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that a New York prisoner has rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to be released upon mandatory conditional release. The court, however, found those rights were not clearly established at the time relevant to the complaint and it ...
by David M. Reutter
Three former women detainees with psychiatric and physical disabilities allege that Sergeant John Raible “brutally assaulted” them while they were held at Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County Jail (ACJ). The complaint alleged other officials and guards at ACJ were aware of Raible’s “excessive history of assaulting incarcerated people ...
by David M. Reutter
As Virginia was poised to consider a bill to end private prisons, the GEO Group entered the fray with donations to legislators and lobbyists. The bill met a quick and sudden death in senate committee.
Virginia has one private prison, Lawrenceville Correctional Center (LCC). The GEO ...
by David M. Reutter
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held “that a facility caring for unaccompanied children fails to provide a constitutionally adequate level of mental health care if it departs from accepted professional standards.”
The court’s January 12, 2021 decision was issued in an appeal brought by a ...
by David M. Reutter
A December 2020 report by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) found that federal law enforcement and detention agencies documented an alarming number of fatalities, including 92 arrest-related deaths and 897 deaths in custody in fiscal years (FY) 2016 and 2017 combined.
The DOJ report was ...
by David M. Reutter
"Nationwide, crime and jail admissions decreased between 2007 and 2017, yet spending on jails increased 13%, to $25 billion, over that span,” concludes a study issued by the Pew Charitable Trusts on February 1, 2021. That spending could decrease if localities continued practices that lowered population ...
