by David M. Reutter and Matt Clarke
New York City’s Rikers Island, one of the nation’s largest jails, has a notorious history of violence – both by guards and prisoners. City leaders have long sought to solve the problem that Rikers poses, but resistance by local residents to housing prisoners ...
by David M. Reutter
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held an Illinois prisoner was entitled to a preliminary injunction permitting him to possess and wear a religious medallion.
Gilbert Knowles, incarcerated at the Pontiac Correctional Center, brought suit under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and ...
by David M. Reutter
The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has agreed to a partial settlement to ensure prisoners with disabilities receive treatment and services under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The settlement resolves portions of a class-action lawsuit that also raises claims related to medical and mental health ...
by David M. Reutter
A $2.1 million settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit alleging the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) and Corizon, the department’s former private medical provider, denied hernia operations to prisoners to save money.
Groin hernias are very common; it is estimated that the prevalence of ...
by David M. Reutter
Federal officials are pursuing corruption charges against Norman Seabrook, former president of the New York City Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association (COBA).
The charge of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud stemmed from Seabrook’s alleged acceptance of bribes to steer $20 million in union investments to Platinum ...
by David M. Reutter
Florida taxpayers spend around
$2.3 billion annually on the state’s Department of Corrections – twice what they spend on Florida’s 28 public colleges combined. At least five other states also led by Republican governors and GOP legislative majorities – Alabama, Idaho, Mississippi, Nebraska and Utah – ...
by David Reutter
Criminal justice reform advocates are pushing back against a new trend to “always believe the victim” in sexual assault cases, which has given rise to “victim-centered and offender-focused” investigations.
The victim-centric trend has led to a 20-point manifesto called the “You Have Options” law enforcement program, which ...
by David Reutter
Increasingly, criminal justice reformers are pushing for “ban-the-box” policies, ordinances and statutes, which are intended to eliminate from job applications the box that asks, “Have you been convicted of a felony?” [See: PLN, March 2017, p.26; Oct. 2014, p.46]. Many jurisdictions have adopted such policies, but ...
by David Reutter
The Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) must provide prisoners with the option of receiving kosher meals, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held in affirming a district court’s grant of summary judgment and a permanent injunction.
As previously reported in PLN, the U.S. Department of Justice sued ...
by David Reutter
The use of prisoner labor and poor prison conditions are behind calls for action in Texas and Alabama, and have led to concerns over the use of prison labor nationwide.
Most people believe slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but that amendment ...
