by Douglas Ankney
On September 2, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that 28 U.S.C. section 2107(a) requires that a notice of appeal of an order denying qualified immunity must be filed within 30 days after entry of the order and to the …
by Douglas Ankney
On September 29, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a district court’s denial of qualified immunity (QI) to Louisiana prison officials on the ground that, at the time of the alleged constitutional violation, the law was not clearly established that …
by Douglas Ankney
Campaign Zero, a “research and data-driven organization working to end police violence and carceral harm” released in June 2025 a report titled Paying for One’s Own Incarceration: National Landscape of ‘Pay-to-Stay’ Fees and called for the repeal and ban of such fees.
To gain …
by Douglas Ankney
On February 22, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland granted dismissal to a suit filed by state prisoner Keith Darnell Kelly, after he accepted a $30,000 settlement of his civil rights claims for a beating he suffered from guards while he …
by Douglas Ankney
On December 6, 2024, the Supreme Court of Alabama held that because the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC) failed to raise the issue of venue in the circuit court, the Court of Criminal Appeals’ (CCA) reversal based on venue was error.
In 2018, Joshua …
by Douglas Ankney
On July 9, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that 18 U.S.C. section 3624(b)(1), which awards federal prisoners of up to 54 days per year of good conduct credits, is to be prorated for partial years of confinement.
Christopher …
by Douglas Ankney
On November 22, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona sua sponte granted summary judgment to transgender prisoner Oscar Contreras Aguilar on the issue of exhaustion of administrative remedies where Federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) officials repeatedly denied the necessary forms to …
by Douglas Ankney
On December 30, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated a district court’s judgment that had held that prisoner plaintiff Clint Edwards had: failed to exhaust his administrative remedies; failed to adequately allege a conditions of confinement claim; and failed …
by Douglas Ankney
On June 24, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a district court’s denial of qualified immunity to two registered nurses, Diana Snow and Christina Watson, who were employed by the Lake County Detention Center (“Jail”) when prisoner Randy Wiertella …
by Douglas Ankney
In a class-action suit, the Kennebec Superior Court of Maine ordered commissioners of the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services (“MCPDS Defendants”) to create a plan to remedy the systemic failure to timely appoint counsel to indigent defendants. The Court also outlined its paradigm for …
