by Douglas Ankney
On July 26, 2024, the Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) was sued by the surviving parents of murdered state prisoner Joseph Walter Brown, 36, who was killed in July 2022 by fellow prisoner Demarquis Antonio Glenn in their shared cell at Macon State Prison (MSP). An earlier ...
by Douglas Ankney
Over seven years after California prisoner David Scott Harrison sued the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), the prison system removed some, though not all, of the gender-based personal property restrictions that he challenged. In a letter to PLN on May 23, 2024, he also shared ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit waded into a contentious debate over religious rights on November 27, 2023, holding that prisoners claiming a violation of those rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 need to show only that their beliefs were burdened. The Court joined the Third, Fifth and ...
by Douglas Ankney and Anthony W. Accurso
Prisoners have lost two chances to rein in abuses of solitary confinement in the past year, most recently with a toothless advisory from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). That followed a refusal by the ...
by Douglas Ankney
In an April 2024 article, Willamette University Van Winkle Melton Professor of Law Laura I. Appleman traces the profit motive in American criminal punishment from colonial times, aiming to better understand and reform the way private companies exploit prisoners and their families.
Appleman identifies the investors, corporations ...
by Douglas Ankney
On December 8, 2023, the Supreme Court of Alaska held that the state Department of Corrections (DOC) violated the rulemaking process laid out in the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) when it unilaterally changed the definition of “firm release date” found in 22 Alaska Administrative Code (AAC) 05.660(a)(18) ...
by Douglas Ankney
When the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (DOC) changed its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in January 2019 to prohibit prisoners from sending money from their trust accounts to private individuals, it didn’t promulgate a new rule under G. L. c. 30A. Prisoners called foul and sued, but a ...
by Douglas Ankney
In federal court for the Southern District of Indiana on April 11, 2024, Clark County officials agreed to pay $328,000 to settle claims filed by 25 former detainees for sexual assault at the county jail in October 2021, during the tenure of former Sheriff Jamey Noel. He ...
by Douglas Ankney
After winning a temporary restraining order (TRO) directing the medical contractor for the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) to treat his colon disease, state prisoner Arthur Burnham’s location was unknown on September 10, 2024. That was the date when the U.S. District Court for the District of ...
by Douglas Ankney
After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against a class of Oregon prisoners suing over the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal court for the District of Oregon dismissed their claims against Gov. Kate Brown (D) on April 10, 2024. But ...
