by Douglas Ankney
To paraphrase Job 1:21, the Supreme Court of Virginia did not giveth but taketh away on October 12, 2023, with a ruling on prisoner sentence credits that were extended by a 2020 law only to have a budget amendment make hash of them two years later.
Before ...
by Douglas Ankney
On October 10, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued an opinion offering guidance to judges deciding whether to grant a prisoner’s motions to waive court filing fees and proceed in forma pauperis (IFP) on appeal.
Illinois prisoner Jordan Whitaker sought to waive ...
by Douglas Ankney
In June 2021, former San Luis Obispo County Jail detainee Steven J. York was awarded $175,000 to settle a lawsuit that also prompted an investigation of the jail by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In addition to the monetary award, the settlement agreement requires Defendants San ...
by Douglas Ankney
On August 23, 2023, a jury in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma made a massive award of $33 million to the family of Terral B. Ellis, Jr., an Ottawa County Jail (OCJ) detainee who allegedly died begging for medical attention while a nurse ...
by Douglas Ankney
Delays in improvements mandated in a 2020 consent decree resulted in at least six preventable detainee deaths at Sacramento County jails, according to a grand jury investigative report on June 2, 2023.
As PLN reported, the County’s two lockups were the subject of Mays v. Cty. of ...
by Douglas Ankney
On September 27, 2023, the Kansas Department of Corrections (DOC) appeared to back down from a fight over providing state prisoners materials from a Wiccan shop—though it maintained a ban on correspondence from the shop owner and an associated coven.
For at least 20 years, MoonShadow Coven ...
by Douglas Ankney
On April 3, 2023, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts called a medical parole denial by the state Commissioner of Correction arbitrary and capricious because it was made without a standardized risk assessment for prisoner applicant Martin McCauley, as required by Title 501 Code Mass. Regs. §17.02. ...
by Douglas Ankney
On September 19, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed dismissal of prisoner Tremayne Durham’s suit blaming employees of the New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC) for injuries he suffered in a shower slip-and-fall, after they denied him access to his cane and ...
Douglas Ankney
On September 15, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut granted a transexual prisoner’s motion for summary judgment in a suit accusing the state Department of Correction (DOC) of violating her Eighth Amendment rights by failing to treat her gender dysphoria (GD).
Veronica-May Clark is ...
by Douglas Ankney
On September 7, 2023, five former detainees at Arkansas’ Washington County Detention Center (WCDC) informed the federal court for the Western District of Arkansas that they had accepted payment of $2,000 each to settle claims alleging that a jail doctor without their knowledge or consent dosed them ...
