On September 18, 2024, four men, all current or former prisoners incarcerated within the custody of the South Carolina Department of Corrections (DOC), sued the agency and Director Bryan P. Stirling in the Court of Common Pleas for the Seventh Judicial Circuit in Spartanburg, alleging eight causes of action related to the DOC’s failure to pay the “prevailing wage” for work they performed for private industries while they were employed under the DOC’s Industries program.
That program is certified under the federal Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP). According to the National Correctional Industries Association, PIECP “exempts certified federal, state, local, and tribal departments of corrections from normal restrictions on the sale of offender-made goods in interstate commerce.” By lifting restrictions, it permits them “to sell offender-made goods to the Federal Government in amounts exceeding the $10,000 maximum normally imposed on such transactions.”
The four prisoners, Damon Jones, Jason Turmon, Ronnie McCoy, and Kevin Casey, alleged in their complaint that they were unlawfully paid just $7.25 an hour, which has been South Carolina’s minimum wage for three decades, instead of the federally required “prevailing wage.” As the complaint recalled, PIECP programs are supposed to place prisoners “in …
On October 17, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that 26 cell checks performed within 13 hours by six Los Angeles County jailers who nevertheless failed to assess the condition of a detainee later found dead were sufficient to create a genuine issue of …
In a settlement agreement dated May 28, 2024, Colorado’s Jefferson County agreed to pay $500,000 to Frederick Fisk, a former detainee at the county jail who suffered substantial injuries to his face after guards used a jujitsu move to take him to the ground while he was handcuffed.
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On November 13, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld a jury award of more than $8.7 million to the Estate of detainee who died in Utah’s Davis County Jail. In its ruling, the Court agreed that jail Nurse Marvin Anderson and other County officials …
On November 15, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reinstated a deliberate indifference claim lodged by Missouri prisoner Tremonti Perry, whose alleged medical neglect left him in a coma—and therefore unable to complete the prison grievance process. His complaint had been dismissed for just that …
On October 21, 2024, after a trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, judgment was entered awarding former state prisoner Justin C. Mustafa $1.3 million on his claim that he was repeatedly stabbed by Defendant state prison guard Christopher Byars.
In December 2018, according …
by Douglas Ankney
On February 7, 2025, California’s Sacramento County made a $600,000 offer of judgment that was accepted by the Plaintiffs in a suit filed over a detainee’s murder at the County lockup in 2019. The Estate of Bryan Debbs had earlier accepted another $600,000 settlement offer …
by Douglas Ankney
A volunteer minister took a dustup with Georgia jailers over baptism to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which agreed on September 16, 2024, that he had been subjected to impermissible viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment. The relevant …
by Douglas Ankney
Private prison and jail medical provider Wellpath, LLC has announced a plan to exit bankruptcy proceedings, as reported elsewhere in this issue. [See: PLN, May 2025, p.56.] The plan offers some relief to prisoners or their survivors who have successfully sued Wellpath for causing their …
by Douglas Ankney
On October 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed dismissal of Connecticut prisoner’s complaint over an assault he suffered in a Virginia lockup where he was temporarily transferred five years earlier. The Court found that Joe Baltas raised a triable …
