by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit agreed with Plaintiff Craig Shipp that a district court erred when it failed to rely on federal law in determining the admissibility of the testimony of Shipp’s expert, but in this case the error was harmless.
Shipp was ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that an illegal mandatory sentence of life without parole (“LWOP”) imposed upon a juvenile undermined the validity of a later conviction for assault by a life prisoner predicated on the LWOP.
In 1970, James Henry Cobbs was 17 years old when ...
by Douglas Ankney
On September 27, 2021, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California ordered implementation of the Receiver’s recommendations that “(1) access by workers to CDCR institutions be limited to those workers who establish proof of full vaccination or who have established a religious or ...
by Doug Ankney
James Desper is a convicted sex offender incarcerated at the Augusta Correctional Center in Craigsville, Virginia. For six years, Desper received visits from his minor child without incident. None of Desper’s crimes or convictions involved his child. But in March 2014, the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) ...
by Douglas Ankney
In December 2016, Prince McCoy Jr. was confined in a segregation cell at the Darrington Unit in Rosharon, Texas. The prisoner in the cell adjacent to McCoy’s threw water on Officer Tajudeen Alamu. Alamu left and the prisoner covered the front of his cell with bedding. Alamu ...
by Douglas Ankney
On March 16, 2021, the Queens Daily Eagle reported that the federal government had declined to renew a contract with for-profit prison contractor GEO Group to operate the Queens Detention Facility (QDF). QDF was New York City’s last privately-operated jail.
GEO contracted with the U.S. Marshalls Service ...
by Douglas Ankney
In 2020, California enacted Senate Bill No. 132, the Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act (SB 132). SB 132 requires, inter alia, that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) house prisoners “in a correctional facility designated for men or women based on the individual’s preference” ...
Judge Orders Facilities Housing Disabled Prisoners
to Install Surveillance and Body Cameras
by Derek Gilna and Doug Ankney
On March 11, 2021, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in the Northern District of California ordered the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to require its guards to wear body cameras and install ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky granted plaintiffs’ motion seeking class certification in a suit alleging the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections (LMDC) holds people after their court-ordered release.
In February 2017, plaintiffs Jacob Healy, James Michael Jarvis, Jr., Cynthia Dawn Yates, and ...
by Douglas Ankney
According to the Connecticut Post, as of January 23, 2021, the number of people confined in Connecticut jails and prisons was 9,083—the lowest it has been in the last 32 years. That number represented 3,326 fewer prisoners than on March 1, 2020, and was less than ...
