by Kevin W. Bliss
On January 7, 2022, Ohio’s Franklin County Board of Commissioners settled a suit brought by a class of former female detainees in the county jail who claimed their constitutional rights were violated when photographs of tattoos on or around their private areas were taken by deputies ...
by Kevin W. Bliss
On July 12, 2022, the District Attorney (DA) for Alabama’s Lauderdale County announced murder charges against a former detainee in the county jail who escaped with the help of a high-ranking guard, after which she fatally shot herself as authorities closed in to recapture him.
Vicky ...
by Kevin W. Bliss
In a class-action suit filed by minor immigrants held in federal detention centers alleging deprivations suffered there, the federal court for the Central District of California granted plaintiffs a preliminary injunction on August 30, 2022, requiring the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to provide specific ...
by Kevin W. Bliss
Crisis conditions continue at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex, where 13 deaths have been recorded through the first eight months of 2022. Given a population of some 5,700 prisoners and detainees at the jail, that’s a death rate over twice as a high as ...
by Kevin W. Bliss
On May 12, 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed HB 873, “providing an exemption from public records requirements for information or records that identify or could reasonably lead to the identification of any person or entity that participates in an execution.”
Sponsored by state Sen. ...
by Kevin W. Bliss
The New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) shuttered its upstate “shock camp” on March 10, 2022. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced in her 2022 budget the closing of several prisons including the Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility. That leaves the state’s last shock ...
by Kevin W. Bliss
Is a man your mother marries after you grow up and leave home your stepfather? What if she dies — is he still your stepfather then?
The questions sound like parlor games, but the answers carry significance under regulations promulgated by the California Department of Corrections ...
by Kevin W. Bliss
After an Illinois prisoner developed a painful anal abscess and fistula, his medical care was “appalling” and the prison healthcare system was “dysfunctional.” But that’s just negligence, and the Constitution doesn’t protect prisoners from that.
That’s the takeaway from a ruling by the U.S. Court of ...
by Kevin W. Bliss
The Montana Department of Corrections (DOC) and Montana State Prison (MSP) entered into an agreement with Disability Rights Montana, Inc. (DRM) on March 10, 2022, settling a lawsuit DRM filed on behalf of state prisoners with serious mental illnesses (SMI) with a major overhaul to the ...
by Kevin W. Bliss
Despite a watchdog report finding state prisons so short-staffed that some guard supervisors sought demotions to take advantage of ballooning hourly overtime pay, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (DCS) will not see any help from lawmakers this session, after an ambitious prison overhaul bill died ...
