by Mark Wilson
On July 16, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a federal prisoner’s Bivens action, because First Amendment claims are not cognizable Bivens claims.
Federal prisoner Scott Callahan is incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, ...
by Mark Wilson
A January 2021 watchdog report painted a grim picture of a losing struggle by officials with the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) against an outbreak of COVID-19 the previous year at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Terminal Island in San Pedro, California. Ten prisoners died there of ...
by Mark Wilson
The California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA) was cited on March 1, 2021, by the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) and fined $24,300 for “serious” violations stemming from a June 2020 exposure to COVID-19 of prisoners employed in a metal fabrication and vehicle-outfitting facility at ...
by Mark Wilson
On July 22, 2020, a rural and politically conservative county in western New York implemented one of the nation’s most progressive transgender jail policies, also agreeing to pay a transgender woman $60,000 to settle a lawsuit stemming from her mistreatment in the Steuben County Jail (SCJ).
The ...
by Mark Wilson
Oregon prisoner Carl Spieler, 56, suffered for three months after he was admitted to the state penitentiary in Salem in May 2018, while prison medical staff, convinced he was malingering, dismissed his 62-pound weight loss, dangerously low blood pressure and other alarming symptoms of an untreated staph ...
by Mark Wilson
"Michael Barton died a brutal death because he was ignored and then written off as faking symptoms and refusing medication,” said attorney Bryan Dawson, upon securing a $3 million settlement in August 2020 — the largest in Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) history — for the late ...
by Mark Wilson
"If the judge didn’t sentence you to death, the prison doesn’t have a right to provide such poor health care that you die,” Dr. Marc Stern, a health-care expert who has worked for the Washington Department of Corrections (WDOC), told Crosscut, an online publication, in an ...
by Mark Wilson
On June 30, 2020, an Oregon county agreed to pay Albert Molina $625,000 to settle his claim that a jail guard fractured his skull in an unprovoked 2018 attack. Two days later, county prosecutors — who had initially declined to bring charges — obtained indictments against Washington ...
by Mark Wilson
On June 5, 2020, an Oregon federal court denied prison officials’ summary judgment on a prisoner’s First Amendment retaliation claim. Oregon prisoner Leumal Fred Hentz was assigned to work in the bakery at Oregon State Correctional Institution (OSCI). On November 6, 2016, Hentz, who is Black, filed ...
by Mark Wilson
On July 16, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court’s dismissal of a former California pretrial detainee’s suit for non-exhaustion.
Joshua Franklin Snyder was a pretrial detainee at two Riverside, California, detention facilities. While there, Snyder complained about unsanitary ...
