by Mark Wilson
On July 27, 2021, just 25 days after a federal court in California denied summary judgment to San Mateo County Jail guards on a detainee’s excessive force claims, county officials quickly paid him $55,000 for breaking his arm.
When the detainee, Oscar Tapia-Carmona, was booked into the ...
by Mark Wilson
On March 15, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated a lower court’s order that California prison officials implement a mandatory COVID-19 employee vaccination policy. The Court concluded that prison officials were not deliberately indifferent in not requiring all employees to get vaccinated, ...
by Mark Wilson
In a 6-3 decision authored by Justice Clarence Thomas on March 4, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death sentence of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, reversing a lower appellate court to conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding a juror-screening ...
by Mark Wilson
On January 26, 2022, a Muslim Nevada prisoner notched his second victory in as many months against state prison officials at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which upheld a lower court’s decision ordering officials with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to allow ...
by Mark Wilson
On January 18, 2022, the federal court for the Western District of Washington approved a class-action settlement awarding 76 juvenile offenders a total of $1,357,665, or $500 a day for their solitary confinement at two adult jails in King County. The court also approved a $50,000 award ...
by Mark Wilson
“Guaranteed income is a wayto recognize everyone’s inherent dignity,” declared an op-ed in Florida’s Gainesville Sun on November 5, 2021.
Penned by Mayor Lauren Poe (D) and Kevin Scott, a fellow at local anti-poverty non-profit Community Spring, the op-ed announced a pilot program that pays “justice-impacted” people ...
by Mark Wilson
On September 8, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit declined to offer any relief to an Oregon sex offender who challenged his removal from parole-required sex offender treatment—which led to jail sanctions—for refusing to admit to his crime even though he was then ...
by Mark Wilson
On January 24, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated the dismissal of a federal prisoner’s suit and remanded the case to the district court, after finding that prison officials failed to carry their burden of proof that administrative remedies were actually available ...
by Mark Wilson
On March 14, 2022, a federal grand jury in Oregon issued a 25-count indictment against a former nurse at the state’s only women’s prison, accusing him of sexually assaulting a dozen prisoners there from 2016 to 2017. Three days later, Tony Daniel Klein, 37, was fired by ...
by Mark Wilson
On March 1, 2022, a lawsuit challenging clemency orders by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) was mostly rejected in Marion County Circuit Court. However, in ruling on the commutations for former offenders sentenced as juveniles, Judge David Leith decided in favor of district attorneys and ruled that ...
