by Matt Clarke
On June 30, 2022, the federal court for the District of Arizona found that the healthcare state prisoners get is frankly awful — unconstitutionally so. As is the amount of time many spend in isolation, where their psychiatric ailments are ignored, and they go hungry not only ...
by Matt Clarke
On January 12, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said a lower court erred in declaring that a federal prisoner’s dismissed lawsuit counted as the first of three “strikes” allowed under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). Why? Because only the judge who counts the ...
by Matt Clarke
Between 2016 and 2019, fatal drug overdoses more than doubled for California state prisoners. The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said that hospitalizations for drug overdoses rose almost as fast. Clearly, a new approach was needed to stem prisoner drug use.
That resulted in the ...
by Matt Clarke
On May 12, 2022, as Texas state prisoner Gonzalo Lopez, 46, was being transported in a prison bus to a medical appointment, he used a “prison-made knife and key” to loosen his restraints. He then cut through the metal cage for high-risk prisoners in which he was ...
by Matt Clarke
On May 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of Nevada ordered the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to credit a parolee for time he spent in custody awaiting parole revocation that exceeded the 60-day window state law provides for proceedings to begin.
After he was paroled, state prisoner ...
by Matt Clarke
On April 26, 2022, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) announced a new “fresh start” policy for people whose student loans are in default, and it may help prisoners who would otherwise be barred from receiving Pell Grants when they become available next year.
The policy brings ...
by Matt Clarke
On April 4, 2022, the federal court for the Northern District of Georgia gave final approval to a settlement in a lawsuit brought by mentally ill women incarcerated at the South Fulton Jail. The agreement included numerous changes to jail policies and practices, along with monitoring and ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 1, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a district court’s denial of qualified immunity (QI) to staff in a Texas jail who allegedly ignored the medical needs of a prisoner for 32 hours while he “moaned in pain, twitched, thrashed, ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 6, 2022, the New Hampshire Personnel Appeals Board upheld the firing of former State Trooper Haden Wilber, who allegedly illegally searched a woman during a traffic stop, found suspected heroin residue, and then — together with fellow Trooper Matthew Locke — falsified evidence that got ...
by Matt Clarke
On August 23, 2022, a jury convicted the last of three ex-prison guards indicted in the fatal beating of a prisoner at Western Illinois Correctional Center (WICC) four years earlier.
Former Lt. Todd Sheffler, 54, was found guilty of conspiracy to deprive civil rights, tampering with a ...
