by Matt Clarke
On July 15, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the denial of qualified immunity (QI) to Mississippi jailers accused of ignoring the injuries and pleas for medical treatment of an injured hemophiliac detainee, who then bled to death internally.
When police in ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 17, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned a long line of prior decisions to hold that a ruling on defendants’ qualified immunity (QI) must be made at the first possible opportunity — and before discovery.
The Court’s new direction came ...
by Matt Clarke
According to a March 2022 report published by the Texas State Auditor, the state Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has an extremely high staff turnover rate — 32.8%, compared to a 21.5% rate for all state employees in fiscal year 2021.
Within TDCJ, the rate for prison ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 9, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that prisoners claiming indigent status in a federal civil rights suit are not barred by the ‘three strikes’ provision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e, if the prisoner ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 2, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that facts alleged in a supplemental administrative report which a district court requested from prison officials may not be relied upon if they conflict with factual allegations in a prisoner’s complaint. Such a ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 8, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reinstated a New York jail detainee’s claim, saying he couldn’t be guilty of failure to exhaust his administrative remedies when the jail’s grievance policy specifically precluded him from grieving the matter at hand.
While ...
by Matt Clarke
When Greg Williams resigned from the Oklahoma County Jail on December 5, 2022, the administrator of the scandal-plagued lockup said only that “It is time for me to go.”
That was after one detainee sauntered out of the jail booking area in July 2022 and raped another ...
by Matt Clarke
Before Oklahoma killed prisoners Donald Grant and Gilbert Postelle in early 2022 [See: PLN, May 2022, p.60], the state told a federal court hearing a challenge to their executions that a doctor would be on-hand at each killing for a fee of $15,000.
That’s quite a ...
by Matt Clarke
On April 4, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a convicted and sentenced federal criminal defendant who had not yet been incarcerated was not eligible for compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(l)(A)(ii).
In October 2019, George Fower pleaded guilty in ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 5, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the medical director of the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) was entitled to qualified immunity (QI) in a prisoner’s lawsuit over delayed treatment of his Hepatitis-C with direct-acting antiviral (DAA) ...
