by Matt Clarke
On February 9, 2021, the Seventh Circuit court of appeals held that a district court erred when it departed significantly from Pruitt v. Mote, 503 F.3d 647 (7th Cir. 2007) in its consideration of a mentally ill Illinois prisoner’s motion to recruit counsel. The court held ...
by Matt Clarke
On October 29, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reinstated a claim against a Louisville, Kentucky jail classification officer who, contrary to jail policy, moved a prisoner to a segregation cell with a barred window despite recent suicide attempts and suicidal tendencies. ...
by Matt Clarke
In April 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) published two reports on prisoner deaths in the U.S.
Report number NCJ 255970 covered mortality in state and federal prisons 2001 - 2018 while number NCJ 256002 covered mortality in state and local jails ...
by Matt Clarke
The California Office of Administrative Law approved emergency regulations governing prisoners’ good behavior credits making tens of thousands of prisoners eligible for credits that shorten their time behind bars by more than was previously possible, effective May 2, 2021. 63,000 California prisoners who are serving time for ...
by Matt Clarke
On March 17, 20201, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld the convictions of two former Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) prison guards for attempted distribution of methamphetamine while reversing for new trial the attempted distribution convictions of two other DOC guards and ...
by Matt Clarke
On February 1, 2021, the Office of the Inspector General of California released a report highly critical of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Essentially, the report said the CDCR failed to properly test and screen prisoners it was transferring from a prison with a large ...
by Matt Clarke
The non-partisan Government Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report in February 2021 entitled, Immigration Detention: Actions Needed to Improve Planning, Documentation, and Oversight of Detention Facility Contracts. Key findings in the report included a failure of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to follow its own guidelines ...
by Matt Clarke
On November 5, 2020, the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine (SJC) held that a trial court had the authority to enjoin the Maine Department of Corrections (DOC) from engaging in unconstitutional practices related to segregation and the court erred when it restored a prisoner’s good time credits ...
by Matt Clarke
On February 17, 2021, a Kentucky federal court dismissed a lawsuit brought by a woman who was abandoned by jailers while a pretrial detainee and forced to give birth alone in a cell. The lawsuit had been settled for $200,000.
According to court documents, on May 15, ...
by Matt Clarke
For the first time since Americans’ opinion about the death penalty versus life imprisonment was polled, a majority of Americans favor life imprisonment over the death penalty.
In 1985, Gallup began asking the question: “If you could choose between the following two approaches, which do you think ...
