by Matt Clarke
According to a January 13, 2021 opinion by the Ninth Circuit court of appeals, district court erred in upholding meritless objections to the summary judgment evidence supporting a lawsuit brought by the family of a man who died of a drug overdose in a California jail and ...
by Matt Clarke
In a January 2021 statistical brief, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics addressed the issue of the race and ethnicity of perpetrators of violent crimes in 2018.
Based on data compiled by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program, it found that while Black ...
by Matt Clarke
On November 12, 2020, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated claims by a New York City man that he was the victim of malicious prosecution by police and excessive use of force by jail staff.
Jarrett Frost was arrested by New York City police in January ...
by Matt Clarke
Editors’ Note: On March 17, the IRS announced that the federal income tax filing due date for individuals filing for the 2020 tax year was extended from April 15, 2021, to May 17, 2021.
No Republican senator voted to ...
by Matt Clarke
On November 12, 2020, the Supreme Court of the State of Washington held that a trial court erred when it dismissed a prisoner’s contempt motion over the release of his sex offender treatment records in violation of a court’s injunction because there was no ongoing contempt. However, ...
by Matt Clarke
The estate of a Philadelphia man who died of asthma in a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) prison filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the DOC and officials alleging he was denied adequate medical care after excessive amounts of pepper spray were deployed against him.
According ...
by Matt Clarke
On February 14, 2021, a winter storm with temperatures far below freezing swept through Texas causing an unprepared electrical grid to falter and resulting in at least 57 deaths. The storm caused widespread power outages and rolling blackouts. The frigid temperatures and lack of power also caused ...
by Matt Clarke
On November 12, 2020, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that 18 U.S.C. §§ 111 and 1114, which criminalize assaulting federal officers, apply to private prison guards detaining federal prisoners. The court affirmed a federal prisoner’s conviction for punching a guard at a federally contracted privately ...
by Matt Clarke
On September 26, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law measures to protect the state’s LGBTQ population, including special provisions that empower them to choose the pronoun and honorific that prison staff, volunteers, and contractors are required to use when referring to them and whether to ...
by Matt Clarke
An academic study by a University of Pennsylvania professor published in November 2020 shows that mismatched economic incentives — local governments making sentencing decisions while the state government pays the costs of incarceration — are an important factor in increased incarceration. The study found that when the ...
