by Matt Clarke
On May 18, 2021, two jail guards at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico were indicted for involuntary manslaughter in connection with the asphyxiation death of a prisoner at the jail in 2019.
Video recordings show that guards used force on …
by Matt Clarke
On May 19, 2021, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled on three questions relating to medical parole despite the two prisoners who filed for judicial review having since died.
Raymond Harmon and Brian Racine were Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) prisoners who applied …
by Matt Clarke
On January 21, 2021, the Supreme Court of Florida disbarred a lawyer who pleaded guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges related to multiple instances of making pornographic movies with female prisoners in attorney visitation rooms at two county jails.
Andrew Spark allegedly used his …
by Matt Clarke
On April 1, 2021, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law a bill that ends long-term solitary confinement in that state starting in April 2022.
“Having spent a lot of time with the advocates who have direct stakes in this bill, this …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
