by Matt Clarke
On September 20, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that a prisoner’s consensual sexual encounters with a guard cannot, as a matter of law, constitute the pain required to sustain a claim under the Eighth Amendment. Though a blow …
by Matt Clarke
The Sunset Advisory Commission, an oversight body for Texas government agencies, published a 189-page report in September 2024 that found persistent critical staffing shortages are making Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prisons unsafe for staff and prisoners alike. In fact, some guards and parole …
by Matthew Thomas Clarke
On July 2, 2024, the federal court for the District of Arizona approved settlement of a lawsuit brought against the United States by former immigration detainees under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b)(1), 2671, et seq., for separating them from …
by Matt Clarke
"People are assaulted, stabbed, raped and killed or left to languish inside facilities that are woefully understaffed,” lockups where “[i]nmates are maimed, tortured, relegated to an existence of fear, filth and not-so-benign neglect.”
So began a scathing 93-page report published by the Civil Rights …
by Matt Clarke
On August 16, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the verdict and jury award of $6.4 million in compensatory damages against three nurses who worked for Corizon Health when it held the contract to provide healthcare at Michigan’s Kent …
by Matt Clarke
On July 18, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed an earlier holding by a three-judge panel of the Court, which found that § 241 of the Mississippi Constitution was unconstitutional. That’s the portion of the state’s Constitution that disenfranchises …
by Matt Clarke
On June 5, 2024, the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) filed a notice of settlement in court indicating that it paid $135,000 to settle a prisoner’s lawsuit accusing a guard of intentionally allowing other prisoners into his cell so they could assault him.
In …
by Matthew Thomas Clarke
On June 17, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit decided a civil rights complaint brought by former St. Louis jail detainee Michael Jones, who was held eight months longer after his charges were dismissed. Despite the outrageous government conduct in …
by Matt Clarke
In June 2024, the nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) ranked world incarceration rates as if each state in the United States was a separate country. The shocking but sadly unsurprising result: All states placed near the top of the list, with incarceration rates that far …
by Matt Clarke
On July 11, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) approved an agreement with Michigan’s Wayne County that promised to improve conditions at its jail in Detroit for prisoners with physical and mental disabilities. The County also agreed to hire an expert consultant to assist …
