by Matt Clarke
On August 3, 2023, the Supreme Court of New Jersey held that a state prisoner’s parole could not be conditioned on his enrollment in a residential treatment program (RTP) when he is eligible for automatic release under the Earn Your Way Out (EYWO) Act, N.J.S.A. 30:4-123.55b to ...
by Matthew Clarke
On August 24, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed an $800,000 jury award against a contract doctor at an Arkansas jail, in a suit brought on behalf of a detainee who died of sepsis after her appendix ruptured while incarcerated.
Linda S. ...
Matt Clarke
On August 25, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reinstated a Wisconsin prisoner’s claim that officials with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. ch. 126 § 12101, et seq., by refusing to make ...
Matt Clarke
On July 13, 2023, the Supreme Court of Ohio held that a state prisoner who previously settled his excessive force claim against the state Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (DRC) for $2,000 had no clear right to the names of DRC personnel involved in settlement negotiations.
In 2016, ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 11, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed denial of qualified immunity (QI) to an Oklahoma jail guard because a reasonable jury could find that kneeing a handcuffed pretrial detainee’s face “sufficed to show a legal violation.”
Jesse Wise had been ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 23, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published a report and recommendations concerning access to attorneys for pretrial detainees in federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities.
The report focused on detainees’ confidential communications with their attorneys, their ability to review discovery documents provided electronically ...
by Matthew Clarke
A federal indictment handed down in June 2023 accused Scott H. Jenkins, 51, Sheriff of Virginia’s Culpeper County, of taking bribes totaling more than $72,500 from three local businessmen to make them auxiliary deputy sheriffs—issuing them badges, identification cards, guns and body armor, even helping one get ...
by Matt Clarke
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” as former British Prime Minister William Gladstone famously said. On August 7, 2023, a former Illinois prisoner finally got a measure of justice for a botched release 13 years earlier. On that date, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 26, 2023, two sons filed suit for the estate of their schizophrenic dad, accusing officials at San Diego County’s Central Jail where he was incarcerated of letting him die from dehydration, starvation and pneumonia. The lawsuit raises the question: How should jail officials treat detainees ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 26, 2023, the Michigan Supreme Court held that journalists seeking release of videos from the state Department of Corrections (DOC) were prevailing parties and thus entitled to recover attorney fees—even if their attorneys were working pro bono.
Proceeding under the state Freedom of Information Act ...
