by R. Bailey
Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988, a federal district court was asked to resolve an attorney fees dispute as part of a settlement in a prisoner’s wrongful death case.
Robert Awalt died while in the custody of a jail in Grundy County, Illinois. His …
by R. Bailey
A family’s wrongful death lawsuit filed against a Nisqually tribal jail operated by a sovereign Indian tribe was settled for $375,000, plus an undisclosed amount paid by the tribe.
Andrew Wrestling, 19, was arrested by police officers from the City of Yelm, Washington, for …
by R. Bailey
A Virginia federal district court granted the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) summary judgment in a lawsuit alleging constitutional violations occurred when a visitor was strip searched.
Angela Calloway sued VDOC under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, alleging Fifth and Fourteenth amendment violations and state …
by R. Bailey
In March 2018, a federal grand jury returned an 11-count indictment against Mississippi County, Missouri Sheriff Cory Hutcheson. Hutcheson, 34, already faced robbery charges as well as a wrongful death suit filed by the mother of a prisoner who died at the county lockup.
…
by R. Bailey
An audit recommended replacing outdated data management software used by Louisiana’s prison system with a previously-rejected upgrade, if the new system could be salvaged. The upgrade would help implement the Justice Reinvestment Act (Act), which was designed to reduce Louisiana’s prison population by 10 percent …
by David Reutter and R. Bailey
Correct Care Solutions, a for-profit company that provides medical services at correctional facilities, contested the release of documents concerning the death of Dino Vann Nixon at the Forsyth County Jail (FCJ) in North Carolina.
Upon being booked into FCJ on drug …
by R. Bailey
A class-action complaint against the Central Virginia Regional Jail (CVRJ) has ended with a $725,000 settlement. The lawsuit alleged that jail staff violated detainees’ Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights and subjected them to excessive pain and suffering by refusing to enforce written policies and placing …
by R. Bailey
New Mexico’s Otero County Board of County Commissioners agreed to pay a former Otero County Detention Center (OCDC) pretrial detainee $2 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit that alleged punishment without due process.
The suit claimed that OCDC had a policy or practice …
by R. Bailey
Black lawmakers criticized the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDOC) prison service program for exploiting and even possibly enslaving prisoners with a traditional work program that pays from $6.75 to $24.25 every two weeks.
Senator Karl Allen called it “shameful.”
However, the truth …
The Vermont Supreme Court denied prisoners’ Ex Post Facto violation claims, holding that there was no sufficient evidence showing that the enactment of new policies and statutes worked to prohibit their parole release.
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, “Retroactive changes in laws governing parole of prisoners, in some …
