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SCOTUS Clamps Down on Bivens Extension to Prisoner Beaten by BOP Guards at Virginia Lockup by Chuck Sharman On June 30, 2025, a federal prisoner lost his last chance at recovering damages for injuries suffered when he was repeatedly shackled and beaten by guards at the U.S. Penitentiary (USP)—Lee in …
Third Circuit Upholds Award of $265,000 to Prisoner Who Was Sexually Assaulted Twice by the Same Guard by Douglas Ankney The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a jury’s award of $265,000 to Pennsylvania prisoner Henry Unseld Washington who was sexually assaulted twice by guard T.S. Oswald. …
Class-Action Suit at BOP “Rape Club” in California Settled for Record $116 Million by After it was signed into law in 2003, the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), 42 U.S.C. ch. 147 § 15601 et seq., remained unused for a decade while standards were developed and implemented to curtail rape …
$22.5 Million Verdict Arrives Too Late for Wrongfully Convicted Illinois Prisoner by David Reutter On August 8, 2024, the federal court for the Northern District of Illinois entered judgment for the estate of a former state prisoner after a jury awarded $22.5 million in damages for 22 years he spent …
Article • June 1, 2025 • from PLN June, 2025
$5.6 Million Settlement for California Prisoner’s Wife Strip-searched During Visit by Matthew Clarke On September 5, 2024, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) gave the last signoff to a $5.6 million settlement with the wife of a state prisoner who was forced to strip and submit to an …
Jury Deadlocks at Trial of Last BOP Guard Accused at California “Rape Club” by A jury deadlocked in federal court for the Northern District of California on April 14, 2025, leading Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to declare a mistrial for Darrell Wayne Smith, 55, a former federal Bureau of Prisons …
Texas Prison Heat Declared Unconstitutional by In a ruling on March 26, 2025, the federal court for the Western District of Texas agreed that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) was likely violating the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment by holding most state prisoners in cells …
Article • May 1, 2025 • from PLN May, 2025
Kansas Supreme Court Denies Compensation to Former Prisoner Whose Conviction Was Overturned by In a ruling on August 9, 2024, the Kansas Supreme Court held that former state prisoner Robert W. Doelz could not recover damages from the state for his wrongful conviction because he had proved only that he …
Cruelty Is Now the Point for BOP by Just before leaving office in January 2025, outgoing Pres. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D) removed 37 federal prisoners from death row, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Jan. 2025, p.16.] But incoming Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) immediately directed his new Attorney General …
Study Finds Just 1% of Prisoner’s Eighth Amendment Claims Succeed by In a report published on December 19, 2024, Business Insider found just 1% of prisoners succeeded in claims against prison officials for violating the Eighth Amendment ban on “cruel and unusual” punishment. To arrive at that figure, researchers combed …
Second Circuit Revives Connecticut Prisoner’s Challenge To Conditions In Virginia Lockup Where He Was Transferred by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney On October 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed dismissal of Connecticut prisoner’s complaint over an assault he suffered in a Virginia lockup where …
Fifth Circuit Denies Qualified Immunity to Louisiana Officials Who Forced Prisoner to Work with Broken Surgical Screws in Ankle by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso At the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on August 22, 2024, a Louisiana prisoner defeated a claim of qualified immunity …
Article • April 1, 2025 • from PLN April, 2025
Georgia Fights Liability for Strip-Searching Prison Visitor, Nevada Pays $126,500 by After a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit found for Georgia prison officials in a suit brought by a prison visitor they subjected to a strip-search, the decision was vacated on October 3, …
Article • April 1, 2025 • from PLN April, 2025
National Class Certified in Washington Jail Debit-Release Card Suit by In a suit challenging excessive fees charged on debit cards issued to those released from Washington’s Pierce County Jail, former detainee Plaintiffs secured nationwide class certification on February 13, 2025. But first they had to defeat a motion by Defendant …
Article • April 1, 2025 • from PLN April, 2025
Sixth Circuit: Dismissals of Mixed-Claim Complaints Not Strikes Under PLRA by Since the 1996 passage of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e, federal courts have struggled to interpret and apply its various provisions. That struggle continues today with a recent ruling by the United States Court of …
Ninth and Tenth Circuits Find Bivens Extension Orders Not Immediately Appealable by Sam Rutherford by Sam Rutherford The United States Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Tenth Circuits recently held that the government may not immediately appeal a district court’s order extending to new factual scenarios that the exemption …
DOJ Finds “Horrific and Inhumane” Conditions in Georgia Prisons by Matthew Clarke 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 …
Article • March 1, 2025 • from PLN March, 2025
Eighth Circuit Affirms Denial of Qualified Immunity to Arkansas Jailers Who Ignored Detainee’s Spider Bite by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso In an opinion filed on July 31, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld a district court’s denial of qualified immunity (QI) to …
Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025
San Francisco Supervisor Calls for “Mass Arrests” and Compulsory Addiction Treatment in “Drug Jails” by In a letter of inquiry submitted on January 3, 2025, San Francisco District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey (D) called for “mass arrests” of addicts and their incarceration in “drug jails,” where they would be forced …
Eleventh Circuit Tells BOP Prisoner in Georgia: Bivens Is On “Endangered Species List” by On October 3, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit told a federal prisoner in Georgia that he could not hold the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) liable for damages caused by …
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