Now Under Federal Receivership, New York City’s Rikers Island Jails Still Have No Plan to Improve, No Firm Date to Close by Chuck Sharman With its sixth and seventh detainee deaths of the year coming just minutes apart on June 20, 2025, New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex eclipsed …

Fifth Circuit Greenlights Federal Takeover of Mississippi Jail by David Reutter The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit approved the appointment of a receiver to oversee operations of the Raymond Detention Center (RDC) in Hinds County, Mississippi. The district court’s action was a contempt sanction imposed for the …

Ongoing Detainee Deaths Push Rikers Island into Federal Court Receivership by Anthony Accurso When 27-year-old Dashawn Jenkins died in New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex on April 1, 2025, it was the fifth detainee death of the year and at least the 38th since Mayor Eric Adams (D) took …

Ninth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Arizona Challenge to Private Prisons by In 2020, the Arizona chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and two state prisoners filed a federal class-action suit, challenging the state’s use of privately-operated prisons on a variety of constitutional grounds. The …

Long-Running Consent Decree Again Extended at Troubled Baltimore Jail by On October 18, 2024, the federal court for the District of Maryland granted a motion to modify a years-old consent decree in a decades-old class-action challenge to conditions at Baltimore’s Central Booking and Intake Center (CBIC). As PLN reported, the …

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 …

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 …

Eighth Circuit: Arkansas Prisoner Who Had Consensual Sex With Guard Cannot Sustain Eighth Amendment Claim by Matthew Clarke 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 …

En Banc Fifth Circuit Reverses Panel, Holds Mississippi Felon Disenfranchisement Does Not Violate Eighth Amendment by Matthew Clarke 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 …

$100,000 Settlement Reached in New York Prisoner’s Solitary Confinement Suit, After Jury for First Time Finds Practice Violates Eighth Amendment by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney On September 27, 2024, the state of New York agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit that alleged that the state had violated …

Sixth Circuit Refuses Michigan Prisoner’s Excessive Force Claim Despite Guard’s Conviction for Battery by David Reutter by David M. Reutter On August 16, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a Michigan prisoner’s lawsuit with an outrageous-­sounding opinion that a guard “may have violated …

Dunsmore v. San Diego County Sheriff's Dept, CA, Order Granting Joint Motion for Class Certification and Approval of Proposed Class Action Notice Plan, Conditions of Confinement, 2023 Case 3:20-cv-00406-AJB-DDL Document 435 Filed 11/03/23 PageID.16793 Page 1 of 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT …

Dunsmore v. San Diego County Sheriff's Dept, CA, Notice of Class Action Certification, Conditions of Confinement, 2023 NOTICE OF CLASS ACTION CERTIFICATION Darryl Dunsmore et al. v. San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, et al.; S.D. Cal. No. 3:20-cv-00406-AJB-DDL On November 3, 2023, the United States District Court for the Southern …

Alex a v. Governor Edwards, USA, Statemen of Interest of the USA, Conditions of Confinement, 2023 Case 3:22-cv-00573-SDD-RLB Document 183 07/28/23 Page 1 of 13 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA ALEX A., by and through his guardian, Molly Smith, et al., Plaintiffs, v. GOVERNOR JOHN …

USA v. MDOC, MA, Settlement Agreement, Conditions of Confinement, Dec. 2022 AGREEMENT Dec. 20, 2022 BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................... 1 II. DEFINITIONS ........................................................................................................................ 2 III. SUBSTANTIVE PROVISIONS.............................................................................................. 3 Policies and Procedures .......................................................................................................... 3 Staffing Plan............................................................................................................................ 5 Training ................................................................................................................................... 6 …

Liberty v. Rhode Island Department of Corrections, RI, Public Order Appointing Rule 706 Expert, Restrictive Housing, 2022 Case 1:19-cv-00573-JJM-PAS Document 126 Filed 12/08/22 Page 1 of 4 PageID #: 2136 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND CHARLENE LIBERTY; JOHN DAPONTE; JOHN DAVIS; DUANE GOMES; ADAM HANRAHAN; …

11th Circuit Tells Sexually Assaulted Transgender Georgia Prisoner: PREA Violations Aren’t Per Se Eighth Amendment Violations by Jacob Barrett by Jacob Barrett On February 2, 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to issue a writ of certiorari to hear her appeal, a transgender Georgia prisoner was thwarted in her …

Eighth Circuit Reinstates Arkansas Prisoner’s Claim Over DOC’s Failure to Maintain Hearing Aids by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On January 10, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that an Arkansas prisoner had not failed to state an actionable claim against prison medical officials when …

Seventh Circuit Reiterates That Threats and Withholding Grievance Forms Render Administrative Remedies Unavailable to Prisoner by Mark Wilson by Mark Wilson On January 24, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated the dismissal of a federal prisoner’s suit and remanded the case to the district court, …

William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal-Jail Health and Early Release Practices, Dec. 2022 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal Volume 31 (2022-2023) Issue 2 The Problem of Mass Incarceration: Diagnosis and Reform Article 4 12-2022 Jail Health and Early Release Practices Brandon L. Garrett Deniz Ariturk Jessica Carda-Auten …