Texas Rangers Often Lackadaisical in Prisoner Death Investigations by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke “The Texas Rangers are investigating.” The words bring all the swagger of the Lonestar State’s frontier-justice history to reports of crime, lending a wild-west ring to them even today, when the state has 29 million residents, …
$325,000 to Detainee Assaulted at East Texas Jail, 90 Days to Former Deputy Who Beat Him While Restrained in Wheelchair by Jo Ellen Nott by Jo Ellen Nott On February 24, 2022, a former sheriff’s deputy in Harrison County, Texas, was sentenced for savagely beating a restrained detainee at the …
BOP Greenlights Sex Reassignment Surgery for Federal Prisoner in Texas by Matthew Clarke Wisconsin DOC Ordered to Provide the Surgery, Too by Matt Clarke and Chuck Sharman In a federal court filing on January 31, 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) indicated that a transgender prisoner in Texas could …
Fifth Circuit Reinstates Guard’s Lawsuit Claiming Other Guards Raped Her in Texas Prison by On November 18, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reinstated a suit filed by a former Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) guard alleging three other guards raped her at the …
News in Brief by Alabama: In Mobile on January 21, 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama announced that an 18-month federal prison sentence for bribery had been handed down by a federal court to Lakerdra Shanta Snowden, 31, a former guard at the Escambia County …
Dallas County Prisoner Trust Fund Bilked of $700,000 With Faked Debit Release Cards by Jail Employee by On October 19, 2021, auditors for Dallas County, Texas, reported to commissioners that lax oversight allowed an employee in the county Sheriff’s Department (DCSD) to use hundreds of damaged debit-release cards to draw …
Fifth Circuit Reinstates Federal Prisoner’s Tort Claim Against BOP Officials by Keith Sanders by Keith Sanders The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held on August 23, 2021, that a district court erred in dismissing a former federal prisoner’s intentional tort claims. The former prisoner, Bryan Kerr Dickson, …
Fifth Circuit Holds Private Immigration Detention Facilities Are Subject to Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s Prohibition Against Coerced Labor by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke After a trio of federal court rulings in 2021 regarding the labor of immigrant detainees, the first one remained the clearest victory so far for plaintiffs. …
News in Brief by Alabama: According to Birmingham Real-Time News, a kidnapper was recaptured after being erroneously released from jail in Jefferson County, Alabama, on December 17, 2021. The prisoner, Matthew Burke, 35, was apprehended during a traffic stop after being released from the Jefferson County Jail on Dec. 11 …
Fifth Circuit Says Federal Habeas Action May Not Be Used to Challenge Conditions of Confinement Related to COVID-19 by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke As previously reported by PLN, federal appellate courts in the U.S. have taken a dim view of challenges to conditions of confinement that place prisoners at …
Texas Agrees to Settlement Providing Prisoners Hep C Treatment, Will Pay $950,000 in Attorney Fees by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke A trio of pro se prisoner appeals denied by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on September 22, 2021, left intact an agreement approved earlier in …
News in Brief by Alabama: On November 17, 2021, a former Alabama state prison guard was sentenced in federal court in Birmingham to 87 months in prison. As reported by the Birmingham News, a search found the guard, Gary Charles Dixon, Jr., 36, with 497 grams of methamphetamine when he …
Covid-19 Pandemic Bumps Still Anemic Clemency Numbers by Edward Lyon by Ed Lyon Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, health and penology experts have urged state and federal governments to depopulate their prison systems. State governors remain under increasing pressure to use their executive clemency powers to achieve this …
Stewart v. Tarrant County, TX, Complaint, Wrongful Death-Suicide, 2021 Case 4:21-cv-00597-O Document 24 Filed 12/29/21 Page 1 of 11 PageID 163 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS FORT WORTH DIVISION BETTY STEWART; JIMMY STEWART; ALYSSA CHRISTIAN STEWART; SAVANNAH BROOKE STEWART; COLE STEWART; and DEAN …
Fifth Circuit Holds Guard Who Let Detainee Hang Himself Entitled to Qualified Immunity by On July 2, 2021 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a district court's denial of qualified immunity to three officers employed by the Coleman County Jail (CJC) in an action alleging the …
Texas County Jail Cited for Neglecting the Needs of a Pregnant Prisoner by Keith Sanders by Keith Sanders In December, 2020, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) issued a Special Inspection Report detailing the Brazoria County jail’s failure to attend to the nutritional needs of a pregnant prisoner. The …
Eleven Guards Fired after Death at Houston Jail by Brian Dolinar by Brian Dolinar As other cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York have slowly begun to decarcerate their county jails, the Harris County Jail in Houston has resisted reform efforts. Over the years, Prison Legal News (PLN) has …
Seven Guards Fired Over Collins County Texas Jail Death by Jayson Hawkins by Jayson Hawkins Marvin David Scott III was far from what most people would consider a criminal. The 26-year-old played football in high school, made straight As, and was described by friends and family as “generous to everyone …
Fifth Circuit Holds Defendants Entitled to Sovereign Immunity For Denial of Sex-Reassignment Surgery to Texas Prisoner by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On July 30, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated orders denying sovereign immunity to some defendants in a lawsuit brought by a …
Fifth Circuit Overturns Permanent Injunction Requiring Texas Prison to Observe COVID-19 Precautions by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On March 26, 2021, the Fifth Circuit court of appeals overturned a permanent injunction that required a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prison to observe certain precautions against the spread of …
