Sheriff Not Liable for Hiring Brutal Jail Guards by The plaintiff alleged that he was subjected to excessive force, including a "knee drop" that severed his intestine. He alleged that the Sheriff was deliberately indifferent in hiring the deputy responsible. The deputy had nothing worse on his criminal record than …
Arkansas Medicaid Injunction Upheld by The district court enjoined proposed budget cutbacks on the ground that they would violate federal Medicaid law. The relevant statute, which has long been held to create a property interest, requires payment methods that assure that payments "are consistent with efficiency, economy, and quality of …
Prison Officials Failure to Respond to Grievance Must be Raised in Lower Court by At 1085: "Prison officials' failure to timely respond to a grievance could be a basis for a prisoner to show that he exhausted 'available' administrative remedies." At 1086: "Significantly, however, we find no evidence in the …
Beating Noisy Arkansas Prisoner Unjustified by The plaintiff's allegation that he was sitting on a bench in a cell and two guards entered and beat him was sufficient to withstand summary judgment. The fact that he had been yelling and kicking the walls previously did not provide a basis for …
Prison Officials Denied Qualified Immunity in Strip Search of Visitor by The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court's grant of summary judgment on grounds of qualified immunity a strip search of a prison visitor by Arkansas prison officials. Burlis Smothers, the mother of a prisoner at …
$7,500 for Failing to Protect Snitch by The court of appeals for the Seventh circuit affirmed a district court awarding an informant $7,500 in damages after he was assaulted by other prisoners. The prison failed to screen snitch's files. His files were not checked before being placed in Protective Custody, …
Guard Liable for Snitchjacketing by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit held that Arkansas prison officials were liable for guard provoked attacks on a prisoner. A prisoner filed suit after he was assaulted on three occasions by other prisoners after a guard labeled him a snitch. The prisoner …
Eighth Circuit Again Reverses District Court; Remands for Jury Trial by The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has, for the second time, reversed the Arkansas Eastern District Court's dismissal of an Arkansas state prisoner's claim that Arkansas Department of Corrections (DOC) guards maliciously and sadistically used excessive force to remove …
Jury Instruction And Exclusion Of Jail Standards Upheld In Failure To Protect Suit by Jury Instruction And Exclusion Of Jail Standards Upheld In Failure To Protect Suit The US Court Of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that a US District Court did not err in excluding jail standards and …
Seizure Of Federal Benefits By State Unconstitutional by The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that no part of a prisoner's Social Security benefits or Veterans Administration benefits could be confiscated by the state as reimbursement for incarceration costs. After the Arkansas legislature passed the State Prison Inmate Care and Custody Reimbursement …
Arkansas Beating Suit Wrongly Dismissed When Court Won't Call Witnesses by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that a district court had erred in not considering a prisoner's request to call witnesses. A prisoner filed a civil rights suit against the Arkansas Department of Corrections, for …
Prisoner Appeals Damages Verdict in Failure to Protect Suit by Michael Darrell Sanders, an Arkansas prisoner, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas, in 1992 against the Arkansas Department of Corrections (DOC) and its officials (defendants), for allegedly failing to protect him from attacks by other …
Eighth Circuit rules that BOP has discretion to place prisoners in IFRP by The Eight Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has the discretion to place prisoners in the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program (IFRP) when the sentencing court orders immediate payment of court-imposed fines. …
Pulaski County Jail Ordered to Clean Up or Quit by The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas ordered the Pulaski County Jail to bring jail conditions up to federal constitutional standards or terminate the operation of the facility. The jail detainees sought declaratory judgment and preliminary …
Forcing Disabled Prisoner to Work Violates Eighth Amendment by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit held that a district court properly dismissed an Arkansas prisoner's claim that he was not properly awarded good time credits under state law. The court held the prisoner had stated an Eighth amendment …
Rules Modeled on Ten Commandments Violate Establishment Clause; Sheriff Denied Qualified Immunity by A federal court in Arkansas held that jail rules modeled after the Ten Commandments violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. It also held that jail officials were not entitled to qualified immunity. Andy Lee was …
Release of Police Personnel Files Not Due Process Violation by Police officer Andre Dyer's federal civil rights judgment for due process violations against the City of Little Rock was reversed by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Dyer and another officer, Jerry Hart, alleged that the city had violated their …
Ill Fitting Jail Clothes Claim Dismissed; Beating Claim Remanded by The plaintiff alleged that he was given a jail jumpsuit that was too long and that caused him to trip and fall downstairs, and that medical personnel tried to move him while his foot was still caught between the stairs, …
Child Visitors Clothing Removal Upheld by The plaintiff, suing as next friend of her eight-year-old granddaughter, visited the plaintiff's son in an Arkansas state prison; the child set off the metal detector, and everyone agreed the reason was probably her metal overall buttons. She was told that to visit she …
Inability to Work Suit Dismissed by The plaintiff alleged that he was assigned to a job inappropriate to his medical condition. He filed repeated grievances, all denied. The district court said he didn't exhaust because his grievances were not considered on the merits because he didn't follow the rules, and …
