Dismissal Of § 1983 Religious Name Change Claims Vacated by The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated and remanded a district court's dismissal of prisoners' § 1983 claims challenging refusal of the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) to acknowledge their Islamic names. Plaintiffs, Arkansas state prisoners who converted to …
Arkansas Must Acknowledge Prisoner's Muslim Name by The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Arkansas prison officials must acknowledge a Muslim prisoner's Islamic name. An Arkansas state prisoner of the Islamic faith who had his name legally changed to Bilal Ali Salaam while imprisoned brought pro se civil …
US Supreme Court Held That Officials Are Not Qualifiedly Immune From Injunctive And Declaratory Reliefli by US Supreme Court Held That Officials Are Not Qualifiedly Immune From Injunctive And Declaratory Relief The US Supreme Court held that Public Officials are not immune from damages when they violate clearly established constitutional …
Overcrowding, Bad Prison Conditions Enjoined by The court of appeals for the eighth circuit held that a district court erred when it dismissed a suit against a an Arkansas county jail. The court held the plaintiffs had presented sufficient evidence of a deficient diet, overcrowding, inadequate excercise, and forced exposure …
Amended Complaint Timely Under Prison Mailbox Rule by In an unpublished opinion, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's dismissal of a prisoner's § 1983 action for failure to prosecute. Under the prison mailbox rule, the amended complaint was timely. In December 2003, Arkansas prisoner Patricia Sorenson …
Arkansas Guards Not Entitled to Qualified Immunity for Rape of Female Prisoner by Erma Trammell, an Arkansas state prisoner, was raped at the Tucker Women's Unit by a guard named Lee Davis. Trammell sued Davis and a host of prison officials in federal district court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, …
Arkansas Jailers Not Responsible for Prisoner's Beating by Scott Crow, a state prisoner in Arkansas' Faulkner County Detention Center (Jail), was punched and his jaw broken by a prisoner in his cell. He sued several jail administrators under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in federal district court. Although the defendants knew …
Prisoner Bears Burden of Proving Mailbox Claim by Prisoner who did not establish that there was a prison mailbox or that he used it, and did not provide an affidavit or notarized statement recounting the precise date he left his notice of appeal with prison authorities, is not entitled to …
Arkansas Field Death Suit Dismissed by The decedent died of heat exhaustion on his first day on the hoe squad (on November 6, mid-afternoon temperature 72 degrees). Although overweight, he had been medically cleared for the work detail; there were hourly breaks for rest, water, and smoking; there was no …
No Hiring Liability for Brutal Arkansas Jail Guards by The plaintiff alleged excessive force. The deputy who allegedly used a "knee drop" on the plaintiff, severing his intestine, has previously been found not entitled to qualified immunity. A deputy who hit the plaintiff several times in the face while he …
Dental Infection Imminent Physical Injury Under PLRA by Dental Infection Imminent Physical Injury Under PLRA Plaintiff alleged that he needed dental work, was sent to a half-completed prison in Arkansas that could not accommodate his needs, as of filing the complaint he had had five extractions and needed two more, …
Expert Witness Not Disqualified Based on Confidential Relationship with Plaintiff by Expert Witness Not Disqualified Based on Confidential Relationship with Plaintiff The plaintiff sought to disqualify the defendants' expert witness based on a prior confidential relationship with the plaintiff (the attorney for the plaintiff estate had consulted the CPA firm …
Eighth Circuit Requires Total Exhaustion Before Suit Filed by Dismissal is required if the plaintiff did not complete exhaustion before filing his complaint. The court does not require dismissal in this case. At 628: "In this posture, and because we are the first panel in this circuit to explicitly rule …
Arkansas Must Acknowledge Prisoner's Muslim Name by The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Arkansas prison officials must acknowledge a Muslim prisoner's Islamic name. An Arkansas state prisoner of the Islamic faith who had his name legally changed to Bilal Ali Salaam while imprisoned brought pro se civil …
Prisoners In 13 States Allowed Work-Access To Social Security Numbers by John Dannenberg by John E. Dannenberg The U.S. Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reported that prisoners in thirteen states had access to Social Security numbers (SSNs) during the course of their prison employment. Following a nationwide survey, the …
Three Work-Release Van Drivers Escape from Arkansas Prison; Practice Discontinued by Gary Hunter Two prisoners escaped from Arkansas? Benton Unit prison on July 9, 2006. Tab Delancey and Clifton Sanders were drivers in the prison?s work-release program. Arkansas was one of the few states that, until recently, allowed unsupervised prisoners …
Native American Entitled to Prayer Feather by An Arkansas federal district court has held that a Native American prisoner has a constitutional right to possess or use a prayer feather for religious purposes. This action was brought by Billy Joe Wolf, complaining about acts while he was imprisoned at Arkansas? …
Mentally Ill Arkansas Prisoners Removed From Supermax, CMS Contract Renewed by Michael Rigby On April 21, 2006, the Arkansas Board of Corrections approved a new policy designed to keep mentally ill prisoners out of sensory-deprived environments like the Varner Supermax Unit in Lincoln County. The Board also renewed the prison …
Arkansas County Pays $40,000 To Handicapped Man Raped In Jail by Michael Rigby On May 22, 2006, Saline County, Arkansas, agreed to pay $40,000 to a deaf man who was raped by other prisoners in the Saline County Detention Center. Johnny Jones, a deaf man who is unable to speak, …
Arkansas Mayor, Sheriff, Wife Jailed for Burglary, Drugs, Sex and More by Gary Hunter On February 6, 2006, just weeks after Lonoke Arkansas Mayor Thomas Privett, 68, and Sheriff Jay Campbell, 46, admitted to a state monitoring committee that they had illegally used state prisoners for personal benefit, the two …
