No Qualified Immunity for Arkansas Detainees Miscarriage by No Qualified Immunity for Arkansas Detainee's Miscarriage The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's denial of qualified immunity to jail officials who denied medical care to a female detainee, causing a miscarriage of her 4-5 month old fetus. Talisa …
Denial of Medication/Prescribed Treatment States Eighth Amendment Claim by In two separate cases the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a prisoners claim of being denied medication, or not given prescribed treatment, states a claim under the Eighth Amendment. Arkansas prisoner Willie Munn appealed a district courts dismissal of …
Arkansas Considers Prison Rape Law, Problems Evident by by Michael Rigby Nearly two years after the Prison Rape Elimination Act, (PREA) passed unopposed in the U.S. House and Senate, an attitude of indifference and skepticism surrounding prison sexual assaults still permeates the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC). Signed into law …
$97,000 in Damages and Fees Awarded in Arkansas Over Detention Suit by The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a judgment awarding compensatory damages of $50,000 in a civil rights suit filed by James M. Hayes, alleging his 38-day pre-appearance detention violated his right to due process. The Court …
New York City Settles Wrongful Imprisonment Suit For $1 Million by On February 4, 2005, a man convicted of murder and wrongfully imprisoned for five years based on testimony fabricated by prosecutors settled his claim against the City of New York for $1,000,000. Milton Lantigua, 20,was sitting in front of …
Dental Treatment Denial Claim Cannot Be Subdivided By Court by The court of appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that a prisoner's allegation of denial of dental treatment cannot be split into three separate sub-claims then dismissed for failure to exhaust state remedies on the sub-claims. James McAlphin, an Arkansas …
Section 1983 Complaint Dismissed as Mixed Petition, But Amendment Allowed by The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a complaint that contains issues that were not administratively exhausted may be dismissed, but the plaintiff should be allowed to amend his complaint to include only those issues that were exhausted. …
Arkansas Work Release Prisoner Entitled to Unemployment Benefits by The Arkansas Court of Appeals, Division, II, held that a work release prisoner who loses his job as a result of a transfer to a prison to prepare him for parole is entitled to unemployment benefits as a result of losing …
DOJ Investigation: Conditions in Arkansas Prisons Unconstitutional by Michael Rigby Conditions at the McPherson and Grimes Correctional Units in Newport, Arkansas are unconstitutional, the U.S. Department of Justice concluded after an 18-month investigation. According to the investigation report, dated November 25, 2003, investigators found that prisoners at both units experienced …
Use of Pepper Spray States Eighth Amendment Claim by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a district court's denial of summary judgment for prison guards who pepper sprayed a prisoner and threw him to the ground. In October 1998, prison guards confiscated a radio from the …
Widespread Prisoner Labor Abuse Requires Reform by Gary Hunter Lonoke Mayor Thomas Privett and police Chief Jay Campbell were caught abusing the state's prisoner work program. Arkansas Department of Corrections requested, in early August 2005, that the program be suspended after learning that state prisoners had been used to repair …
News in Brief by California: On May 2, 2003, Gary Culverson, 25, and Van Kopp, 37, were arrested on charges that they assaulted Casey Humphrey, 18, a prisoner at the Monroe Detention Center in Yolo County. Culverson and Kopp were employed as guards at the jail's intake area but the …
Arkansas Prison Must Pay for Kosher Meals by Arkansas Prison Must Pay For Kosher Meals The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed an order of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas ordering the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) to provide a Jewish prisoner with …
Prompt Mental Health Services Ordered for Arkansas Pretrial Detainees by John E Dannenberg by John E. Dannenberg A settlement was reached between the Arkansas Division of Mental Health Services and the class of all mentally ill pretrial detainees in Arkansas, to have either timely court-ordered mental health evaluations or be …
Eighth Circuit: BOP Prisoners Have No Liberty Interest in Visits by by Matthew T. Clarke The Eighth Circuit court of Appeals held that the suspension of a prisoner's visitation rights with his wife and two other women for eighteen months was not a significant and atypical hardship and therefore did …
U.S. Torture: A Sordid History Of Official And Systematic Abuse by G. Flint Taylor by G . Flint Taylor The brutal and sadistic torture by U.S. military prison guards, military intelligence officers, and CIA interrogators which is being revealed daily in the mainstream media has brought protestations from President Bush, …
Suits Against Individual State Employees Available Under ADA by Suits Against Individual State Employees Available under ADA The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed two separate district courts and ruled that under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), state employees can be sued in …
Summer Uprisings in Three Southern Jails by As temperatures rose last summer, so did tensions in some southern jails. Guards at the Craighead County jail in Jonesboro, Arkansas, used tear gas and stun guns to regain control of a cell block that housed 27 prisoners. Four prisoners received minor injuries …
No Fundamental Right to Fee Waiver for Civil Rights Action by No Fundamental Right to Fee Waiver for Civil Rights Actions The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has upheld the PLRA's three strikes rule, and overturned a case which found that rule unconstitutional. The opinion in this case …
No Jurisdiction for Appeal When Qualified Immunity Not Denied by by Matthew T. Clarke The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has ruled that it has no jurisdiction to hear an interlocutory appeal of a partial denial of a motion for summary judgment when the district court did not …
