Three Arkansas Guards Sentenced in Beating by On August 22, 1999 Arkansas prisoner Terry Botts received a beating at the Arkansas Regional Unit in Brickeys by three guards while his hands were handcuffed behind his back. The guards determined the severity of the injuries he sustained would not require hospitalization, …
Denial of Grievance Forms Is Denial of Remedy by The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that a prisoner's "Motion to Reinstate Cause" after dismissal of a 42 U.S.C. §1983 action alleged facts to raise an inference he had exhausted his "available" remedies. While an Arkansas Department of …
Suicides, Staff Negligence Plague Private Arkansas Juvenile Prison by Lonnie Burton In October 2001, a just-completed state investigation concluded that Houston-based Cornell Company, the private firm that runs Arkansas's Alexander Youth Services Center, was negligent for failing to monitor an at-risk youth who committed suicide. The suicide was the second …
Grievance Retaliation States Claim by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit held that a district court erred when it dismissed an Arkansas prisoner's claim that he was subjected to false disciplinary charges in retaliation for filing grievances against a prison employee. The court upheld the dismissal of a …
No Immunity for Photo Limit by The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in a per curium opinion, held that Arkansas prison officials were not entitled to qualified immunity for promulgating a policy that allows prisoners to retain only five photographs in their cells. Len Davis, a federal prisoner …
$147,000 Paid for 3-1/2 Hour Overdetention and Strip Search of Mistaken Arrestee by John E Dannenberg The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict of $100,000 against the Little Rock, Arkansas police when, after a judge ordered the release of a mistakenly arrested woman, they failed to promptly …
Escapes Are Violent Crimes Under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines by Escapes are Violent Crimes Under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that prison and jail escapes are considered "crimes of violence" for purposes of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (USSG). Larry Nation was convicted in federal …
Administrative Exhaustion Not Jurisdictional by John E Dannenberg The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that under the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996 (PLRA), a federal court is not deprived of jurisdiction to hear a prisoner's civil rights complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 if he has not first …
Denial of Religious Diet Violates First Amendment by The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that prison officials' denial of a religious diet violated the First Amendment by substantially burdening a state prisoner's religious beliefs. Arkansas state prisoner Kelvin Love is a self-proclaimed adherent of the "Hebrew religion." …
Arkansas Guards Indicted for Shocking Prisoners by Arkansas Guards Indicted For Shocking Prisoners On February 7, 2001, criminal charges were filed in a federal District Court in Arkansas against 6 former guards who beat handcuffed prisoners and shocked them with a stungun and a cattle prod. On January 7, 1998, …
No Jurisdiction for Interlocutory Appeal Where Evidence Is Disputed in Failure to Protect Suit by John E Dannenberg No Jurisdiction for Interlocutory Appeal Where Evidence Is Disputed in Failure to Protect Suit by John E. Dannenberg The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Ap-peals held that in a prisoner's Eighth Amendment …
"Three Strikes" Provision of PLRA Unconstitutional by A federal district court in Arkansas held that a prisoner had standing to challenge the "three strikes" provision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) on equal protection grounds, and that "strict scrutiny" analysis applied. As a result, the provision was declared unconstitutional. …
Dismissal of Haircut Suits Reversed by In two brief, separate rulings, the court of appeals for the Eighth circuit reversed and remanded the dismissal of lawsuits challenging prison haircut rules by Rastafarian prisoners. In one case, the court held the district court had improperly concluded the plaintiff had not exhausted …
Arkansas Department of Corruption Revealed by A career employee of the Arkansas Department of Correction was demoted from his position as warden of the state maximum security prison in January 1996, after he spoke out about corruption and lack of security in the prison. He sued the DOC and several …
Tainted Plasma Traced to Arkansas Prison: Bill Clinton's Blood Trails by St Clair, Jeffrey by Jeffrey St. Clair The year Bill Clinton became governor of Arkansas, the Arkansas state prison board awarded a hefty contract to a Little Rock company called Health Management Associates (HMA). The company got $3 million …
$4,000 Awarded to Paraplegic Prisoners Segregated Under Improper Conditions by The Eighth Circuit court of appeals held that the administrative segregation prison conditions two paraplegic prisoners were subjected to were unconstitutional and upheld a total award of $4,000 in compensatory damages. Bobby Franklin Simmons and Ricky Lee Marshall (plaintiffs), two …
Former Jail Prisoner Awarded $8,000 for Abuse; PLRA Attorney Fee Limit Inapplicable to Juveniles by The court of appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that there was sufficient evidence that the county's policies regarding the housing of juvenile detainees, resulted in overcrowding, which led to a juvenile being beaten, raped …
$1,500 in Disabled Prisoner Work Suit by The Eighth Circuit court of appeals has upheld the award of $1,500 against prison officials who forced a prisoner to perform manual labor which violated his medical work restrictions and resulted in injury. German Williams, an Arkansas state prisoner, was assigned a medical …
Arkansas Sheriff Bent on "Saving" Prisoners by Arkansas Sheriff Bent on "Saving" Prisoners They call him "Sheriff Andy," you know, just like the TV show. But if your butt lands in Sheriff Andy Lee's Benton County (Arkansas) jail, you won't think you're stuck in a Mayberry R.F.D. rerun. More like …
Warden May Be Liable for Rape by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit held that a district court erred when it granted judgement as a matter of law to a defendant prison warden in a rape case. Kendall Spruce, an Arkansas state prisoner, filed suit claiming his Eighth …
