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Michigan County Settles Suicide Suit For $150,000

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Medical Neglect/Malpractice, Mental Health, Suicides

Michigan County Settles Suicide Suit For $150,000 by In January 1997, Eaton County, Michigan, paid $150,000 to settle with the estate of a woman who committed suicide in the county jail. While imprisoned in the Eaton County Jail in January 1995, Mullins, a wife and the mother of four minor …

Judge Revises Previous Order Based On Special Master Report

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Classification, Overcrowding, Exercise, Special Masters

Judge Revises Previous Order Based On Special Master Report by In response to action filed by prisoners in Monmouth County Correctional Institution, a New Jersey county jail, a district judge ordered various improvements in recreation, visitation and living conditions. The judge also ordered certain facility renovations and set a population …

Gay Massachusetts Jailer Awarded $623,600 For Hostile Work Environment

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Discrimination, Gay/Lesbian, Employee Litigation

Gay Massachusetts Jailer Awarded $623,600 For Hostile Work Environment by On June 30, 2003, a jury in an unknown Massachusetts court awarded $623,600 to a jailer at the Suffolk County House of Corrections who claimed he suffered harassment due to his sexual orientation. The male plaintiff claimed that in late …

New York Prisoner Awarded $279,583 For Work-Related Arm Fracture

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Work, Workplace Injury, Work Conditions/Safety, Skeletal Injury

New York Prisoner Awarded $279,583 For Work-Related Arm Fracture by In June 1998, a New York court of claims awarded $279,583 to a prisoner who sustained a lower arm fracture after falling into an excavated area at a state prison. The prisoner argued that prison officials should have foreseen the …

Quadriplegic Texas Prisoner Injured In Police Van Settles For $750,000

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, Police Misconduct, Skeletal Injury, Expert Witnesses

Quadriplegic Texas Prisoner Injured In Police Van Settles For $750,000 by On May 31, 1999, a quadriplegic woman whose leg was broken during transport in a Houston Police Department van settled her lawsuit against the city for $750,000. Plaintiff Sharon Lee, 61 at the time of the settlement, was rendered …

U.S. Supreme Court Invalidates Violence Against Women Act

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Federal Statutory Law, Violence Against Women Act

U.S. Supreme Court Invalidates Violence Against Women Act by The United States Supreme Court held that the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA), 42 U.S.C. § 13981, is unconstitutional as an exercise of Congressional power under both the Commerce Clause, Article I, section 8, U.S. Constitution, and section 5 …

WA Gift Subscription Ban Settled for $443.46

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Retaliation for Litigating, Money/Property, Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Publications/Books, Mail Regulations, Due Process, Legal Mail

WA Gift Subscription Ban Settled for $443.46 by In 1997, William J.R Embrey, a federal prisoner at the Washington State Penitentiary (W.S.P) accepted $443.46 to settle a lawsuit. In 1985 the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) sent Embrey to the Washington Department of Corrections WDOC, pursuant to a contract between …

Sixth Circuit Allows § 1983 Challenge to Ohio Parole Procedures

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Sentencing, Ex Post Facto, Parole, Habeas Corpus

Sixth Circuit Allows § 1983 Challenge to Ohio Parole Procedures by Sixth Circuit Allows § 1983 Challenge to Ohio Parole Procedures Abrogating prior, unpublished precedents, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed dismissal of an Ohio prisoner's 42 U.S.C. § 1983 challenge to State parole procedures and remanded …

Raped Texas Prisoner's Federal Claim Overturned, $367,916 Damage Award Reduced

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Prisoner-Prisoner Assault, Conditions of Confinement, Failure to Protect (General), Damages

Raped Texas Prisoner's Federal Claim Overturned, $367,916 Damage Award Reduced by In this case involving a jury award of $367,916.13 to a Texas prisoner who was raped in the Waco City Jail, a Texas appeals court upheld the verdict under the Texas Tort Claims Act (TTCA) but reversed on the …

Sexually Explicit Speech Protected if not Obscene

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Media, Censorship

Sexually Explicit Speech Protected if not Obscene by The U.S. Supreme Court held section 223(b) of the Communications Act ban on indecent telephone messages violates the First Amendment since the statute's denial of adult access to such messages far exceeds what is necessary to prevent minors from being exposed to …

New York Prisoner Awarded $350,000 For Work-Related Fractures

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Work, Workplace Injury, Work Conditions/Safety, Skeletal Injury, Premises Liability

New York Prisoner Awarded $350,000 For Work-Related Fractures by In February 1998, a New York court of claims awarded $350,000 to a prisoner who suffered heel and elbow fractures when he fell from the roof of a state prison. The award was reduced to $140,000, however, after the judge determined …

Meningitis Death In Racine County, Wisconsin, Jail Settles For $383,000

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Wrongful Death, Medical Neglect/Malpractice

Meningitis Death In Racine County, Wisconsin, Jail Settles For $383,000 by According to a report published by Wisconsin Jury Verdicts on November 1, 2004, a lawsuit involving the death of a 21-year-old prisoner it the Racine County Jail settled for $383,000. From the sketchy details in the case, the prisoner …

Turner Applied to Some Juvenile Prisoner Strip Searches

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Searches, Strip Searches, Juvenile Prisons

Turner Applied to Some Juvenile Prisoner Strip Searches by The plaintiffs, parents of two female children, challenged the lawfulness of strip searches in juvenile detention centers, which contain persons awaiting trial following arrest for serious juvenile offenses, or for less serious offenses if the parents refuse to take the child …

Mail Censorship Claims State Claim

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Cell Searches, Mail Regulations, Due Process, Legal Mail, Media, Censorship

Mail Censorship Claims State Claim by Allegations that the defendants have deliberately tampered with his legal, personal, and political incoming and outgoing mail without justification state a constitutional claim. The Second Circuit has said that a prisoner's right to the free flow of incoming and outgoing mail is protected by …

District Court Erred in Appointing Court Monitor

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Civil Procedure, Contempt (Civil Procedure), Special Masters

District Court Erred in Appointing Court Monitor by In the litigation about the Department of the Interior's mismanagement of the Indians' money, the district court erred in reappointing a court monitor over the government's objection. The monitor was charged to "monitor and review" all trust reform activities and to report …

Snitch Jacketing Dismissed for Failing to Exhaust

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Snitch Jacketing, PLRA, Administrative Exhaustion (PLRA)

Snitch Jacketing Dismissed for Failing to Exhaust by The court acknowledges the "alternative" emergency grievance procedure. Defendants say plaintiff didn't appeal to the Central Office Review Committee, submitting an affidavit to that effect by grievance director Eagen. At 246: However, the record regarding the grievances filed by plaintiff is not …

Punishment of Mentally Ill Prisoner Upheld

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Disciplinary Litigation, Retaliatory Discipline, Witnesses (Disciplinary Hearings), Counsel, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Ad-Seg Hearings, Involuntary Treatment/Drugging

Punishment of Mentally Ill Prisoner Upheld by The plaintiff state prisoner, who has schizophrenia with a history of violent behavior and fire starting, was subjected to disciplinary sanctions for his misbehavior. He was not disciplined for refusing his medication, though he was once threatened with discipline. At 625: "Plaintiff had …

Monitored Jail Phone Calls Admissible Evidence

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Monitoring

Monitored Jail Phone Calls Admissible Evidence by The criminal defendants' telephone conversations were tape-recorded pursuant to standard jail policy. They could be used as evidence notwithstanding the protections against telephone surveillance of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act. Their recording fell into the statute's exception for interception "by …

Al Qaida Prisoners Time Magazine Censorship Upheld

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Political Prisoners, Civil Procedure, Mootness, Publications/Books, Mail Regulations

Al Qaida Prisoners Time Magazine Censorship Upheld by Here is a paradigm case, indeed a poster child, of the judicial avoidance of uncomfortable issues. The criminal defendant, the famous "shoe bomber," residing in the Florence, Arizona maximum security prison, complained of Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) denying him incoming mail determined …

Prisoner Charged With Perjury Over Statements to INS Officials

Article • May 15, 2007

Filed under: Disciplinary Hearings, Self Incrimination, Immigration

Prisoner Charged With Perjury Over Statements to INS Officials by The criminal defendant was charged with perjury for statements he made in an interview in prison with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement inspector. The defendant was in custody even though the interview was not part of a criminal investigation initially. …