Sixth Circuit: Prisoner’s “Insolent Speech” at Disciplinary Hearing Not Protected Under First Amendment by The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals granted summary judgment to prison guards and nurses on a Michigan prisoner's retaliation, excessive force and denial of medical care claims. On July 21, 2004, Michigan prisoner James A. Lockett …
Audits Identify Problems with Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative by David Reutter by David M. Reutter Two audit reports, one by Michigan’s Office of the Auditor General in 2012 and the other by the State Budget Office in 2011, both found shortcomings with the Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative (MPRI). Michigan took …
Michigan Introduces Tasers to Prison System by David Reutter by David M. Reutter Citing hopes of reducing the number of work-related injuries and associated costs resulting from altercations with prisoners, in December 2011 the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) invested $125,000 in a pilot program at five maximum-security prisons to …
Saginaw County Jail in Michigan Settles Prisoner’s Wrongful Death Suit for $1.3 Million by The Executive Committee for Saginaw County, Michigan voted in December 2011 to settle a lawsuit that alleged county and jail officials were responsible for a prisoner’s death that occurred in May 2007. Jerry Rouster, 48, was …
Michigan Sex Offender’s Suicide Results in Changes to Sex Offender Registry Law by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke When 17-year-old Justin Fawcett admitted to having consensual sex with a 14-year-old student at the same high school he attended in West Bloomfield, Michigan, he probably never thought that that youthful dalliance …
Smith v. Wayne County, 4th Amendend Complaint, Jail Suicide, 2012 2:10-cv-14257-NGE-PJK Doc # 75 Filed 06/04/12 Pg 1 of 40 Pg ID 1849 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION GLORIA H. SMITH, individually and as Co-Personal Representative of the Estate of Jason Lewis Smith, and CAMILLE …
Sixth Circuit Affirms Michigan Jail's No-Contact-Visiting Rule by The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that prisoners do not have a constitutional right to contact visitation. While in pre-trial status at Saginaw County Jail, Michigan in 1975, plaintiff James O’Bryan, et al, challenged, among other issues, the Saginaw County …
Michigan Supreme Court Reverses Its Own Decision Allocating Greater Funding for State’s Public Defender Offices by Derek Gilna By Derek Gilna In an unusual decision, criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Michigan Supreme Court on July 17 reversed itself and threw out a lawsuit that would have required …
Michigan’s Abu Ghraib? Teaching Anthropology inside a Women’s Prison, On the Edge of a $100 Million Sex Abuse Scandal by Brian McKenna Brian McKenna Every prison has a story. At the Robert Scott Correctional Facility, in Michigan, the women were not allowed to touch one another or risk a "major …
No Qualified Immunity for Guard Who Failed to Protect Prisoner from Sexual Abuse by Brandon Sample On February 1, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a district court’s denial of qualified immunity to a guard accused of failing to protect a vulnerable prisoner from sexual …
31,000 Criminal Cases Under Review After Detroit Crime Lab Closes by After the police crime lab in Detroit, Michigan was found to have provided faulty firearm ballistics evidence in criminal cases, the lab was closed in 2008. A subsequent review of around 31,000 firearm-related prosecutions was deemed “admittedly impossible work,” …
Two Charged with Scamming $2.6 Million from Prisoners and Prisoners’ Families by Two Michigan men have been charged with defrauding thousands of prisoners and their families nationwide out of an estimated $2.6 million. Their scheme targeted black and Hispanic prisoners with direct mailings that offered to provide legal and appellate …
Sixth Circuit: “Security Threat Group” Designation Does Not Warrant Due Process Protections by In 2005, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court's rulings against Michigan prisoner Keith Harbin-Bey, who in 2003 had filed a pro se civil rights lawsuit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that, …
Muthana v. Hofbauer, MI, R&R, Destruction of Mail Written in Arabic, 2012 Case 2:11-cv-00132-GJQ-TPG Doc #41 Filed 01/11/12 Page 1 of 13 Page ID#635 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN NORTHERN DIVISION ALI MUSAID MUTHANA, Plaintiff, v. Case No. 2:11-cv-132 Honorable Gordon J. Quist GERALD HOFBAUER …
Essex v. County of Livingston, MI, Order Granting Plts' Motion to Compel, Sexual Assault by Jail Transport Guard, 2011 2:09-cv-11095-AJT-PJK Doc # 132 Filed 12/02/11 Pg 1 of 6 Pg ID 1733 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION CUREN ESSEX, ALICIA BULKO, ELIZABETH ZUBOR, SUSAN COOK …
Incarceration Alone Insufficient to Terminate Parental Rights in Michigan by In addition to finding that a lower court committed legal errors in terminating a prisoner’s parental rights, the Michigan Supreme Court held that incarceration alone is not a sufficient reason for termination of parental rights. While serving a prison sentence …
Sixth Circuit Upholds $2.5 Million Jury Award for Wrongly Convicted Women by Matthew Clarke By Matt Clarke On April 12,2011, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion upholding the $2.5 million jury award and $250-per-hour attorney-fees award to two women who were wrongly convicted of felonies. Kimberly Sykes …
Former Michigan Prisoner Awarded $1.27 Million for False Arrest and Malicious Prosecution by A Michigan federal jury awarded a former prisoner $1.27 million in a malicious prosecution lawsuit. After she was robbed at gunpoint, Tevya Urquhart was arrested, found guilty and sentenced to prison. After her successful appeal, Urquhart filed …
Sixth Circuit: Prisoner Must be Allowed Direct Appeal When Prison Delayed Appeal Mailings by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke The Sixth Circuit held that Michigan had to allow the appeal of a prisoner’s criminal conviction when prison officials had delayed the mailing of his appeal documents until after the filing …
Michigan DOC Cannot Cancel Parole Discharge by David Reutter By David M. Reutter The Michigan Supreme Court has held that the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) does not have authority to cancel a parole discharge once granted, and that courts have no authority to modify a sentence in response to …
