Supreme Court Adopts Strickland Prejudice Standard for Rejected Plea Bargains by Derek Gilna The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, has extended Strickland guarantees of effective legal representation to defendants entering into plea bargains. According to Justice Anthony Kennedy, who delivered the majority opinion of the Court, “The reality …
Pay-to-Stay Jail Programs Growing by Due in part to stressed government budgets, “pay-to-stay” fees imposed on prisoners in county jails are becoming more prevalent. Two counties, one in Ohio and the other in California, are now collecting incarceration costs from detainees. After Keller Blackburn became prosecutor for Athens County, Ohio, …
Iswed v Caruso, MI, Opinion & Order granting plf app for attoney fees, prisoner overseas phone calls, 2013 Case 1:08-cv-01118-PLM-ESC Doc #185 Filed 02/14/13 Page 1 of 12 Page ID#1430 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION BAHAA E. ISWED, #272102, Plaintiff, ) ) ) -v) ) …
Sleighter v. Kent Co., MI, Answer, Jail Methadone Ban, 2013 Case 1:12-cv-01008-GJQ-ESC Doc #13 Filed 01/18/13 Page 1 of 9 Page ID#66 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN BRADLEY KEITH SLEIGHTER Plaintiff, v Case No. 1:12-cv-001008 Hon. Gordon J. Quist U.S. District …
Law Enforcement Forfeiture Corruption Scandal in Michigan Includes Police Chief by The former chief of police in Romulus, Michigan, his wife and five detectives have been charged with dozens of criminal offenses related to their alleged misuse of funds seized under forfeiture laws. Romulus is located just outside Detroit, in …
Michigan DOC Taser Experiment Touted; Prison Perimeter Patrols to End by Michigan prison officials are proclaiming their experiment to arm guards with Tasers a success. An announced end to round-the-clock patrols of prison perimeters, however, was denounced as a threat to security by the union that represents Michigan Department of …
Dunmire v. Isabella County, MI, Complaint, Denial of Exercise Class Action, 2012 2:12-cv-14807-DML-MKM Doc # 1 Filed 10/30/12 Pg 1 of 19 Pg ID 1 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN NORTHERN DIVISION MICHAEL DUNMIRE, MARCUS JACKSON, and AMANDA HESTER, on behalf of themselves …
Onerous Change in Michigan Commutation Procedures Fails to State Ex Post Facto Claim by The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that a change in procedures for commutation of sentence does not constitute an ex post facto violation. The appellate court ruled in a case involving Michigan prisoner Keith …
Veal v. County of Kent, MI, Complaint, Guard Assault, 2012 Case 1:12-cv-00992-RHB Doc #1 Filed 09/14/12 Page 1 of 15 Page ID#1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN - SOUTHERN DIVISION FREDERICK VEAL, Case No. Plaintiff, Honorable v. COUNTY OF KENT; RAY PADILLA, Individually; GUS SUDUE, Individually; JULIE …
Allen v. Heyns, MI, Complaint, Class Action, Parolable Life Sentences, 2012 STATE OF MICHIGAN IN THE 30TH (INGHAM COUNTY) CIRCUIT COURT ______________________________________________ EDWARD ALLEN, OLIVER HARDY, and MICHAEL WATKINS, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, File No. 12-907-CZ v. Hon. Joyce Draganchuk DANIEL HEYNS, Director of …
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 …
