Sixth Circuit Upholds Tennessee’s Financial Obligation Re-Enfranchisement Law by Mark Wilson The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a Tennessee statute that bars the restoration of voting rights to ex-felons who have outstanding restitution or child support obligations. Tennessee law disenfranchises convicted felons but allows reinstatement of their voting …
Judge Orders Marshals to Transfer Prisoner Due to Inadequate Diet at Jail by Brandon Sample By Brandon Sample United States Magistrate Judge Todd Campbell has ordered the U.S. Marshals Service to transfer a pre-trial detainee from a county jail after determining the jail failed to provide a nutritionally adequate diet. …
Braswell v. CCA, TN, Def Mot for PO, confidential financial documents, 2011 IN THE FIFTH CIRCUIT COURT FOR DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE MARY BRASWELL, as Conservator of ) FRANK D. HORTON, Individually, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) CORRECTIONS CORPORATION OF AMERICA, ) ) ) Civil Action Number 09C-3139 Jury …
Uncollected Court Debts Piling Up in Tennessee by Over the past several years, counties in Middle Tennessee have had a difficult time collecting court fees and fines. The outstanding debts, from both civil and criminal cases, amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. Davidson County (with Nashville as the county …
Dismissal for Failure to Exhaust Reversed by On October 21, 2009, the Court of Appeals of Tennessee vacated a trial court’s dismissal of a prisoner’s suit for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. Gregory Potter sought 42 U.S.C. §1983 relief for an access to courts violation. Potter did not name the …
PLRA Does Not Preempt State Exhaustion Statutes by Brandon Sample By: Brandon Sample The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) exhaustion of administrative remedies requirements do not preempt Tennessee’s more generous exhaustion statute, The Court of Appeals of Tennessee decided February 11, 2002. PLRA requires prisoners to properly exhaust their administrative …
Sixth Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment for Guard Accused of Excessive Force over Use of “Leg Sweep” by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has affirmed a grant of summary judgment for a guard accused of excessive force against a prisoner. Trudy Griffen became disruptive during the booking …
Sixth Circuit OK’s Federal Judge’s Membership in Racist and Sexist Country Club by On April 8, 2011, on a vote of 10 to 8, the Judicial Council of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals adopted the recommendation of the Council’s Standing Investigating Committee and dismissed a complaint filed against a …
Dressman v. Nashville and Davidson County, Complaint, TN, Jail Failure to Protect, 2011 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE CURTIS DRESSMAN, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) vs. ) Civil Action No. _ _ _ _ __ ) METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT OF NASHVILLE AND …
Class Action Certified in California Federal Civil Rights Suit Against TransCor by On February 16, 2010, a California U.S. District Court certified a class action lawsuit against Nashville, Tennessee-based private prison transport company TransCor America for transporting prisoners more than 24 continuous hours without giving them an opportunity to rest …
Tennessee: Private Prison Guards Considered “Public Servants” by Employees of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit prison company, are public servants within the meaning of Tennessee’s criminal code. In July 2008, CCA guards David Gilliam and Joe Edward McCown III, who worked at the Hamilton County Workhouse …
Study Finds Discriminatory Jury Selection in Southern States by Derek Gilna A study by the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit legal organization based in Montgomery, Alabama, has found widespread discrimination in jury selection in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. The discriminatory practices …
$10.5 Million Settlement in Tennessee Juvenile’s Death Caused by Guard’s Chokehold by The privately-operated Chad Youth Enhancement Center (Chad) in Ashland City, Tennessee paid $10.5 million to settle a lawsuit involving a juvenile’s death. The youth, Omega “Manny” Leach, 17, died from asphyxiation caused by a guard’s chokehold on June …
Audits of Tennessee DOC Reveal Deficiencies by Mark Wilson The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) and several of its contractors violated state law, according to two audit reports issued by the Comptroller of the Treasury’s Division of State Audit. According to an April 2009 financial and compliance audit, the TDOC …
“Grill” Removal Results in $95,000 Settlement by Tennessee Jail by A Tennessee man whose “grill” was ripped off by a sheriff’s deputy has received a $95,000 pre-litigation settlement. While Anthony McCoy was being processed into the Davidson County Jail for failing to pay child support, McCoy had his gold “grill” …
Tennessee Judge Facing Misconduct Charges Tries to Depose Disciplinary Counsel by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke Cocke County, Tennessee General Sessions Judge John A. Bell, while facing a judicial misconduct complaint, sought to depose Joseph S. Daniel, disciplinary counsel for the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary, in February 2010. Bell …
