Relief Ordered For Overcrowded D.C. Prison by The United State District Court, District of Columbia, in response to a D.C. Occoquon Prison Facility, of the Lorton Correctional Complex, prisoner's claims that overcrowding and systemically deficient conditions at state medium security institutions constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of Eighth …
Government Officials Entitled to Qualified Immunity by The U.S. Supreme Court held that government officials are entitled to a defense of qualified or good-faith" immunity. A. Ernest Fitzgerald filed a civil damages suit in the District of Columbia Federal District Court arguing that he was unlawfully discharged from employment with …
FOIA Fee Waiver Provision Discussed by The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that a non-profit organization demonstrated with reasonable specificity that disclosure of information it requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was in the public interest and that it was eligible for a fee waiver. Two non-profit …
U.S. Supreme Court Backward-Looking Court Access Suit Must State Underlying Claim by U.S. Supreme Court Backward-Looking Court Access Suit Must State Underlying Claim On June 20, 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia's decision in a backward-looking court access case brought by a …
Wrong Zip Code Tolls Filing of Appeal by The court of appeals for the Federal circuit held, in this non-prison case, that a veteran mailing a notice of appeal that had the wrong zip code, but was otherwise properly addressed, to the Board of Veterans' Appeals, was improperly dismissed as …
D.C. Female Arrestees File Tort Claims Over Illegal Strip Searches by The U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, denied in part and granted in part a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by female arrestees against the United States Marshals Service (defendants), for allegedly conducting illegal strip searches on them. …
D.C. Prisoner Death Suit Verdict of $1,030,002 Excessive by The District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed a district court's order holding a jury's award excessive. The jury entered verdicts against the District of Columbia, for negligence with an award of $1 under the Wrongful Death Suit Act (WDSA) claim, …
D.C. Circuit Reverses U.S. Gulf War POWs' $959 Million+ Prisoner Abuse Award by On June 4, 2004, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed a federal court's award of more than $959 million in a case filed by U.S. Gulf War POWs who were allegedly abused while held …
District of Columbia Sex Offender Registration Unconstitutional by The public notification provisions of the D.C. Sex Offender and Registration Act deny due process because they provide no opportunity for sex offenders to contest whether such notification is necessary to protect the public. There is a liberty interest under the "stigma-plus" …
Second Circuit Upholds Dismissal of Snitch Jacketing Claim by The plaintiff complained that an officer tried to get another inmate to attack him after he beat a disciplinary ticket, and when he complained about that a prison investigator accused him of being a "rat" in front of other prisoners. At …
Court Enjoins Transfer of BOP Prisoners to Virginia DOC under RFRA by The plaintiff District of Columbia prisoners (two Sunni Muslims and a Rastafarian who had taken the Vow of the Nazarite) alleged that their placement by the federal Bureau of Prisons in Virginia prisons, which forbid beards and long …
Exhaustion May Not Be Available Due to Transfer After Assault by The court declines to dismiss for non-exhaustion. Although the claim arises from an inmate assault, a constitutional tort, it alleges failure to train and adequately to supervise staff and to staff control posts, so it's a prison conditions case. …
No Summary Judgment in Strip Search Suit While Discovery Underway by Plaintiffs challenged a jail policy of strip searching prisoners who returned to jail to await release, and the court denied a motion to dismiss citing a similar case from Illinois. Now the defendants move for summary judgment based on …
Class of Over Detained, Strip Searched DC Prisoners Certified by The plaintiffs alleged that they were kept past their release dates by the D.C. Department of Correction; a subclass alleged that they were subjected to strip searches upon return to jail after judicial determinations that there was no basis for …
Defendant Drugged for Federal Murder Trial by The criminal defendant, accused of killing two Capitol Police officers, was involuntarily medicated to render him competent to stand trial. The court holds that his progress, the reasonableness of the government's request for a six-month continuance, and the medical appropriateness of the treatment …
Guard Union Suit Over Staffing, Overcrowding Dismissed by The plaintiff correction officers' union alleged that staffing reductions increased the likelihood of assaults on staff, depriving them of their right to safe working conditions. The D.C. Jail, the population of which was limited to 1674 by court order, has risen as …
Change in BOP Work Release Policy Warrants New Sentence by The criminal defendant was sentenced for securities forgery to 12 months imprisonment with a recommendation to serve it in a Community Corrections Center (halfway house). The court relied on the Bureau of Prisons' representation that it would honor that recommendation, …
Continuing Claim Doctrine Applies to Deductions from Military Pay for Incarceration Costs by Continuing Claim Doctrine Applies to Deductions from Military Pay for Incarceration Costs The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has held that periodic deductions from a federal prisoner's military retirement pay constituted continuing claims, …
D.C. Venue Improper in BOP Fine Punishment Suit by The plaintiff allegedly was kept for three years beyond his sentence expiration because he refused to sign an installment schedule agreement for his unpaid fines. The wardens of prisons in Virginia and West Virginia were not subject to personal jurisdiction in …
Denial of Visits Upheld by The court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit upheld the permanent denial of visits between a DC prisoner husband and his wife after the wife was caught attempting to smuggle marijuana into prison. See: Robinson v. Palmer, 841 F.2d 1151 (DC Cir. 1988).
