Push to Digitize Rikers Island Mail Based on Faulty Drug Tests by Since 2022, New York City’s Department of Correction (DOC) has warned that its Rikers Island jail complex was swamped with letters soaked in fentanyl and other contraband drugs. As a result, DOC officials called to follow the state …
New York City Held in Contempt in Long-Running Rikers Island Class-Action by On November 27, 2024, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York held the city Department of Correction (DOC) in contempt of a consent decree and subsequent remedial orders entered in a long-running class …
Blood in the Water Author Wins Censorship Challenges Against Illinois, New York Prison Systems by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney In 2016, University of Michigan Professor Heather Ann Thompson published Blood in the Water, a book about the 1971 uprising at New York’s Attica State Prison that claimed the lives …
Muslim New York Prisoner’s Free Exercise of Religion Claim Reinstated by David Reutter by David M. Reutter On May 15, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed summary judgment on a New York prisoner’s First Amendment free exercise claim while also affirming a jury’s verdict …
New York Court of Appeals (Lightly) Slaps State Prison Officials for Holding Sex Offenders Past Release by On April 25, 2024, New York’s highest court took up a challenge brought by sex offenders confined in residential treatment facilities beyond expiration of their prison sentences. The result: A puny demand that …
News in Brief by Alabama: Wiregrass Daily News reported that Mobile Metro Jail guard Timothy Lee Scarbrough, 39, was arrested on September 9, 2024, and charged with first-degree sodomy for the alleged sexual assaulting of a detainee who was still under the effects of anesthesia after eye surgery. Scarbrough had …
Nunez v. New York City Dept of Correction, NY, Opinion and Order on Motion for Contempt, Conditions of Confinement, 2024 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK MARK NUNEZ, et al., Plaintiffs, -v- No. 11-CV-5845-LTS NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION and THE CITY OF NEW YORK, Defendants. …
Barton v. Khan, NY, Complaint, Assault and Battery, 2024 Case 9:24-cv-01433-DNH-ML Document 1 Filed 11/25/24 Page 1 of 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ------------------------ - --------------------------X JAMES BARTON, COMPLAINT Plaintiff, PLAINTIFF DEMANDS TRIAL BY JURY - against - CORRECTION OFFICER ROHAlL KHAN, CORRECTION OFFICER MICHAEL …
$28.75 Million Settlement Paid by New York City in Suit Alleging Rikers Guards Stood by and Watched Detainee Hang Himself by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney On April 5, 2024, the City of New York agreed to pay $28.75 million to settle a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 complaint filed by Madeline …
NYC Rehires Former Head of Rikers Island Lockup Where Guard Assault Left Detainee Quadriplegic by On May 11, 2024, the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) rehired Ned McCormick, the former official in charge of a Rikers Island lockup where a massive guard pile-­on exactly one year earlier left …
Three Former Rikers Island Guards Among Five Ex-Employees Charged in Massive Smuggling Scheme by Corruption charges against three former guards and two other former employees at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex were continued on May 9, 2024, a week after a massive stash of contraband was uncovered at …
News in Brief by Arizona: State prisoner Brigido Montoya made the briefest of escapes from the State Prison Complex in Eyman on August 10, 2024, before he was recaptured 48 minutes later by Florence Police, the Florence Reminder & Blade-Tribune reported. The state Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (DCRR) …
Second Circuit: New York Prisoner’s Religious Discrimination Need Not Show a “Substantial” Burden of Beliefs by Douglas Ankney The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit waded into a contentious debate over religious rights on November 27, 2023, holding that prisoners claiming a violation of those rights under 42 …
News in Brief by Alabama: Mobile Metro Jail guard Robert Aaron Small was fired and arrested for assault on June 27, 2024, one day after he allegedly used excessive force against an unnamed detainee. WKRG in Mobile said that the guard had worked at the lockup since 2019. Mobile County …
New York City Mayor Blocks Solitary Confinement Ban After Council Overrides His Veto by New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) declared a state of emergency on July 28, 2024, issuing an executive order blocking a new law banning solitary confinement in city jails just one day before it was …
Second Circuit: New York Prisoner’s Prior Cases Not PLRA Strikes by David Reutter On March 14, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a district court erred in dismissing a New York prisoner’s civil rights action for violating the “three strikes” provision of the Prison …
Second Former BOP Guard Sentenced in Smuggling Scheme at Brooklyn Lockup by Former federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) guard Quandelle Joseph, 34, was sentenced on July 30, 2024, to 30 months in federal prison for a brazen smuggling scheme at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. Former fellow …
3,500 Body-Worn Cameras Recalled from Rikers Island Guards After One Catches Fire by At New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex on May 3, 2024, a guard’s body-­worn camera (BWC) malfunctioned and ignited, leaving the unnamed captain suffering burns and smoke inhalation. The city’s Department of Correction (DOC) then suspended …
News in Brief by Alabama: On June 24, 2024, Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith told the Birmingham News that county jail guard Tony Dewayne Jackson, 29, had been arrested for smuggling “non-­drug” contraband into the lockup. Jackson was no longer working at the jail, but Smith didn’t say how or …
46 New York Prisoners Accuse Guards of Beatings—Even Waterboarding by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney On December 29, 2023, New York state prisoners Eugene Taylor, 32, and Charles Wright, 44, filed separate lawsuits alleging that guards with the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) beat and waterboarded them …
