Certified Court Records Not Hearsay by Brian Benefiel was released from the Washington State prison system after serving a sentence for attempted second degree assault. He didn't report to his supervising community corrections officer, for which he was arrested and charged with escape from community custody. A certified copy of …
Jail Liable for Distress Caused by Hostage Training by The defendants created a training exercise intended to prepare jailers for a hostage situation, and did entirely too good a job of it, according to the plaintiff jailers. They enlisted two probationary jailers to play inmates. They were allowed into the …
Administrative Exhaustion Required in Jail Assault Case by The plaintiff sued over an assault by other prisoners. The court dismisses for failure to exhaust, notwithstanding his arguments that he did not receive a copy of the jail handbook and did not know about the grievance procedure; that he told staff …
Report Not Admissible in TN Jail Suicide Suit by The decedent hanged himself in jail. The Sheriff said to the press that a sergeant saw him put the sheet around his neck, and the court earlier said that "this evidence, if proven" could support a deliberate indifference claim. However, the …
PLRA Doesn't Apply to Immigration Habeas Petition by A Cuban Petitioner in INS custody challenged his seemingly indefinite detention. At 810 (footnote omitted): Under the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA), 28 U.S.C. § 1915, it is unclear how habeas petitioners establish a right to proceed in forma pauperis …
TN Jailers Held Liable in Slip-And-Fall Case by The Tennessee Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court's dismissal of a prisoner's negligence action against Loudon County, Tennessee and its sheriff, Tim Guider. James K. Cannon was a prisoner in the Louder County Jail on August 23, 2002 when he …
Parole Revocation Hearing Required by 18 U.S.C. § 4214(c) by Parole Revocation Hearing Required by 18 U.S.C. § 4214(c) The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the United States Parole Commission erred in failing to hold a parole revocation hearing as required by 18 U.S.C. §4214(c), after a parolee …
Fed Prisoner's Standard Range Sentence for Escape Affirmed by In April, 2004, Lonnie Davis, a federal prisoner, was sent to a work release center after serving eleven years of a twelve-and-a-half year sentence for bank robbery. In May he escaped. He was later arrested and charged with escape. Davis was …
Alcoholics Anonymous Parole Requirement Violates Establishment Clause by Alcoholics Anonymous Parole Requirement violates Establishment Clause The supreme court of Tennessee held that the Tennessee parole board's method of determining prisoner parole eligibility, by circulating and reviewing case files individually, does not violate the state's open records act. The court held …
Retaliation for Filing Grievances Violates First Amendment by The court of appeals for the Sixth circuit held that an injunction against Tennessee prison officials was improper, but that retaliation against prisoners who were fired from their jobs as disciplinary hearing advisers after they filed grievances against the prison hearing officer …
Overcrowding Must Cause Harm to Be Actionable by The court of appeals for the Sixth circuit largely reversed a district court's injunction over conditions at the Knox county jail in Knoxville, Tennessee, holding there must be a causal connection between overcrowding and bad conditions. The district court issued an injunction …
Suit Dismissal for Failure to Appear Improper by The court of appeals for the Sixth circuit held that a district court in Tennessee improperly dismissed a federal prisoner's lawsuit because he did not appear in court for hearings. District court set various hearing dates, the plaintiff could not appear due …
Collect Call Phone System Doesn't Violate Right to Court Access by A federal district court in Tennessee held that no constitutional violation occurred when a Tennessee prison replaced its coin operated phones with a coinless, collect call only phone system. Lawsuit was brought in context of access to counsel and …
Black Voters' Disenfranchisement Claims Dismissed by The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee dismissed claims by a black, Tennessee voter and a public interest law project that a Tennessee law disenfranchising convicted felons, Tennessee Code Annotated (T.C.A.) §2-19-143, violated neither the federal Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. …
Beating Damages Award Upheld, Case Remanded for Further Damages Consideration by The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal district court's findings in favor of a prisoner beaten by jail guards and the court's award of damages, but remanded the case for consideration of further damages. Marty O'Shea …
Tennessee Disenfranchisement Law Upheld by The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal district court's dismissal of a case claiming that the Tennessee Voting Rights Act of 1981 violated the Federal Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1982 and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Charles …
PLRA Requires Prisoner 1983 Complaints to Plead Administrative Exhaustion by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit recently held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) requires prisoner civil complaints under 42 U.S.C. 1983 to allege the prisoner exhausted all administrative remedies before suing or suffer dismissal of …
Dismissal of Tennessee Prisoner's Petition for Failure to Prosecute Reversed by In this case involving a prisoner's pro se petition for writ of certiorari, the Tennessee Court of Appeals held that the trial court improperly dismissed the petition for failure to appear and prosecute. Eddie Williams, a prisoner in the …
Environmental Tobacco Amendment Exposure Alone Doesn't Violate Eighth Amendment by Environmental Tobacco Amendment Exposure Alone Doesn't Violate Eighth Amendment The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in denying a Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) prisoner's claim that exposure to …
Tennessee: Punitive-Based Administrative Segregation States Claim by In this case involving the appeal of a disciplinary ruling, the Tennessee Court of Appeals held that because a prisoner's placement in administrative segregation appeared to be punitive, his petition for common law writ of certiorari stated a claim. Eric Woodruff, a prisoner …
