Sanctions Ordered Against Michigan Prison by For failing to comply with district court orders to implement vocational programs, the District Court, E.D. Michigan, S.D., ordered contempt sanctions against Michigan prison officials. See: Glover v. Johnson, 9 F.Supp. 799 (ED MI 1998).
Prison Officials' Request for Stay Denied by The District Court, E.D. Michigan, S.D., denied a stay of relief to Michigan prison officials in a 20-year old class action suit. The defendants filed for relief under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) seeking termination of previous court orders to provided educational …
Educational Administrator Appointment Ordered in Michigan Discrimination Case by The District Court, E.D. Michigan, S.D., held that the Michigan Department of Corrections failed to comply with court order requiring the appointment of an educational administrator to bring female prisoners' education programs to parity with male counterparts. The court ordered (1) …
Education Administrator Appointment Vacated and Remanded by Education Administrator Appointment Vacated And Remanded The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the order of the E.D. Michigan, S.D., District Court appointing an educational administrator for the female prisoners who sought to have educational parity with the male prisoners. The court held …
Court Orders Appointment of Education Administrator in Michigan Discrimination Case by The District Court, E.D. Michigan, S.D., appointed an education administrator after the Michigan Department of Corrections failed to hire one on their own. The court ordered the defendants to pay the administrator $1,000/40-hour week to implement educational programs for …
Shocks the Conscience" Standard Incorrect for First Amendment Claims by Shocks the Conscience" Standard Incorrect for First Amendment Claims Affirming its prior holding in Bell v Johnson, 308 F.3d 594 (6th Cir. 2002), the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a district court in Michigan incorrectly granted summary …
Michigan: Relevant Documents Must Be Provided in Disciplinary Action by The Court of Appeals of Michigan held that a state prisoner's due process rights were violated when he was refused access to documents relevant to his disciplinary case. Joseph Tocco received a major disciplinary case for allegedly participating in a …
Sixth Circuit Vacates Dismissal of § 1983 Suit by Sixth Circuit Vacates Dismissal of § 1983 Suit The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in an unpublished opinion, has vacated and remanded a Michigan District Court's grant of summary judgment to prison officials on grounds that the prisoner-plaintiff failed to exhaust …
$975,000 Paid in Michigan Guards Wrongful Discharge Suit by In January 1996, Michigan prison guard James E. Legrow saw a paroled prisoner and three guards in a bar, which violated the parolee's conditions of parole and prison rules against fraternization with prison guards. Because the guards were friends of the …
$259,000 Paid in Michigan Guard's Discrimination Claim by Michigan prison guard Kenneth McIntyre, who had been employed for 7 years, had lifting restrictions due to congenital spinal bifida. An MRI disclosed he developed bulging discs and had his lifting restrictions changed from 50 to 20 pounds. The State said he …
Arbitrary Censorship and Abuse of Disabled Prisoners Unlawful by The Sixth Circuit has held that the First Amendment protects prisoners from capricious interference with their incoming mail and that actual physical injury is not a requisite to show an Eighth Amendment violation of cruel and unusual punishment. George Parrish and …
Michigan Prisoner Civil Suit for Sexual Abuse by In an unpublished ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that a Michigan district court erred in dismissing a prisoner's civil rights suit for sexual assault by two guards and an emergency room doctor. The prisoner had chest …
Sixth Circuit Affirms Qualified Immunity Denial; MDOC Director's Policy Challenged by Sixth Circuit Affirms Qualified Immunity Denial; MDOC Director's Policy Challenged The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed denial of qualified immunity to the director of the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) in a complaint brought by the father …
Pension Fund Garnished to Satisfy Criminal Restitution Order. by A Michigan federal District Court held the government may garnish a criminal defendant's pension fund to satisfy a criminal restitution order. Both the Employee's Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. 1056 (d)(1), and the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U. S.C.§ …
State and Official Capacity Defendants Not "Persons" Under § 1983 by The U.S. Supreme Court held that neither a state nor its employees acting in their official capacity were "persons" under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. After being fired for allegedly invalid reasons, a Michigan state employee sued the Michigan Department …
6th Circuit: § 1983 Claims Against County Must Connect Policy, Violation by In this case involving the death of a prisoner in the Washtenaw (Michigan) County Jail, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the decedent's estate had not shown that his death resulted from a county custom …
Costs Improperly Denied to Prevailing Prisoner by In an unpublished opinion, the court of appeals for the Sixth circuit held that a district court had improperly denied Costs to a pro se prisoner who won his case, at a jury trial. William Walker, a Michigan state prisoner, filed suit alleging …
Michigan Doctor's Termination of Prisoner's Suicide Watch Upheld by On March 2, 1995, Billy Montgomery was on suicide watch in a Michigan prison. He was interviewed by Norris McCrary, a prison psychologist, who, without reviewing his file, found that Montgomery no longer needed to be on suicide watch. McCrary had …
Rooker-Feldman Doctrine Bars Federal Review of Michigan Indigent Filing Fees Statute As Applied by Matthew Clarke Rooker-Feldman Doctrine Bars Federal Review of Michigan Indigent Filing Fees Statute As Applied by Matthew T. Clarke On August 31, 2004 the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that an indigent Michigan state prisoner …
Stripping Detainees Naked for Hours States Claim by The plaintiffs are arrestees who refused to answer suicide screening questions. They were treated as posing a suicide risk and were placed in a cell completely naked for periods from 6 to 18 hours, subjected to video surveillance and in most cases …
