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Costs Improperly Denied to Prevailing Prisoner by In an unpublished opinion, the court of appeals for the Sixth circuit held that a district court had improperly denied Costs to a pro se prisoner who won his case, at a jury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 …
Tight Handcuffs State Claim by The plaintiff, who had a pre-existing deformity of his wrist, complained of being handcuffed too tightly and being pulled, kicked, and pushed during an arrest. These allegations would not state a claim absent injury, but the injury need not be significant, and unspecified injuries to …
Detention in Underwear Upheld by The plaintiffs, after arrest, were placed in jail cells in their underwear, and their outer clothing was removed in the presence of female officers. This allegedly was to prevent suicide (three of four plaintiffs refused to answer relevant questions), and they retained their underwear only …
ADA Claim Dismissed for Non Exhaustion by The plaintiff brought an ADA suit against prison staff. He "stated that he had not exhausted his administrative remedies because, when he asked his counselor, one of the defendants, for a grievance form, the counselor told him to get out of his office." …
Failure to Protect Claim Fails by The plaintiff complained that, while a detainee, he was housed with a convict of known violent propensities who injured him. At 1078: ". . . [T]he overwhelming weight of persuasive authority holds that unless the state has an intent to punish, or at least …
Grievance Must Name All Parties to Be Sued by Here the Sixth Circuit's "exhaust per defendant" rule is turned into a heightened pleading requirement. At 943: In his fifth objection, Plaintiff argues that Defendant Correctional Medical Services was named throughout all stages of the grievance process. However, the court finds …
Grievance Must Name Defendants, Complaint Must Specify Exhaustion by The plaintiff filed a complaint, followed by an amended complaint, and the district court brings out all the regressive armament of Sixth Circuit exhaustion law (and worse) against him. At 789: After a thorough review of Plaintiff's original complaint, it has …
No One Liable in Jail Suicide of 16 Year Old by The plaintiff's 16-year-old grandson committed suicide in jail. He was placed in an observation cell and got lots of attention; after months he seemed better and was placed in general population after signing a "no-harm contract" pledging not to …
Michigan Jail Not Liable for Suicide by The decedent was admitted to jail drunk and hanged himself with a telephone cord within two hours. To recover, the plaintiff must show (1) that he demonstrated a strong likelihood of taking his life, and (2) that defendants acted with deliberate indifference to …
Michigan 16-Year-Old Properly Jailed and Expelled from School by At age 16, Matthew Daniels was held on murder charges in Michigan's Macomb County Jail. He was housed on a mental ward, away from adult prisoners, without regular exercise or showers. Prior to his arrest Daniels attended an alternative education program, …
U.S. Supreme Court: Failure to Exhaust Remedies Is an Affirmative Defense Under the PLRA by John Dannenberg by John E. Dannenberg A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court held on January 22, 2007 that when a prisoner files an action governed by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), the question of whether …
California Creates High Risk Sex Offender Task Force by By Executive Order S-6-08 (May 15, 2006), California?s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger created the High Risk Sex Offender Task Force (HRSOTF). Its job was to advise the Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) on policy upgrades regarding (1) …
Abuse by Female Guard States Claim by A federal district court held that a Michigan prisoner had stated a claim by alleging a female guard had physically abused him. Not a ruling on the merits. See: Gilson v. Cox, 711 F. Supp. 354 (ED MI 1989).
S.Ct. Holds Prison Officials Cannot Censor Court Pleadings by The United States supreme court held that a Michigan prison rule requiring prisoners to submit all legal pleadings to a prison investigator for review, before they could he filed with the courts, was invalid. Whether a habeas petition is properly drawn …
MI Disciplinary Hearing Officers Entitled to Judicial Immunity by The court of appeals for the Sixth circuit held that Michigan Department of Corrections hearing officers were entitled to judicial immunity from suits for damages because they were attorneys and professional hearing officers similar to administrative law judges. Note that the …
Prisoners Retain Some Right to Bodily Privacy by The court of appeals for the Sixth circuit held that a Michigan prisoner had stated a claim for violation of his religious right to "modesty" in challenging a prison practice of giving women guards full access to a men's prison where they …
