Prisoner’s Suicide in Sherburne County Minnesota Jail Results in $2.3 Million Settlement by Keith Sanders by Keith Sanders A recent investigation by KARE 11, a Minnesota-based NBC news affiliate, has brought much-needed attention to systematic failures at jails throughout Minnesota. Many local and state correctional facilities in that state, according …
$30,001 Jury Verdict Over Discriminatory ICE Notification Policy By Minnesota Jail by Kevin Bliss by Kevin Bliss Myriam Parada was awarded $30,001 from the Minnesota District Court January 28, 2021 for false imprisonment in the Anoka County Jail. The county’s unwritten policy was to contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) …
Planned Massive Shortfall in Funding to Maintain Minnesota Prisons by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso Despite an urgent and growing need for maintenance in Minnesota’s prisons, the governor and legislature are proposing a token amount be spent while deferring the vast majority of the growing problem. Traditionally, the state …
Resisting a Prison Without End by Jayson Hawkins, Panagioti Tsolkas by Jayson Hawkins and Panagioti Tsolkas The fantasy of those who profit off the Prison Industrial Complex has long been perpetual incarceration. This dream has seeped into reality in recent decades as many states began adopting LWOP (life without parole) …
Minnesota Mothers to Receive More Bonding Time with Their Newborn Children by Kevin Bliss by Kevin Bliss The Healthy Start Act in Minnesota will allow mothers who give birth while incarcerated more time to bond with their children. Signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz, the bill transfers expectant mothers …
News in Brief by Alabama: According to a report by the Alabama Political Reporter, a state prisoner was fatally stabbed by another man incarcerated with him at Fountain Correctional Facility in Atmore on May 4, 2021—just one day before his scheduled release, which would also have been his twenty-fourth birthday. …
From a Picture Grew Thousands of Words by Edward Lyon by Ed Lyon When Minnesota state prisoner C. Fausto Cabrera was transferred to the Rush City Correctional Facility (RCCF), he came across a photo by acclaimed photographer Alec Soth on a book cover of a poetry collection. It was of …
News in Brief by Australia: A February 2021 ruling by the Supreme Court in the Australian province of Victoria presented “a rare win” for a prisoner contesting prison procedures, according to a report by The Conversation. The convict, 56-year-old Craig Minogue, argued that Barwon Prison’s random drug testing and strip-searching …
Prisoners Find Their Voice in Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop by Edward Lyon by Ed Lyon Jennifer Bowen Hicks wandered the United States for many years freelancing for literary magazines and teaching writing classes before making her home in Minnesota. In 2011, she decided to share her unique writing skill with …
Minnesota Counties Pay Out More Than $10 Million For Prison and Jail Settlements by Kevin Bliss by Kevin Bliss "In the last 10 years, Minnesota counties have paid out more than $10 million in settlements and legal fees following lawsuits accusing jails of providing inadequate to non-existent health care to …
Lynas v. Stang, MN, Settlement, Wrongful Death - Medical Neglect, 2021 RELEASE OF ALL CLAIMS I For and in consideration of the total sum of One Million Three Hundred Thousand Dollars and 00/100 ($1,300,000.00), the sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged, I, David W. Lynas, as trustee for the next-of-kin …
Minnesota State and Federal Prisoners COVID Case Surge Sparks ACLU Lawsuit by Derek Gilna by Derek Gilna According to statistics compiled by The Marshall Project, one in five U.S. prisoners has already contracted COVID-19, a rate more than four times that of the general population. The problem has been particularly …
Minnesota Man Out of Prison After Being Exonerated of Murder by Edward Lyon by Ed Lyon Javon Davis, aka James Lamar Davis, was talking to his girlfriend on the phone during the wee hours of April 12, 2014 as two men were gunned down while leaving their workplace at Target …
How Jails Became a Breeding Ground for the Coronavirus by Keith Sanders by Keith Sanders Back in August 2020, “things at Waseca were calm,” recalled Channing Lacy. Like many other women incarcerated in the low-security Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Waseca, Minnesota, the 33-year-old considered herself lucky that the prison …
Rinkel v. MN Department of Corrections, MN, Settlement, Disability Access, 2020 SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT AND RELEASE OF CLAIMS This Settlement Agreement and Release of Claims (“Settlement Agreement”), is a full and complete settlement of the lawsuit entitled Brian Rinkel, Eric Jaeger, Michael Sherman, Kevin Adams, and Tiffany Gagner, Case No. 62-CV-19-1165, …
University of St. Thomas School of Law-Abusing Taxation of Court Costs, Aug 2020 University of St. Thomas School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series Abusing Taxation of Court Costs by Government Lawyers to Chill Pro Se Civil Rights Claimants University of St. Thomas Law Journal (forthcoming 2021) Gregory C. …
HRDC v. Sherburne County, Minnesota; et al., MN, Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial, Censorship, 2020 CASE 0:20-cv-01817 Document 1 Filed 08/20/20 Page 1 of 14 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA Human Rights Defense Center, Civil File No.______________ Plaintiff, COMPLAINT AND DEMAND FOR JURY TRIAL vs. Sherburne County, …
HRDC v. Sherburne County, Minnesota; et al., Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial CASE 0:20-cv-01817 Document 1 Filed 08/20/20 Page 1 of 14 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA Human Rights Defense Center, Civil File No.______________ Plaintiff, COMPLAINT AND DEMAND FOR JURY TRIAL vs. Sherburne County, Minnesota; Joel Brott, …
$120,000 Settlement for Minnesota Woman Forced to Remove Hijab for Booking by David Reutter by David M. Reutter A $120,000 settlement was reached on November 5, 2019 in a lawsuit alleging officials at Minnesota’s Ramsey County Jail applied discriminatory treatment to a Muslim woman. The settlement with the county also …
Minnesota Prison Bans “No Touch” Rule by Edward Lyon by Ed Lyon Back in 2011, the United States Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) performed an anonymous survey at the Minnesota Department of Corrections’ (MDOC) Shakopee women’s prison. The survey’s results showed that Shakopee was among the worst …
