Michigan's Restrictive Placement Of HIV+ Prisoners Enjoined; $2 Million Damages Awarded by by John E. Dannenberg Winning a fifteen year state court battle, Michigan prisoners who tested positive for HIV (AIDS virus), and who were otherwise eligible to serve their time in community residential programs, camps or farms, gained the …
Qualified Immunity Denied In Failure To Protect And Delay of Emergency Treatment by Bob Williams Qualified Immunity Denied In Failure To Protect And Delay of Emergency Treatment by Bob Williams The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that guards are not entitled to qualified immunity for failing to segregate …
Alabama Settles Class Action Medical Suit; Institutes HCV Treatment Protocol by John E Dannenberg Alabama Settles Class Action Medical Suit; Institutes HCV Treatment Protocol by John E. Dannenberg In a major milestone along the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) march towards gaining humane medical care in Alabama's prisons, a Settlement …
Uprisings at CCA Prisons Reveal Weaknesses in Out-of-State Imprisonment Policies by by Matthew T. Clarke States strapped by tight budgets and pressed by a swell of prisoners are faced with the Hobson's choice of releasing prisoners early to ease overcrowding or building prisons they can ill afford to construct and …
Prisoner Stated Deliberate Indifference Claim, But Summary Judgment Denial Reversed by Prisoner Stated Deliberate Indifference Claim, but Summary Judgment Denial Reversed In a case with a long, unusual procedural history, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a federal district court's denial of prison officials' motion to dismiss for …
Michigan Prison Art Project by Buzz Alexander 176 original plays created by prisoners in 18 Michigan prisons, another 107 in 4 juvenile facilities. 39 readings of original work in the prisons, 16 in the juvenile facilities, 40 anthologies. 9 Annual Exhibitions of Art by Michigan Prisoners: in the most recent, …
Settlement Brings Alabama DOC's Diabetic Treatment into 21st Century by David Reutter by David M. Reutter The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) agreed on January 15, 2004, to settle a lawsuit brought by diabetic prisoners by upgrading their medical care. The agreement sets a precedent for management and care of …
Denial of Dentures States Eighth Amendment Claim by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed a lower court's grant of summary judgment favoring an Alabama state prison dentist who did not timely furnish a prisoner with dentures. When Dean Farrow arrived at Alabama's Easterling Correctional Facility in …
Michigan Grievances Exhausted Upon Fair Notice of Claim by The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a district court erred when it found that a Michigan prisoner failed to exhaust available administrative remedies and dismissed his § 1983 action on that basis. Michigan prisoner Ronnie Burton brought suit against …
Overcrowding Forces Alabama Prisoners Into Private Prison Web by Gary Hunter Court orders have forced Alabama to reduce the number of prisoners in its county jails and send half of its prison population to two other states. Until recently the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC) had crammed 28,000 prisoners into …
Michigan Supreme Court Allows Seizure of Prisoner's Pension Despite ERISA by by Matthew T. Clarke The Supreme Court of Michigan (SCM) upheld a court's ordering a prisoner to have his pension benefits deposited in his prisoner account so that the state can seize a large portion of it to reimburse …
Pro Se Tips and Tactics by John Midgley The Supreme Court recently decided another in a series of cases about when prisoners can sue directly under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, versus when they must first employ habeas corpus proceedings, to challenge actions by prison officials. The difference is very important …
Suits in Michigan and New Jersey Seek to Force HCV Treatment by A groundswell of prisoner litigation is taking aim at states to force them to comprehensively and meaningfully address HCV in prison. These suits, often brought as class actions, seek to mandate a protocol for HCV detection and treatment …
Preliminary Injunction Automatically Expired in 90 Days for Alabama Women Prisoners by Bob Williams The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama has brought to a halt prospective relief from unconstitutional conditions at an Alabama state women's prison because a previously entered preliminary injunction was allowed to expire …
Common Fund Required for Incentive Award by The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held a named class representative may not receive an incentive award unless a common fund is established. Prisoner C. Pepper Moore, who was named a class representative in 1988 in Hadix v. Johnson, which was a class …
Prisons Nationwide Fail to Treat HCV Epidemic by John E Dannenberg Prisons Nationwide Fail To Treat HCV Epidemic by John E. Dannenberg The JeopardyTM answer is: "The national average treatment rate for HCV-infected prisoners." The winning question is: "What is approximately 1%?" With HCV [Hepatitis-C] infection rates in state prisons …
Alabama Restores Voting Rights to Some Ex-Prisoners by On June 24, 2003, Republican Alabama governor Bob Riley announced he was vetoing the felons' voting bill passed by the state legislature. The bill would have made it easier for certain felons to have their voting rights reinstated. Alabama law imposes a …
Jail Rape Results in Reduced Sentence by An Alabama federal district court has reduced a female prisoner's sentence by a three-level downward departure based on her rape by a jail guard. Deborah Rodriguez pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute 382 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride. After being raped by …
Court Mail Is Legal Mail; Damages and Fees Upheld in Legal Mail Opening by Daniel E. Manville by Dan Manville The Sixth Circuit has held that mail from a court is entitled to First Amendment protection, which means that prison officials had to open legal mail in the presence of …
Alabama Highway Labor Kills Three Prisoners, Three More Injured by In a sudden surge of mayhem, three Alabama prisoners were killed in separate incidents and three more were injured. Prisoner highway labor was temporarily suspended. On April 11, 2003, Dairron Clark, 33, was struck and killed by a minivan on …
