Outside Clergy Requirement for Ramadan Services Upheld by Officials at a county prison provided for communal worship during Ramadan only if an outside leader could be found. This restriction did not violate the Turner standard because the Ramadan participants came from different housing units, raising order and security concerns; the …
Court Access Rights Discussed by At 785: "The right of access to the courts arises in a variety of contexts." The right to sue and defend in court is a privilege of citizenship guaranteed by the Constitution. There is a right of court access encompassed within the right to petition …
Claim Exhausted When Prison Rules in Favor of Prisoner by The plaintiff complained of improper discipline and retaliatory reclassification and transfer At 506: "The violation of a constitutionally protected right is a sufficient injury for purposes of standing." The defendants had argued that the plaintiff lacked standing because he didn't …
Parolee Subject to Prison Rules Prior to Release by Complaints about fire code violations in a facility operated under contract with the state raised at most an issue of negligence on the part of the city where the facility was located, since the claim turned on their alleged failure to …
Refusal of TB Test on Religious Grounds Discussed by The plaintiff refused a PPD on religious (MOVE) grounds and was placed in administrative custody and kept there even after he submitted to a chest x-ray, which was negative. There is no evidence that MOVE is actually a religion (and the …
Denial of Visiting Between Prisoner, Ex Prisoner Upheld by Plaintiff, a member of MOVE, was refused a visit from a female member of MOVE who he said was his wife because she was a former prisoner. The court previously refused defendants summary judgment because other prisoners married to former prisoners …
Federal Prisoner's Bivens Action Claiming Civil Rights Violations During Arrest and Prosecution Reinstated by Donald Jackman, a federal prisoner, sued fifty-one defendants in federal district court under Bivens and 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming they had violated his civil rights in various ways during his arrest and criminal prosecution. The …
Habeas Release Granted to Immigration Detainee After 3 Year Wait for Removal Proceedings by Morocco citizen Mourad Madrane petitioned pro se for a writ of habeas corpus to end his prolonged detention while awaiting deportation proceedings following his aggravated felony convictions for various access device fraud charges. The writ was …
Pennsylvania Prison Medical Firm’s Performance Called into Question by Dr. Edward Zaloga, co-owner of Correctional Care, Inc. (CCI) of Moosic, Pennsylvania, a firm that provides medical services at the Lackawanna County Prison, had his past called into question when a female prisoner was forced to give birth alone in her …
Some Sexual Harassment of Prisoners Constitutional by The plaintiff alleged several incidents of sexual harassment by a staff member (dry-humping sums it up). All but one of his claims are barred by his failure to file grievances about them. Since the plaintiff requested damages and did not allege an official …
Failure to Protect Suit Dismissed by The plaintiff had a separation order from another prisoner whose brother he had killed. He was assaulted by that prisoner, who was permitted to be in the same population only because of error. There was no showing that the defendants actually knew about the …
Immigration Detainee Loses Failure to Protect Suit by The plaintiff immigration detainee was attacked by another prisoner and was warned not to retaliate against him. He was involved in a second altercation the next day in which the other prisoner "got cut"; the plaintiff was later criminally convicted for the …
Federal Work Release Statute Creates No Liberty Interest by A federal statute, 18 U.S.C. 3624, providing that prisoners will "to the extent practicable" receive some reasonable period of halfway house or home confinement before expiration of their sentences, does not create a liberty interest. The statute is not "explicitly mandatory" …
PA Prisoner’s Civil Rights Action Viable Because Factual Dispute Exists by Vincent Cortlessa, a Pennsylvania state prisoner, sued guards and Primecare Medical, a private health care company, in federal district court after the guards beat him and the health care company failed to provide adequate care. He argued that these …
$150,000 Settlement in Pennsylvania Jail Prisoner’s Suicide by Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County Correctional Facility (LCCF) has agreed to pay the family of a prisoner who committed suicide $150,000. The family contended LCCF was deliberatively indifferent to the risk that prisoner Luke Blumer, 19, posed to himself. Blumer was known to be …
$35,00 Settlement in Sexual Assault of Pennsylvania Female Prisoner by Guard by The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PDOC) has settled a female prisoner’s federal lawsuit that claimed she was sexually assaulted by two male guards and videotaped naked by a female guard for $35,000. The settlement came in the case …
Pennsylvania Prisoners' Privacy not Unlawfully Invaded by Mayor's Monitoring Their Cells via Video Camera from His Home by Robert DeBlasio and Deborah McFadden, prisoners in a Pennsylvania county jail, sued the county, its cops and its mayor for invasion of privacy after learning that the mayor monitored their cells from …
One Dollar Awarded Pennsylvania Prisoner For Arbitrary Parole Denial by Pennsylvania State prisoner Alex Davis brought a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against personnel at SCI-Graterford prison in 2003 claiming deprivation of rights. He alleged due process violation for arbitrary parole denial. The jury awarded him one dollar. Davis sold …
Preliminary Injunction For Improved TB Testing in Pennsylvania Prisons by On September 29, 1992, a federal district court granted Pennsylvania state prisoners a preliminary injunction ordering the implementation of a new policy on the detection and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) cases in Pennsylvania state prisons. This is a, class-action suit …
Prison Music Program Not Constitutionally Required by A Pennsylvania federal district court has held that limitations imposed by prison officials on prisoners performing in “independent” music programs do not violate the constitution. The ruling came after a three-day non-jury trial in a civil rights action filed by prisoner Richard Young. …
