Michigan DOC Settles DOJ Sexual Abuse Lawsuit by Maia Justine Storm This past May, the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) which alleged a pattern and practice of sexual misconduct and invasions of privacy at the women's prisons …
Eleventh Circuit Upholds Constitutionality of PLRA's Automatic Termination Provision by The Eleventh Circuit court of appeals has upheld the constitutionality of the immediate termination provisions of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 18 U.S.C. § 3626(b)(2). Alabama women state prisoners filed a class-action civil rights suit under 42 U.S.C. § …
Amended Complaint Filed Outside Limitations Period Relates Back by A federal district court in Michigan held that an amended complaint using proper names for "John Doe" defendants, filed outside the statute of limitations was not untimely because the claims related back to the original complaint. The court also held that …
Retaliatory Acts Need Not "Shock the Conscience" to be Actionable by by Matthew T. Clarke The Sixth Circuit court of appeals, sitting en banc, has held that prisoners who claim retaliation for constitutionally protected activities are no longer required to prove the retaliatory acts "shock the conscience." Instead, they must …
Alabama Prison Officials Held in Contempt Again by A federal district court held Alabama prison officials in contempt for violating a 12-year-old Consent Decree. The court also awarded attorney's fees against the state and dissolved the decree pursuant to the Prison Litigation Reform Act, (PLRA). In 1983, prisoners in an …
Michigan's Female Prisoners Have Educational Parity by A federal district court in Michigan held that the educational, vocational, and apprenticeship opportunities provided to male and female prisoners in the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) are now sufficiently comparable for equal protection purposes to require termination of the court's 20 year …
Supreme Court Holds PLRA Attorney Fee Cap Inapplicable to Work Performed Before Enactment by by Matthew T. Clarke The Supreme Court has held that the attorney fee cap contained within the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 42 U.S.C. §1997e(d), (PLRA) does not apply to attorney fees for work performed prior to …
No Court Access Right to Litigate Civil Forfeiture by The U.S. court of appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that prisoners do not have an access-to-court right to defend against civil forfeiture. The court also accorded qualified immunity, sua sponte, to all defendants on the prisoner's conditions of confinement claims. …
Total Administrative Exhaustion Not Required by A federal district court in Michigan held that 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) does not require administrative exhaustion of all claims raised in a complaint. Instead, a court can dismiss the unexhausted claims without prejudice rather than dismiss the entire complaint. The court held that …
Alabama Jail Injuction Dissolved by The court of appeals for the Eleventh circuit held that a district court had erred in refusing to dissolve an injunction designed to relieve jail overcrowding. In 1982 an injunction was entered by a federal district court which prohibited the state of Alabama and Lauderdale …
PLN Sues Alabama DOC Over Gift Subscription Ban by 0n May 13, 1999, Prison Legal News (PLN) filed suit in the U. S. District Court for the middle district of Alabama against the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC). The Alabama DOC has Administrative Regulation 303 which states: "Inmates may receive …
Frivolous Qualified Immunity Appeals Warrant Sanctions by The court of appeals for the Sixth Circuit that it lacked jurisdiction over an interlocutory appeal from an order denying qualified immunity because the prison medical personnel defendants would not concede to view the facts in a light most favorable to the prisoner. …
Costs Imposed Regardless of Ability to Pay by The court of appeals for the Sixth circuit held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) allows courts to impose costs on losing prisoner litigants regardless of their ability to pay. The court held that the PLRA overruled prior circuit precedent to …
Edwards No Bar to Seg Suit by Afederal district court In Michigan held that a retaliatory infraction lawsuit could be pursued via 42 U.S.C. § 1983 even though the disciplinary bearing result bad not been invalidated. The court also held that the plaintiff's claim that a guard had threatened to …
Michigan Department of Corrections Fined $300,000 in Contempt Case by On July 23, 1998, a federal court in Michigan imposed contempt sanctions against the Michigan Department of Corrections for its failure to comply with previous court orders. This is the latest installment in the decades long suit filed by women …
PLN Sues Michigan DOC over Censorship of The Celling of America by On February 8, 1999, PLN sued the Michigan Department of Corrections in U.S. District Court in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In April, 1998, prison officials at the Huron Valley Men's Facility censored a copy of PLN 's critically acclaimed …
Cheaper Than Lab Rats: Can Prisoners Glow in the Dark? by Hans Sherrer We get outraged and indignant when we read or hear of atrocities committed by Nazi doctors in the name of medical science. [1] Yet, if what the Nazis did is what triggers our sense of outrage, then …
Work-Release Prisoners Eligible to Vote on Union Representation by Apanel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), upon reconsideration of its original determination, has held that four work-release employees share a sufficient "community of interest" with the regular "free-world" unit employees, so they are eligible to vote in union representation …
Prisoners Entitled to Money Damages and Injunctive Relief under ADA and RA by Prisoners Entitled To Money Damages And Injunctive Relief Under ADA And RA A federal court in Michigan held that prison officials were not entitled to qualified immunity for money damages in a deaf prisoner's American Disability Act …
Human Rights Report Details Women in Prison by A recent report from the group Human Rights Watch, titled Nowhere to Hide: Retaliation Against Women in Michigan State Prisons , charges both that Michigan holds female prisoners in horrid conditions and that women who challenge these conditions are subject to retaliation …
