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Eleventh Circuit Denies Qualified Immunity to Georgia Jailers Who Housed White Detainee With Black Cellmate Held for Racially Motivated Attack

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Racial/Ethnic Bias/Profiling, Immunity - Absolute and Qualified

Eleventh Circuit Denies Qualified Immunity to Georgia Jailers Who Housed White Detainee With Black Cellmate Held for Racially Motivated Attack by On January 5, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court’s finding that defendant guards and a nurse at Georgia’s Muscogee County Jail …

Riot at California GEO Group Lockup Sends Message to U.S. Marshals

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: GEO Group/Wackenhut, Protests

Riot at California GEO Group Lockup Sends Message to U.S. Marshals by On February 21, 2024, a riot broke out between rival groups of detainees held for the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) at a GEO Group lockup in El Centro, California. Injuries were reported to detainees and staff of the …

Prisoner Admissions Soar at Massachusetts Psychiatric Lockup Plagued by Overcrowding and Violence

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Overcrowding, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness)

Prisoner Admissions Soar at Massachusetts Psychiatric Lockup Plagued by Overcrowding and Violence by As of March 11, 2024, almost half those held at Massachusetts’ Tewksbury Hospital were forensic patients, admitted to the state-run mental health lockup from the criminal justice system. At the same time, the state Department of Mental …

Federal Judge Calls BOP Brooklyn Lockup Too Deplorable to House Defendant

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Bail Bonds, Mental Health, Bureau of Prisons (BOP)

Federal Judge Calls BOP Brooklyn Lockup Too Deplorable to House Defendant by The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), a massive federal jail in Brooklyn, New York, is known for its harsh conditions. So harsh that on January 4, 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Jesse M. Furman refused to send a convicted …

$275,000 Settlement for Wisconsin Jail Detainee’s Death from Untreated Heart Infection

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Failure to Treat, Settlements, Medical Neglect/Malpractice

$275,000 Settlement for Wisconsin Jail Detainee’s Death from Untreated Heart Infection by As the bankruptcy of private jail medical provider Armor Correctional Health Services, Inc. wound down on October 23, 2023, the firm sold off its one remaining asset, a contract to provide medical services to prisoners at Texas’ Nueces …

1,200 Washington Prisoners Lose Laptops After One Shows Up on eBay

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Government Misconduct, Education, Computers, Internet

1,200 Washington Prisoners Lose Laptops After One Shows Up on eBay by By March 2, 2024, the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) had collected laptops from some 1,200 state prisoners who had been issued them for course work in college programming—throwing a huge monkey wrench into their plans to work …

Report Finds Exploitative Disciplinary Fines in One-Third of U.S. Prison Systems

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: BOP Litigation Reports, Seizure of Prisoner Funds, Fines

Report Finds Exploitative Disciplinary Fines in One-Third of U.S. Prison Systems by "In yet another example of how the criminal legal system extracts wealth from the poorest families, at least one-third of prison systems nationwide charge fees as a punishment for a rule violation.” So begins a report released by …

Arrested for Stealing Snacks, Baltimore Diabetic Dies in Jail

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Diabetes, Medical Neglect/Malpractice, Fraud and Theft Loss

Arrested for Stealing Snacks, Baltimore Diabetic Dies in Jail by Louis Maurice Mason, a 67-year-old struggling with diabetes and a four-decade cocaine addiction, died on March 8, 2024, in Baltimore’s jail system. Despite his deteriorating health, a judge had set his bail unaffordably high, effectively signing his death warrant. Mason’s …

Fourth Circuit Chides Virginia Magistrate for Assuming Prisoners Proceed IFP

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Filing Fees, Indigent Defendants - Fees and Expenses, In Forma Pauperis

Fourth Circuit Chides Virginia Magistrate for Assuming Prisoners Proceed IFP by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held on November 15, 2023, that a lower court erred in assuming that a group of Virginia prisoners proceeded in forma pauperis (IFP) when they …

Arizona Agrees to $40,000 Settlement in Suit Over Mentally Ill Prisoner’s Suicide

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Settlements, Medical Neglect/Malpractice, Suicides

Arizona Agrees to $40,000 Settlement in Suit Over Mentally Ill Prisoner’s Suicide by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney After a federal court found its provision of healthcare and mental health care to all state prisoners was “plainly, grossly inadequate,” Arizona settled a suit over one prisoner’s suicide on November 11, …

Illinois Prisoner Succumbs to Heat Wave

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Exposure to Heat, Failure to Protect (Wrongful Death)

Illinois Prisoner Succumbs to Heat Wave by The death of Illinois prisoner Michael Broadway, 51, during a heatwave on June 19, 2024, has focused attention on squalid conditions at Stateville Correctional Center. Windows remained unopened and no working fan was provided at the un-air-conditioned lockup, according to family attorney Terah …

California Prisoner’s Generosity for Gaza Rewarded With Over $100,000

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Prison Labor, Advocacy

California Prisoner’s Generosity for Gaza Rewarded With Over $100,000 by As of February 29, 2024, a GoFundMe campaign had raised $102,172 for a soon-to-be-paroled California prisoner to transition from incarceration. Filmmaker Justin Mashouf, who started the page, then shut down contributions at the request of his incarcerated friend, known as …

“Too brutal, too disgusting”: Prison Guards Flee as Working Conditions Worsen

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Failure to Protect (General), Overcrowding, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Guards/Staff, Assaults on Staff

“Too brutal, too disgusting”: Prison Guards Flee as Working Conditions Worsen by The nonprofit Marshall Project reported on January 10, 2024, that dire prison staffing shortages nationwide have left the number of people working in state prisons at the lowest level in over two decades. The resulting thinning of supervision …

New Mexico Jail Sued Again After Paying $787,500 In-Custody Death Settlement

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Drug Overdose, Settlements, Medical Neglect/Malpractice

New Mexico Jail Sued Again After Paying $787,500 In-Custody Death Settlement by New Mexico’s Santa Fe County was hit with another suit in October 2023 over a detainee’s drug-related death at the county jail, just over a year after agreeing to pay $787,500 to the father of a young woman …

$7.5 Million Settlement in Suit Over California Jail Death

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Settlements, Medical Neglect/Malpractice, Excessive Force (Wrongful Death), Suicides

$7.5 Million Settlement in Suit Over California Jail Death by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On February 29, 2024, the federal court for the Central District of California approved a settlement under which Riverside County paid $7.5 million to the survivors of a county jail detainee who died in custody. …

Unintended Consequence of Texas Prisoner Tablets: Retaliation from Fellow Prisoners

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Retaliation, Informants, Electronic Tablets, Securus

Unintended Consequence of Texas Prisoner Tablets: Retaliation from Fellow Prisoners by As prisons and jails make services available to prisoners via electronic tablets, they report generally positive results, especially the easy access to information that the systems provide. But in an essay published by Prison Journalism Project on March 19, …

Florida Jail Chief’s Firing Upheld, Retaliation Lawsuit Headed to Trial

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Retaliation for Filing Grievances, Consequences of Firing Appointed Counsel

Florida Jail Chief’s Firing Upheld, Retaliation Lawsuit Headed to Trial by On February 2, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida scheduled trial to begin two years later on the claim of former Volusia County Corrections Director Mark Flowers, 60, that he was fired in retaliation …

BOP is Holding 12,000 Prisoners in Solitary Confinement

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Bureau of Prisons (BOP)

BOP is Holding 12,000 Prisoners in Solitary Confinement by David Reutter by David Reutter A report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on February 6, 2024, found that the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) was holding about 8% of its population—nearly 12,000 prisoners—in Special Housing Units (SHUs), the …

Massachusetts Prison Closure Reflects Success of Criminal Justice Reforms

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Criminal justice system reform, Rural Prisons

Massachusetts Prison Closure Reflects Success of Criminal Justice Reforms by On January 24, 2024, the Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) announced it was closing the Massachusetts Correctional Institution (MCI) in Concord, and a report released the same month by a pair of local nonprofits celebrated the decision for reflecting the …

Fifth Savannah Jail Employee Arrested for Smuggling in Just Over a Year

Article • August 15, 2024 • from PLN August, 2024

Filed under: Guard Misconduct

Fifth Savannah Jail Employee Arrested for Smuggling in Just Over a Year by A guard at Georgia’s Chatham County Detention Center (CCDC) in Savannah was arrested on March 5, 2024, after she admitted taking bribes to smuggle drugs to detainees. Sheriff John Wilcher said he then fired Megan Barbee for her …