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Washington County Pays $300,000 to Jail Detainee Denied Treatment for Kidney Stone by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman Under a settlement with Washington’s Walla Walla County, a now-released state prisoner took a $300,000 payment to resolve claims that he was denied treatment for a kidney stone while in pretrial detention …
Competency Crisis in Missouri’s Jails by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney The cover story of the June 2025 issue of PLN reported that “[d]espite years of litigation, injunctions, consent decrees, and contempt fines ranging into the hundreds of millions,” the State of Washington had “consistently failed to provide timely competency …
Sixth Circuit Reinstates Lawsuit Over Failure to Properly Classify Violent Prisoners at Kentucky Jail by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On December 17, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reinstated a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by the guardian of a man who was severely …
Nevada Court of Appeals Revives Detainee’s Failure-­to-­Protect Claim Against CoreCivic by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney On December 24, 2025, the Nevada Court of Appeals reversed the state district court’s dismissal of pretrial detainee David North’s claim that CoreCivic, the private prison operator, violated his due process rights under the …
Article • May 1, 2025 • from PLN May, 2025
Rikers Island Detainees Wait in “Black Hole” for Competency Treatment by The number of detainees waiting for competency treatment at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex jumped from 100 in 2024 to 127 by February 2025. The average length of stay has also risen, from 70 to 80 days, …
Article • May 1, 2025 • from PLN May, 2025
Wisconsin Prisoner Inhaled His Own Teeth in Fatal Beatdown by On January 8, 2025, Racine County Jail detainee Davonte Carraway, 29, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the brutal and fatal beating nine days earlier of state prisoner Joseph Lee, 35. Lee was found “stuffed into a garbage can” …
Article • April 1, 2025 • from PLN April, 2025
Illinois Pretrial Incarceration Becomes Less Random A Year After Elimination of Cash Bail by David Reutter by David M. Reutter One year after Illinois eliminated cash bail, state courts are not only remanding fewer people to jail to await trial but also engaging in more deliberation about pretrial detention. Those …
$42 Million Jury Award for Detainees Tortured by U.S. Military at Abu Ghraib Prison by In November 2024, a federal jury in Virginia awarded $42 million to three former prisoners held and tortured at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003 and 2004. The case, filed in 2008, …
In Oregon Case, Ninth Circuit Limits Pretrial Detention Without Counsel to Seven Days by On May 31, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court’s order granting a class-­action habeas corpus petition and corresponding injunction, directing the state of Oregon to provide attorneys for …
Dead Rikers Island Detainees Had Missed Dozens of Mental Health Appointments by A report released by New York City’s Board of Correction (BOC) on February 9, 2024, chided city jail officials for allowing mentally ill detainees to miss dozens of mental health appointments before they died. Nine deaths were recorded …
First Circuit Tolls Claim for Maine Jail Death from Date of Detainee’s Injury, Rather Than When He Died by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney Of the many hurdles prisoners and jail detainees face, the statute of limitations for a civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 is among the first. …
Article • May 1, 2024 • from PLN May, 2024
North Carolinian Left in Jail Awaiting Trial for 11 Years by On December 14, 2023, over a decade of pre-trial detention finally came to an end for a Charlotte murder suspect. Devalos Perkins, 37, pleaded guilty in Mecklenburg County District Court to voluntary manslaughter in the 2005 slaying of Justin …
Almost $1.1 Million Awarded to One-Legged Pretrial Detainee Forced to Hop to California Jail Cell by David Reutter by David M. Reutter After a jury in the federal court for the Northern District of California awarded $504,000 in compensatory damages in the excessive-force case he brought against the San Francisco …
Article • June 15, 2023 • from PLN June, 2023
Report Reveals Extent of Federal Pretrial Detention Crisis by Casey Bastian by Casey J. Bastian A report on the first investigation into federal pretrial detention on a national level was released in October 2022 by the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic (FCJC) of the University of Chicago Law School. Combing through …
Article • May 24, 2023
Sheriff Accused of Blocking Investigation Into Georgia Jail Detainee Death by Jo Ellen Nott by Jo Ellen Nott After an otherwise healthy 32-year-old succumbed to testicular cancer at Georgia’s Clayton County Jail in January 2023, the Director of the county Medical Examiner’s Office accused Sheriff Levon Allen of withholding documents …
Article • September 1, 2022 • from PLN September, 2022
Sixth Circuit Again Extends Kingsley Protections for Pretrial Detainees in Deliberate Indifference Claim Against Kentucky Jail by David Reutter by David M. Reutter On March 24, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit joined a short list of federal appellate courts so far to say that additional …
Publication • 2022
Jail Health and Early Release Practices, Dec. 2022 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal Volume 31 (2022-2023) Issue 2 The Problem of Mass Incarceration: Diagnosis and Reform Article 4 12-2022 Jail Health and Early Release Practices Brandon L. Garrett Deniz Ariturk Jessica Carda-Auten David L. Rosen Follow this and …
Publication • 2022
Freedom Denied-How the Culture of Detention Created a Federal Jailing Crisis-Oct. 2022 FREEDOM DENIED iii Table of Contents AUTHORS & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS P.5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY P.15 CONTEXTUALIZING THE CULTURE OF DETENTION P.53 1. Publicly Available Data Provide Little Insight into the Causes and Contours of the Federal Bail Crisis. 2. The …
California Jail Guard Criminally Charged for Assaulting Detainee with Scalding Water by Edward Lyon By Ed Lyon A Sheriff’s Department deputy in California’s Orange County has forfeited a 20-plus-year law enforcement career by assaulting a mentally ill detainee at the county lockup. The deputy, Guadalupe Ortiz, 47, was fired on …
Article • May 1, 2022 • from PLN May, 2022
Eighth Circuit Rules Pretrial Detainees and Prisoners Have Right to Visit Family Members by Eighth Circuit Rules Pretrial Detainees and Prisoners Have Right to Visit Family Members In a precedential ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has held that “prisoners and pretrial detainees have a right …
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