by Anthony W. Accurso
Spit hoods are a type of restraint used by prison and jail guards, as well as other law enforcement and custodial healthcare professionals, ostensibly to protect themselves from the bites and spit of detainees. The instructions are simple: place the hood over a detainee’s head to ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
On April 18, 2022, the U.S Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed dismissal of a suit filed by Kansas prisoner Kenneth D. Leek, holding that he met the standard for alleging an access-to-the-court claim in his complaint.
Leek, a prisoner in the state Department ...
by Anthony W Accurso
On August 30, 2022, the federal court for the Northern District of Georgia granted final approval to a class-action settlement in a suit accusing prison telecom giant Global Tel*Link (GTL) of unjust enrichment by seizing funds from prisoner phone accounts after as little as 90 days ...
by Anthony W. Accurso and David M. Reutter
After 16 detainee deaths in 2021[See: PLN, Feb. 2022, p.1], the carnage continued at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex in 2022, leaving 19 more people dead. Having recorded an average of just six deaths a year from 2017 through ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
On the last day of 2021, the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) revealed a stunning privacy breach: Over 500 detainees in city jails had their calls to their attorneys recorded. Worse, the recordings were then turned over to prosecutors.
The Constitution guarantees the privacy ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
On April 21, 2022, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) signed H.B. 936, a new law creating “special care facilities” to house and provide healthcare for about 600 “medically frail” state prisoners eligible for parole whom the state Department of Corrections (DOC) refuses to release because they ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
On February 25th, 2022, winning turnedout to be losing for a federal prisoner when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a massive restitution order issued by a district court in Texas, saying the prisoner had provided jurisdiction with his own successful challenge ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the State of New York released a report on January 4, 2022, concluding its “Investigation of New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision [DOCCS] Incarcerated Individual Drug Testing Program,” following reports that DOCCS punished 1,600 prisoners ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
In an opinion reached on December 6, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld a district court’s ruling that a federal prisoner’s disciplinary sanctions were valid so long as there was “some evidence” to support the underlying violations. Importantly, where the evidence ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
Prison phone services provider Global*Tel Link (GTL) agreed to a settle a long-running class-action on December 20, 2021, with changes to company policies and up to $67 million to compensate customers for seizing funds in any account that remained inactive for 90 days. Though the amount ...
