by Dale Chappell
LaPorte County, Indiana has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a former prisoner who claimed county jailers used excessive force against him.
The suit, filed by Marcin Kulbacki, alleged that guards at the LaPorte County jail tased him and otherwise used excessive force, causing head and ...
by Dale Chappell
In a case of first impression, the California Court of Appeal held that State law does allow a prisoner to request a transfer to a jail in another county for good cause, but the prisoner must first exhaust his or her administrative remedies.
Tikisha Upshaw has a ...
by Dale Chappell
When criminal defense attorney William Kroger visited his clients in California prisons, he noticed that just a few months behind bars seemed to whip many of them into shape. Because the state had removed all weightlifting equipment from its prisons over 20 years earlier, Kroger wondered: How ...
by Dale Chappell
“Chicken-winging,” it’s called – when guards twist a prisoner’s arms behind his back and wrench them upward, inflicting extreme pain. Without the upward yank, the technique is an acceptable means of physical control and “you’ll get compliance a lot quicker,” according to former U.S. Treasury agent George ...
by Dale Chappell
California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law in October 2017 that blocks the expansion of for-profit immigration detention facilities, demonstrating the state’s opposition to President Trump’s efforts to crack down on undocumented immigrants and increase deportations.
The Dignity Not Detention Act (SB 29) restricts new ...
by Dale Chappell and Matt Clarke
Connecticut has closed another prison as the state Department of Correction’s population continues to fall. Officials confirmed that Enfield Correctional Institution, a 700-bed medium-security facility, closed in January 2018.
State officials cited falling crime rates, demographic trends and sentencing reform for the decline in ...
by Dale Chappell
Arnulfo Garcia, sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, turned his life around and received a second chance when he was released on July 24, 2017 after serving 16 years. Two months later he was killed in a car crash. He was 65.
During his term ...
by Dale Chappell
In fear of losing it $285 million contract with the government, a group that provides lawyers to immigrant children told its lawyers to stop telling minors about their rights to access abortion services.
The February 2 email sent by the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice to its ...
by Dale Chappell
Promising to “continue peaceful protest to end tortuous practices of solitary confinement,” Prisoners United, a coalition of prisoners in California’s Bay Area jails backed by civil rights groups, described the purpose of their complaints in an open letter to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors on October ...
by Dale Chappell
Failure to include an interested party is fatal to an action for declaratory relief, the Arkansas Supreme Court held on August 3, 2017.
Cedric Brown pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. When he looked into his parole eligibility date, ...
