by David M. Reutter
On November 6, 2023, three of the “Fairbanks Four” accepted $5 million from the Alaska city for 18 years they spent wrongfully incarcerated for a teen’s 1997 murder before their exoneration in 2015. The case featured almost every hallmark of a wrongful conviction, including a confession ...
by David M. Reutter
Alabama’s Dallas County Jail (DCJ) has a “scheme” of releasing very ill detainees to avoid the cost of their medical care. That explosive allegation lay at the heart of a lawsuit filed on April 4, 2024, by the family of Mary Strong, who died just days ...
by David M. Reutter
On April 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found error in a lower court’s judgment for Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) officials in a lawsuit accusing them of infringing on prisoner Eric Demond Lozano’s ability to practice his religion.
As ...
by David M. Reutter
On March 5, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated dismissal of a Wisconsin prisoner’s civil rights action for failure to exhaust administrative remedies, as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e. Defendant state Department of Corrections (DOC) officials ...
by David M. Reutter
On March 21, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated summary judgment in favor of a Philadelphia Department of Corrections (DOC) guard, who was accused of leaving a prisoner to languish for hours in a truly “crappy” situation after his cell toilet ...
by David M. Reutter
According to a lawsuit removed to federal court for the Western District of Oklahoma on May 1, 2024, prisoners at Great Plains Correctional Center (GPCC) were confined in a tiny shower stall for days on end. That follows a report from Florida that prisoners there were ...
by David M. Reutter
Over more than three decades of publication, PLN has chronicled some outlandish and horrifying stories of prisoner abuse, but few can compete with the Hobson’s choice guards at Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex (EKCC) allegedly presented prisoners who failed a urinalysis. According to a civil rights complaint ...
by David M. Reutter
Jails face a monumental task in the provision of medical care. Those who’ve just been arrested are often experiencing withdrawal from drugs or alcohol. Other pre-existing medical conditions are routine and routinely severe. Then there are the mentally ill, who land in jail because communities lack resources to treat their conditions—even though jails and guards also lack training and expertise to provide adequate care. Into the breach step privately contracted providers, promising to fill the need. But their results belie that promise, demonstrating only that profit comes before service.
How else to explain the marketing materials distributed to prospective customers by jail healthcare contractor Turn Key Health Clinics LLC? In those, the firm bragged that after taking over healthcare at Oklahoma’s Tulsa County Jail in 2016, emergency transfers to hospitals fell by an eyepopping 77% in just a few months. The number of days detainees spent hospitalized also cratered by 35%. Did they suddenly get healthier? Or were they simply denied care?
The answer seems obvious, yet jails continue to turn to private providers like Turn Key. For one, it comes with a staff of credentialed personnel already employed, so sheriffs don’t have to vet and ...
On February 13, 2024, the Third Judicial Circuit Court in and for Salt Lake County, Utah, ordered an examination to determine if death row prisoner Ralph Leroy Menzies, 65, is competent to be executed. Menzies’ attorneys argued that he suffers from dementia.
After Maurine Hunsaker’s body was found tied to a tree in Big Cottonwood Canyon in 1986, Menzies was convicted two years later of kidnapping her from a convenience store and murdering her. Fast-forward 36 years, and as his execution neared, Menzies’ attorneys filed a petition that included a written evaluation from Dr. Lynette M. Abrams-Silva, who opined “that Menzies suffers from vascular dementia and lacks the ability to form a rational understanding of the reasons why the State seeks to execute him,” as the Court recalled. Though prosecutors disagreed that Menzies is incompetent to be executed, they did not object to “further inquiry into Menzies’ mental health” in order to develop “a complete and accurate record, analysis, and determination” of his competency for execution.
Accordingly, the Court stayed proceedings leading to the execution, cancelled a hearing on the State’s application for an execution warrant that was scheduled for February 23, 2024, and also appointed two independent examiners to ...
On February 12, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri denied a motion to dismiss a prisoner’s pro se lawsuit by Defendant officials with the state Department of Corrections (DOC), who argued that he failed to exhaust administrative remedies as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e. The Court ruled that DOC officials failed to prove that Moreno Salinas’ delay in completing the grievance process at Southeast Correctional Center (SECC) was his fault and not their own.
While imprisoned at SECC on January 28, 2021, Salinas alleged in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 complaint, he was subjected to excessive force by guards Lt. Stephan V. Clark, Cole Hansens, Johnny Clubbs, Vanissa Lemons, Darrel Wilson, Tyler Womach and Jerry Walls, in violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. During the PLRA screening process, the Court found that Salinas stated a plausible excessive force claim against the seven guards, plus a plausible failure to intervene claim against another guard named Rangdale and DOC Case Manager Brandi Merideth. Though the Court did not mention her by name, claims against Darcie Bolin, another Defendant DOC case manager, also survived.
After Salinas filed an ...
