by David M. Reutter
On March 31, 2010, a Louisiana U.S. District Court held that the denial of access to a religious publication based solely on the inclusion of a section called “The Muslim Program” was a violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons ...
by David M. Reutter & Mark Wilson
Indiana’s Marion County Jail (MCJ) has paid $35,000 to settle a federal civil rights complaint that alleged deliberate indifference to a prisoner’s safety and serious medical needs.
The lawsuit was filed by Joseph R. Grieveson, a federal detainee incarcerated at MCJ from 2000 ...
by David M. Reutter
On February 16, 2010, Colorado’s Larimer County Commission approved a $4.1 million settlement with a former prisoner who served 10 years of a life sentence for a murder he didn’t commit. The settlement agreement covers employees in the Larimer County district attorney’s office, while claims against ...
by David M. Reutter
According to a suit filed on behalf of a Washington state prisoner who attempted to commit suicide, a guard at the McNeil Island Corrections Center retaliated against prisoners who failed to pay extortion fees.
Leon G. Toney was left in a coma and permanent vegetative state ...
After initially declining to accept $179,000 under Florida’s Victims of Wrongful Incarceration Compensation Act, Leroy McGee agreed to receive compensation pursuant to that statute for serving 43 months in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
McGee, 42, was convicted of a 1991 gas station robbery. He had a time ...
by David M. Reutter
“Alabama’s right-to-counsel system has the ‘perfect storm’ of characteristics that virtually guarantee ineffective assistance of counsel to the poor,” observed David Carroll, research director for the National Legal Aid & Defender Association.
Carroll was referring to a system that gives state court judges unbridled discretion to ...
by David M. Reutter
Part of the legacy of the punitive criminal justice philosophy of the 1990s is pay-to-stay incarceration, which involves jails charging prisoners booking fees and per-diem fees. [See: PLN, July 2010, p.10].
The rhetoric behind pay-to-stay programs is that it is wrong for criminals to be “rewarded” ...
by David M. Reutter
Restoration of voting rights for former prisoners is a key issue for many members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), because ex-felons are disproportionately minorities and according to conventional wisdom, minorities are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates. It would be natural, therefore, for the ...
by David M. Reutter
Members of the judiciary have an ethical obligation to remain impartial. When it comes to the U.S. Supreme Court, such impartiality is crucial given the impact that the Court’s rulings have nationwide. For that reason the high court historically has remained nonpartisan and distanced itself from ...
by David M. Reutter
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a jury’s $4.3 million award to the estate of a pretrial detainee. The jurors found that guards at the jail in Cook County, Illinois were deliberately indifferent to the detainee’s serious medical needs, resulting in his death.
Less ...
