by David M. Reutter
On May 5, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a Texas prisoner’s civil rights complaint that alleged prison staff delayed and impeded his access to emergency medical care after the onset of his stroke symptoms. The Court found the ...
by David M. Reutter
On May 4, 2023, the U.S. Court of appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the grant of summary judgment against a federal prisoner in Indiana who claimed he was subjected to a physical assault for filing grievances. But the Court affirmed judgment on two other claims ...
by David M. Reutter
On May 11, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that the moment a prisoner files a motion to dismiss his federal civil rights suit, a district court losses jurisdiction over it. So it therefore has no authority to find the action ...
by David M. Reutter
On September 12, 2022, the federal court for the District of New Jersey denied a motion for summary judgment by the defendant New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC) in a state prisoner’s claim alleging that designating the Nation of Gods and Earth (NOGE) a security threat ...
by David M. Reutter
On May 17, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed both a federal civil rights complaint and a proposed consent decree to resolve allegedly unconstitutional conditions at New Jersey’s Cumberland County Jail (CCJ). The filing ends a five-year investigation and aims to correct conditions that ...
by David M. Reutter
On August 17, 2023, lawyers for a group of 39 current and former prisoners at Delaware’s Sussex Correctional Center (SCC) largely beat back a motion brought by defendant prison officials to dismiss their complaint alleging a “systematic pattern” of beatings at the lockup in 2021 and ...
by David M. Reutter
“Carceral deference is a powerful principle built on faulty premises and with troubling and destabilizing effects,” declared Danielle C. Jefferis, an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law, in an article that appeared in the Fordham Law Review.
Deeply ingrained in criminal law ...
by David M. Reutter
The families of two women and five men who committed suicide while held in pretrial detention between July 2014 and November 2018 at New Jersey’s Cumberland County Jail (CCJ) have received a total of $2,372,500 to settle their claims against the County and its profiteering medical ...
by David M. Reutter
During their 2023 session, Connecticut lawmakers took a pass on legislation to rein in routine prison strip searches, which advocates testified were “humiliating” and “intrusive.” There was, however, widespread interest in appearing interested in the problem, resulting in a predictable decision by legislators to vote for ...
by David M. Reutter
On May 4, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a Mississippi prisoner’s claim that his due process rights were violated when a doctor dosed him without his consent with psychotropic medication.
Chaz Pinkston, the Court noted, had “a complex ...
