by David M. Reutter
On March 24, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit joined a short list of federal appellate courts so far to say that additional protections provided to pre-trial detainees by the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) in cases alleging excessive force also extend to ...
by David M. Reutter
In a lawsuit alleging officials at Oklahoma’s Carter County Jail (CCJ) failed to provide any medical attention in the days leading up to a pretrial detainee’s death, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit overruled a lower court’s grant of qualified immunity (QI) to ...
by David M. Reutter
On September 10, 2021, a California court set aside an award by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) of a contract to Global Tel Link Corporation (GTL) for telecommunications services for California prisoners.
The ruling disrupted GTL’s rollout of new tablets to state prisoners ...
by David M. Reutter
On October 7, 2021, the Board of Commissioners of Michigan’s Macomb County agreed to pay $1 million to settle claims by survivors of a detainee who hanged himself at the county jail in 2017. The jail’s privately contracted medical provider, Correct Care Solutions (CCS), now known ...
by David M. Reutter
On June 29, 2021, a lawsuit against California’s San Joaquin County was dismissed by a former detainee at the county jail, after he agreed to accept $7,500 to settle his claim that guards yanked him off the toilet in his cell and beat him without provocation. ...
by David M. Reutter
On March 29, 2022, the First Circuit Court of Hawaii awarded $1.375 million to the estate of Joseph O’Malley, who committed suicide while incarcerated at the Halawa Correctional Facility (HCF) in July 2017.
O’Malley, 28, was diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorder upon incarceration at HCF on ...
by David M. Reutter
On February 4, 2022, the Supreme Court of Florida held that the state’s First District Court of Appeal erred in not accepting a prisoner’s notice of appeal for lack of a prison date stamp since prison mail logs indicated the notice was timely turned over to ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Rhode Island held on March 2, 2022, that the state’s civil death statute is “unconstitutional and in clear contravention of the provisions” of the state constitution.
The Court’s ruling was issued in the consolidated appeals of state prisoners Cody-Allen Zab and Jose ...
by David M. Reutter
California’s San Luis Obispo County entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on June 23, 2021, resolving alleged violations at the county jailof the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. ch. 126, § 12101 et seq.
DOJ initiated an investigation ...
By David M. Reutter
Granting qualified immunity (QI) to acting Kentucky Department of Corrections (DOC) Commissioner James Erwin on October 8, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said he did not have supervisory liability for a state prisoner’s death allegedly caused by the negligence of privately ...
