by David M. Reutter
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a grant of summary judge to a prison official in a lawsuit alleging a prisoner was retaliated against for filling a grievance. It also affirmed the district court’s order denying the prisoner’s motion to compel discovery.
The court’s June ...
by David M. Reutter
In a reversal of its own precedent, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that 42 U.S.C. section 1997e(e) permits claims for punitive damages without a showing of physical injury.
The court’s en banc ruling was issued on April 9, 2021 in an appeal brought by ...
by David Reutter
The Maine Department of Corrections (MDOC) announced on February 12, 2021, that it is expanding medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for prisoners with opioid-use disorder. The move is an expansion of a pilot project that started from an executive order issued in April 2019 by Gov. Janet Mills.
Going cold ...
by David M. Reutter
An Oregon federal district court issued an order that certified a class in a lawsuit challenging the issuance of debit cards by NUMI upon release in lieu of the cash that was confiscated from detainees upon arrest.
The Courts June 8, 2021, order was issued in ...
by David M. Reutter
The Iowa Utilities Board ordered phone vendors that provide services to jails to lower their rates from as high as $1 per minute. The order comes after a two year review in which the Human Rights Defense Center, the publisher of Prison Legal News, urged ...
by David M. Reutter
The Kentucky Supreme Court held that the Louisville Metro Government (LMG) are entitled to sovereign and qualified immunity in a lawsuit alleging violation of Ky. Rev. Stat. 71.040.
The court’s December 17, 2020, opinion was issued in an appeal brought by the Estate of James Hatcher. ...
by David M. Reutter
Three former Georgia Sheriff’s deputies were denied immunity on December 8, 2020, by Washington County Judge H. Gibbs Flanders in a criminal prosecution, according to a December 9, 2020 article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The deputies face murder and related charges as a result of ...
by David M. Reutter
A settlement agreement was reached in a class action lawsuit alleging there was an “uncontrolled outbreak of COVID at the Chesapeake Detention Facility (CDF)” in Maryland. The complaint was filed in federal district court on February 20, 2021.
It alleged that, in less than one month, ...
by Kevin Bliss and David M. Reutter
After a blockbuster report by federal investigators in December 2020 that slammed Florida’s Lowell Correctional Institution (LCI) for subjecting women to serial abuse, two state lawmakers rushed to act.
Rep. Diane Hart filed legislation in January 2021 to create a volunteer Citizens Oversight Council ...
by David M. Reutter
The New Hampshire Supreme Court held a prisoner has standing to pursue a lawsuit alleging breach of contract for the failure to comply with a settlement in a prison conditions lawsuit. The court concluded the State has waived sovereign immunity against suits alleging it has failed ...
