by David M. Reutter
On March 21, 2024, the Nevada Board of Examiners (BOE)—a three-member panel composed of Gov. Joe Lombardo (R), Attorney General Aaron Ford (D) and Secretary of State Francisco “Cisco” Aguilar (D)—approved a $3.4 million settlement to resolve a state prisoner’s civil rights action accusing state Department of Corrections (DOC) officials of violating the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment with denial and delay of medical care.
After arriving at Southern Desert Correctional Center (SDCC) in late 2002, 60-year-old Lewis Stewart began to feel “discomfort in his lower abdominal and back area,” according to the complaint he later filed. Repeatedly filing medical care requests, he was finally seen by prison healthcare providers, including Dr. Romeo Aranas and Dr. Francisco Sanchez.
As PLN reported, Stewart complained of problems urinating, indicating possible prostate problems; he “had to sit on the toilet to urinate,” he said, and his “short and irregular urine flows were very painful.” Aranas and Sanchez took his vitals and prodded the affected areas. But they examined him no further, administering only generic pain medication. For over a decade, that was all the treatment Stewart got—even as he passed 70 and began experiencing inflammation in ...
by David M. Reutter
A $2,000 award of statutory damages by the Supreme Court of Ohio on March 31, 2024, brought the total recovered by Trumball Correctional Institution (TCI) prisoner Kimani Ware for denied public records to at least $9,025. As PLN reported, Ware’s previous trip to the Court was unsuccessful, but in prior mandamus actions for denied public records—all proceeding pro se—the prisoner collected over $7,025. [See: PLN, July 18, 2024, online].
In this case, the Court found two violations of the state Public Records Act (PRA), R.C. 149.43. It declined to find any violation in four other requests that were denied. Ware submitted all six requests to TCI officials between May 29, 2021, and June 23, 2022, seeking records relating to (a) the number of prisoners infected by COVID-19 and (b) visitor policy during the pandemic, as well as (c) a legal mail log, (d) Ware’s master and disciplinary files, (e) an informational handbook on religions and (f) a list of canteen items that increased in price.
When he didn’t get any of the records, Ware filed a mandamus petition. Prison officials moved to dismiss it, arguing that he failed to notify them that the requests were being made ...
by David Reutter
As resources are stretched by millions of people released annually from U.S. prisons and jails, advocates struggle to obtain accurate information about the scope of the need. The nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) responded with a report on February 29, 2024, finding that a significant percentage of those released are women.
PPI used data from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to create estimates of releases by sex. BJS’s most recent Annual Survey of Jails from 2022 does not break down releases by state; that is done by the less frequent Census of Jails, the most recent from 2019
But data on releases by sex or gender identity is important because “the mass incarceration of women has been overlooked” despite growing twice as fast as men’s incarceration, PPI said. Since over half of incarcerated women are mothers, and women are more likely their children’s primary caregivers, “entire families are harmed when a woman is put in prison or jail.”
Using BJS data, PPI was able to create “rough estimates” of prison releases by sex in 2022: About 51,228 from women’s state prisons, plus another 3,951 from federal prisons for women. On top of that, PPI estimated ...
by David Reutter
A report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on February 6, 2024, found that the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) was holding about 8% of its population—nearly 12,000 prisoners—in Special Housing Units (SHUs), the agency’s polite term for solitary confinement. In SHU, prisoners are isolated ...
by David M. Reutter
On August 30, 2023, a Florida court entered final judgment awarding $6 million to the estate of a detainee who died at Santa Rosa County Jail (SRCJ) from pneumonia left untreated by employees of the jail’s medical contractor, Armor Correctional Health Services. The jury that made ...
by David M. Reutter
After a Nevada Department of Corrections (DOC) prisoner was blinded by guards using birdshot rounds, the state Board of Examiners (BOE) approved a $2.25 million settlement on September 12, 2023. A separate agreement reached just weeks earlier on August 28, 2023, cost the state another $1.6 ...
by David M. Reutter
On October 17, 2023, Michigan State Police (MSP) paid $11 million to settle claims by former state prisoner Ray McCann, Jr., 57, after a jury awarded him $14.5 million for his wrongful conviction on a perjury charge related to the investigation into the sexual assault and ...
by David M. Reutter
Citing Alabama’s “bad track record of botched executions,” death row prisoner David P. Wilson, 41, filed a civil rights action on February 15, 2024, alleging that the state’s intended use of nitrogen hypoxia to execute him constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
Struggling to obtain necessary drugs ...
by David M. Reutter
A dustup between Republican politicians landed in Florida’s Charlotte County Circuit Court on February 15, 2024, when presiding Judge Lisa Porter reserved ruling on disclosure of grand jury proceedings that resulted in no indictments against state prison guards in the 2014 beating death of prisoner Matthew ...
by David M. Reutter
Alaska is a small state with enormous natural resources. The native people, who largely subsist off the land, enrich its culture. The beauty of its landscape draws millions of tourists annually. Yet behind the sheen of natural and cultural richness lies a deadly and degrading ...
