by David M. Reutter
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal granted qualified immunity to prison officials in a civil rights action alleging prison noise that stemmed from implementing a court order requiring round-the-clock welfare checks in California’s prison system. The court held it was not clearly established that officials would ...
by David M. Reutter
Smoking has long been a past time for people. In some cultures, it’s like a rite of passage. In our more modern times, it is portrayed as a bad habit. Either way you look at it, the fact is: some people just like to smoke.
Those ...
by David M. Reutter
A federal district court fined the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADOC) $1.1 million for failing to meet performance measures (PM) in a 2015 Stipulation Settlement from a class-action lawsuit.
The court’s February 24, 2021 order was the latest move to compel ADOC to comply with its ...
by David M. Reutter
On April 6, 2021 a Washington State federal district court granted summary judgment to the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC) in a lawsuit seeking to obtain documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE).
On March 20, 2018, ...
by David M. Reutter
Artwork that appeared on the side of Reading Prison in Berkshire, England, according to curator Vince John, appears to be a “new Banksy.”
The painting shows a prisoner in stripped garb escaping on a rope made of bedsheets as he repels down the wall with a ...
by David M. Reutter
Massachusetts is one of just a few states to offer the COVID-19 vaccine to prisoners. The governor’s office, however, put an end to prison officials offering ‘‘good time’’ to prisoners who elect to be vaccinated. As of February 3, 2021, there were 95 positive cases at ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on December 9, 2020, filed a lawsuit alleging that the state of Alabama is “deliberately indifferent” to unconstitutional conditions persisting at its state prisons, facilities that “are riddled with prisoner-on-prisoner and guard-on-prisoner violence,” according to Assistant U.S. Attorney General for ...
by David M. Reutter
Michael Raymond Riley, a former Florida prison guard, was charged with second-degree murder for killing a prisoner “by causing blunt force trauma to be inflicted on the victim’s neck or head area,” charged an indictment on November 10, 2020.
The charge stems from the death of ...
by David M. Reutter
Over six months after concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic halted in-person visitation at Michigan state prisons in March 2020, the state Department of Corrections (DOC) launched a pilot program of video visitation on October 9 to offer an avenue for prisoners and their families to connect ...
by David M. Reutter
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections paid $105,000 to settle a prisoner’s excessive use of force lawsuit. The December 2, 2020, settlements resolves the suit brought by prisoner Kuan Barnett.
Barnett’s civil rights action stemmed from events that occurred at Columbia Correctional Institution. While locked in his ...
