by David M. Reutter
New York’s Suffolk County Legislature agreed on September 26, 2019 to pay $2.8 million to settle a lawsuit concerning the events surrounding the suicide six years earlier of pretrial detainee Jack Franqui.
The morning of January 23, 2013, started innocently for Franqui. He called friend Simon ...
by David M. Reutter
On June 11, 2020, a federal court in North Carolina found that 11 prisoners at the Federal Correction Complex (FCC) in Butner had failed to prove officials with the Bureau of Prisons were deliberately indifferent to preventing the introduction and spread of COVID-19.
BOP argued that ...
by David M. Reutter
A United Nations human rights expert has denounced the use of prolonged solitary confinement, which could inflict psychological torture on prisoners. His critique, given at a press conference on February 28, 2020, was aimed at conditions in Connecticut but has implications for the entirety of America’s ...
by David M. Reutter
On March 4, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held an Indiana federal district court abused its discretion in denying a prisoner’s motion for appointment of counsel in a civil rights lawsuit.
That ruling came in an appeal brought by Indiana prisoner ...
by David M. Reutter
What a politician believes about the impact of restoring the vote to a convicted felon often depends on which side of the aisle they stand on. A common belief amongst politicians is that felons are liberals who would vote Democratic. A survey of 8,266 prisoners by ...
by David M. Reutter
On January 16, 2020, a New York federal magistrate judge awarded $273,246.88 to a Sing Sing Correctional Facility prisoner who alleged a guard brutally beat him and lied about the incident.
The civil rights action was brought on May 3, 2017, by prisoner Morgan Greenburger. His ...
by David M. Reutter
A Nevada federal district court found on February 7, 2020 that prison officials were liable for failing to provide evidence to a prisoner during disciplinary proceedings. The Court’s grant of summary judgment to Nevada prisoner John Melnik ordered a trial to determine damages.
The order accepted ...
by David M. Reutter
A California federal district court granted a temporary restraining order that requires the defendants to take steps to end the retaliation against two class members housed at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility (RJD) near San Diego.
The court’s July 2, 2020, order found that the plaintiffs ...
by David M. Reutter
After what officials are calling coordinated fights, six Oklahoma prisons were placed on lockdown status for over a week. One prisoner died and 36 prisoners and several staff were injured in the melees.
The lockdowns began on September 15, 2019, after fights between gangs at prisons ...
by David M. Reutter
A guilty plea to conspiracy and wire fraud charges was entered in a Michigan federal district court on December 4, 2019, by Tony Tuan Pham, also known as Anh Nguyen, in his role of coaching prospective and current federal prisoners on how to qualify for the ...
