by David M. Reutter
On February 28, 2020, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the parties’ conflicting self-serving statements precluded the grant of summary judgement for defendants in a lawsuit alleging malicious prosecution.
Before the court was the appeal of Michigan prisoner Chris Davis, who is housed at ...
by David M. Reutter
Ohio’s Cuyahoga County Jail (CCJ) agreed to a $140,000 settlement on February 14, 2020 in a civil rights action alleging a prisoner was subjected to excessive force and retaliation by guards.
Corrionne Lawrence was booked into CCJ on September 16, 2018, for a probation violation.
When ...
by David M. Reutter
On January 30, 2020, a Michigan federal district court found the state Department of Corrections (MDOC) “places a substantial burden” on Jewish prisoners’ “religious beliefs by mandating a vegan diet for inmates approved for kosher.” Its order found that injunctive relief was required to cure the ...
Prisons beset with gang-related violence, overcrowding, understaffing and weak funding.
by David M. Reutter
Between late last year and early April 2020, more than 30 Mississippi prisoners died due togang violence, suicide or illness – over 10 times the average of 3.4 prisoner deaths per year between 2014 and 2018. ...
by David M. Reutter
As the COVID-19 pandemic started to spread across the nation, so did the push to release prisoners from the “Petri dish” of close confinement that exists inside jails and prisons. While some Florida jails released non-violent offenders, the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) battened the hatches ...
by David M. Reutter
Much has been made of essential employees as the economy shut down in an effort to “flatten the curve” of the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus has been on the bravery of health-care workers in hospitals and nursing homes. One group that has gone ignored are guards ...
by David M. Reutter
A Michigan federal district court found on January 6, 2020 that allegations by a prisoner tutor that prison officials retaliated against him for blowing the whistle on GED test cheating were sufficient to survive summary judgment.
Munin Kathawa, a prisoner at Michigan’s G. Robert Cotton Correctional ...
by David M. Reutter
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the grant of summary judgment for defendants in a civil rights action alleging a guard sexually assaulted and used excessive force upon a prisoner.
The ruling, on January 7, 2020, came in an appeal brought by Kirstin Sconiers. His ...
by David M. Reutter
A prison health expert report found that Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) is “not prepared to effectively contain any outbreak of COVID-19 and its practices put detainees and staff at grave risk of infection, serious illness, and even death.”
The April 3, 2020 report was a ...
by David M. Reutter
On January 31, 2020, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the grant of summary judgment in a civil rights action alleging a guard at California’s Kern County Jail (KCJ) made sexual comments to a female juvenile detainee, groomed her for sexual abuse, and looked at ...
